Ageing rocker and father roll up at the Palace

For a man who once wore a white skirt onstage over the road at Hyde Park, Mick Jagger was dressed relatively soberly yesterday for his latest gig, receiving his knighthood at Buckingham Palace for services to popular music.

Leaving the red cloaks and leather boots to the chaps on horses outside, Sir Mick had donned a silk tie and a black suit. But, just to show he is still a little bit of a rebel, the suit had a black leather collar and he wore black suede and leather trainers.

Maybe Keith Richards, who had accused Sir Mick of selling out, would have appreciated the nod to their rock 'n' roll roots. Sir Mick, 60, was relaxed about the gibe. "I think he would probably like to get the same honour himself.'' Keith, he said with a grin, was like "a bawling child who hasn't got an ice cream". He added: "It's very nice to have honours given to you as long as you don't take it all too seriously. You should wear them lightly and not get carried away with your own self-importance."

Minutes earlier, as the Scots Guards band played tunes not normally in the Stones' repertoire - Handel's Water Music and Schubert's D Minor Quartet - Sir Mick was formally invested as Knight Bachelor by the Prince of Wales. His father Joe, aged 92, and daughters Karis, 32, and Elizabeth, 19, were there too. Asked if it was contrary to his anti-establishment past to accept the K, he said: "I don't think the Establishment as we knew it exists any more."