Stones set to rock the capital 40 years on

The Rolling Stones will play to about 35,000 fans in Wellington tonight -- 40 years after their only other gig in the capital in 1966.

Fans are coming from as far away as Hawke's Bay and Palmerston North for the performance at the Westpac Stadium, part of the wrinkly rockers' A Bigger Bang world tour.

They played to over 50,000 at Western Springs stadium in Auckland on Sunday night.

There are still about 200 tickets available for people willing to fork out $350. All cheaper tickets have been sold.

Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Ronnie Woods and Charlie Watts arrived in Wellington yesterday with their 400-member entourage.

The opening act for the concert is popular Canadian post-grunge rock band Nickelback.

When the Stones played at the Wellington Town Hall in 1966, they were a support act for Roy Orbison.

More preparation for tonight's show was required than for last year's All Blacks-Lions rugby test.

Westpac Stadium chief executive David Gray said he did not expect the noise factor to be a problem.

"We have big concerts here all the time," he told National Radio.

Woods and Richards had requested a 100-year-old snooker table at the venue.

Westpac Stadium marketing manager Steven Thompson said it had been quite a saga finding one and then getting it up the stairs into a corporate box.

It had taken 150 hours to restore, was brought down from Waipukurau by truck and then taken upstairs in five sections, each weighing 160kg.

"Getting it up there and put back together took an entire day," Mr Thompson said. "It's a beautiful table, but it was a fair size."

The band were expected to be at the stadium later this afternoon for a sound check.

Mr Thompson said the band, production crew, entourage and support band would utilise every facility available at the stadium.

"It takes every single facility we've got. There's no bigger travelling entourage than this.

"If we can do a Stones concert, we can do anything."

Meanwhile, there were still some tickets to tonight's concert available on internet site Trade Me, ranging from $100 to $330.

- NZPA