Fans old enough to remember when Mick Jagger had short hair. Fans young enough to wonder if Keith Richards was really a waxwork.
Fans like Neil Jordan ("he looks very haggard these days" says an onlooker) and Andrea Corr getting into the gig for free. Fans like Noreen from Tallaght paying €400 for a ticket.
All ages, all tastes - all here for one, and one reason only: to get some satisfaction.
As far back as the Custom House, people were strolling towards the Point, the "lock-hard" guys plying their hand-waving trade to motorists as hundreds of Rolling Stones T-shirts drifted by. Nearing the venue itself, we could see two examples of brazen cheekiness - motorcycle gardaí preventing cars from parking on footpaths, and a Visit Britain mobile hoarding advertising a city break to Liverpool with the words "Penny Lane" in 6 ft high lettering. The Beatles versus the Rolling Stones debate continues. . .
Inside the venue, the art versus commerce debate was in full flow as Rolling Stones programmes sold for €20, logo tongues for €10, flashing tongues for €8 and posters between €5 and €15.
Downstairs was the Voodoo Lounge, with queues for hotdogs, burgers and beer. Upstairs was the Rolling Stones VIP hospitality tent (the as-yet uncompleted O2 Lounge) where last night's Celebrity Farm participants probably wished they were.
Sensible people such as Paul Brady and John Kelly preferred a drink and a chat outside with the great unwashed.
Inside the venue proper, the voice came over the PA system warning the throng that there was to be no crowd surfing or moshing, which prompted the granny behind your reporter to enquire what surfing and moshing were.
And then at 9.34 p.m. the band came on and the crowd went ape. From the far reaches of the balcony, the core members of the band (Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Ron Wood, Charlie Watts) looked as sprightly as spring chickens even if we all knew they were mutton dressed as lamb.
Still - the Rolling Stones. In the Point. 8,000 people - including Andrea Corr, who joined the band on stage for Wild Horses - knew they'd never witness anything like it again.
Start me up? More like Couldn't stop them.
