The Rolling Stones yesterday abandoned EMI, the British recording label that has been their home for most of the past 30 years, for rival Universal Music, in a sharp blow to the private equity operators who bought the UK label last year.

Guy Hands, the London-based financier whose Terra Firma firm bought EMI for £4bn, had personally tried to prevent the Stones' defection, which comes after a number of other artists openly criticised the label's new owners.