Keith Richards escapes smoking fine

Keith Richards

Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards will not be prosecuted for smoking a cigarette on stage during a Glasgow gig.

City council officials probed whether Richards flouted Scotland's smoking ban during the Friday concert at the open-air Hampden Park national stadium.

Rock-and-roll rebel Richards could have faced a £50 ($150) fine but environmental officers said that the stage used by the band did not fall under the enclosed public place criteria specified by the ban.

The pro-tobacco lobby group Forest had earlier told the local authority that they would look like a "bunch of idiots" if they fined Richards. "Keith Richards has been puffing away on stage for 40 years and he was doing nobody any harm apart from himself."