About the author
I was born in 1949 so I have lived through the whole Rock era.
I started collecting records when I was only ten years old and going to concerts when I was fourteen years old – The Birds (British with Ron Wood) and Them (with Van Morrison) were my first two gigs.
I have since amassed thousands of albums and, as my wife points out repeatedly (obsessively?), have a real obsession.
I have been fortunate enough to see most of the best:
Acoustic blues – Son House, Skip James, Bukka White, Big Joe Williams, Dave Honeyboy Edwards
Electric Blues – Muddy Waters, Jimmy Reed, Lazy Lester, T-Model Ford
Rock ‘n’ Roll – Jerry Lee, Bo, Chuck, Little Richard
Beat – Birds, Nashville Teens, Downliners sect, Stones, Them
British Underground – Hendrix, Floyd, Sabbath, Taste, Cream, Led Zep, Fleetwood Mac, John Mayall, Free, Arthur Brown, Chicken Shack
US Acid – Beefheart, Country Joe, Love, Doors, Mothers
Singer/Songwriters – Roy Harper, Nick Harper, Dylan, Cohen, Joni, Neil Young, Elvis Costello, Billy Bragg, Duster Bennett, Ian Dury, Davey Graham, Tim Rose
Punk – Stiff Little Fingers, Buzzcocks, Tom Robinson………..
To name but a few – I could go on and on and on. It’s the ones you didn’t see that rankle.
I taught a course on Rock Music at school. I ran the first adult education History of Rock Music course in the country.
I wrote the entire History of Rock Music up to 1982 in 4 volumes totalling 1500 pages.
This book is the abbreviated version. An edition with charts showing the evolution and relationships of genres and artists will be forthcoming.