I wrote this book as a homage to my life and adventures with Rock Music. Rock has been an enormous part of my life from the age of ten onwards. I went to my first live gig at the age of fourteen (the British Birds at Walton Palais). It blew my mind.
I was lucky enough to have been exposed to the Rock ‘n’ Roll era of the fifties, to have been in London for the sixties underground scene, to have lived through Punk and am, in my mid-seventies, still going. Gigs are an important part of my life. I’ve been to thousands – always at the front digging the vibe.
I grew up with the Beatles, Stones, Doors, Captain Beefheart, Roy Harper, Neil Young, Hendrix, Bob Dylan, Phil Ochs, Pink Floyd and legions more. I saw them perform in small clubs, met them backstage, regularly went to Abbey Road Studio and had the time of my life!
It was great fun
The sixties raged. I was young, crazy, full of hormones and wanting to snatch life by the balls. There was a life out there for the grabbing and it had to be wrestled into submission. There was a society full of boring amoral crap and a life to be had in the face of the boring, comforting vision of slow death on offer. Rock music vented all that passion.
This book is a memoir of a life spent immersed in Rock Music. I was born in 1949 and so lived through the whole gamut of Rock. Rock music formed the background to momentous world events – the Civil Rights Movement, Vietnam War, Iraq war, Watergate, the miners’ strike and Thatcher years, CND, the Green Movement, Mao and the Cultural Revolution, Women’s Liberation and the Cold War. I see this as the Rock Era.
I was immersed in Rock music. It was fused into my personality. It informed me, transformed me and inspired me. My heroes were musicians. I am who I am because of them. Without Rock Music I would not have the same sensibilities, optimism or ideals. They woke me up!
This tells that story.