The Rolling Stones have warmed up for their mammoth 40th anniversary tour by playing a gig in front of 1,000 in Canada.

The show at the Palais Royale featured a set-list of classic hits like Wild Horses, Jumpin' Jack Flash and Hot Stuff.

The band start their lucrative tour on 3 September in Boston, a little more than 40 years after their first public performance in front of a small crowd in London's Marquee Club in July 1962.

Excited fans queued outside

Four decades on they again decided to start off in front of a smaller crowd.

Hundreds of excited fans began queueing overnight for the band's unannounced performance.

Fans were reported to have come from as far away as Maryland and Ohio to see their idols.

Hundreds were let in for the equivalent of �4, although a large proportion of the audience was made up of invited guests including Sharon Stone and Dennis Quaid, the Daily Telegraph reported.

The band has been rehearsing under tight security at a nearby school.

They also chose to rehearse in Toronto for their Voodoo Lounge tour in 1994 and the Bridges to Babylon tour in 1997.

And they decided to continue their tradition of playing in a club-size venue after their Toronto rehearsals.

The band looked relaxed

During the gig, a large crowd reportedly gathered outside after the end of a nearby Bob Dylan gig.

After running through a series of live classics, the group returned with a midnight encore with Brown Sugar.

Three of the most lucrative North American tours of all time were by the Stones, including the 1994 Voodoo Lounge road show which grossed $121.2m (�80m).

But music industry figures believe the 2002 tour could easily be the biggest of this year, with Sir Paul McCartney currently making the running.

Mick Jagger told reporters: "At a club like this, or in a theatre you can do that, you can take risks and do things but you know it is more difficult to do that the bigger place you get."