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| Miss U. |
I went to Bill's book signing for his new book "Rolling With The Stones", which I just bought yesterday.
The book is HUGE, with lots of pix & lots of interesting info...haven't started reading it yet, but I was flipping thru the pages late last nite. Hard book to put down!
Anyways, I LOVED the book signing! Bill talked **ALOT**about Brian for most of the 30 minutes he was talking with the host Daniel Richler, and Richard who co-wrote the book.
Bill said:
"Brian founded the Stones. If Brian never existed, the Stones would never have existed. Brian named the band, he did the hiring, he decided what kind of music we would play, he promoted us writing letters etc. Brian was the one who came up with the name "Nankerphelge" to give the band as a whole credit for songs done by the band.
Bill also said Brian was very talented and could learn almost any instrument he picked up, and often turned songs into something very different with his input. He talked about how they created Paint It Black, and how Bill put his twist on it with the bass.
SATISFACTION: Bill said when this song was first being written, it was as a country ballad by Keith, and it wasn't that great. Then it was Brian's idea with the guitar that made Satisfaction the gritty song it is. The whole band voted on whether to release it as a single, and only 2 people were opposed--Mick and Keith, probably because it turned out different to what they had envisioned for it, as a B-side not a single.
Bill signed my copy of his new book. I told him I want to thank him for all the credit he has given to Brian. I told him I'm "Miss U." (a song which of course features a legendary bass line from Bill, who really "made" that song along with Mick.) He seemed to know who I was, a flash of recognition in his eyes.
Thank you, Bill. What you said today really brought a tear to my eye as you were talking about Brian. You were very modest about your role as a Stone. I have to say since Bill has left, I really notice how much we took him for granted musically. Miss You, Rock and a Hard Place are my favorite bass pieces with Bill.
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| sasca |
Yeah, Bill's a pussycat. If anyone talks to him, ask him if he and Brian ever considered writing together. |
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| Miss U. |
Yes, it was great, Sasca!!!
He only allowed 3 questions from the crowd, but I was very pleased & impressed with all he said.
He also made a point to say that although now people think of Mick or Keith when they think of the STones, back then, it was Brian who came to mind immediately, and it was Brian who got the most fan mail. |
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| Fiji Joe |
Miss U wrote:
"He seemed to know who I was, a flash of recognition in his eyes."
That, or you're 13 years old with stawberry blond hair...never can tell what Bill is thinking
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| jb |
Seems to be always putting Mick and Keith down, and propping up himself, Charlie and Brian... |
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| Miss U. |
Nope, quite the contrary re Mick & Keith. He just told it as it is, in his normal matter-of-fact way.
He also defended Mick's knighthood, and said that if it wasn't for Mick's having aristocratic friends & hobnobbing, the Stones would never have Rupert to look after their financial interests.
Bill was great. |
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| jb |
I bought his book at Borders this Saturday...50.00 dollars...It was just like Life on the Road....put it on the family room table...best picture=Mick, apparently getting knocked down by photographer he approached in a snarling manner. |
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| scope |
Here's a copy of an article today in a NY paper. He lists his favorite album as a 4-way tie. Read on to find out!
November 4, 2002
Droll Ex-Stone Gathers All
Bill Wyman compiles band's rocking history
By John Hanc
November 4, 2002
For 30 years, Bill Wyman stood sphinx-like on the periphery of the rock-and-roll circus known as the Rolling Stones.
Described once as looking "like a man waiting for a bus," Wyman, the band's original bass player, was a stationary, almost somber counterpoint to the posturing and cavorting of lead singer Mick Jagger and guitarist Keith Richards. But while he was fingering the bass lines of some of the most memorable songs in rock history, Wyman also was keeping his eyes open - and his memory sharp. For the entire time he was a member of the Stones - from November 1963, when Wyman, then 26, was invited to join the fledgling band started by Brian Jones four months earlier, to January 1993, when he announced his retirement on a London TV show - Wyman kept a diary, along with an ever-growing trove of souvenirs, photos and memorabilia. He started the collection, he said, for his then-8-month-old son Stephen. "It was to show him I was in a band once," Wyman said. "It just kept going and so did I."
Stephen is now 40 and runs his dad's Web site (www.billwyman.com). Wyman, who celebrated his 66th birthday on Oct. 24, lives in London with his third wife, American Suzanne Accosta, and their three young daughters. He has been far more active since leaving the Stones than he ever was onstage. Currently, he's promoting his fourth book, a lush, lavishly illustrated coffeetable tome entitled "Rolling With The Stones" (DK, $50). (He also wrote another Stones volume and books on blues and his passion, photography.) Wyman owns a popular London restaurant, Sticky Fingers, and his blues band, The Gypsy Kings - which he formed in 1996 with friends Peter Frampton and Gary Brooker, ex-Procol Harum keyboardist/singer - is planning a European tour next spring.
But while he's moved on, Wyman says, "I am very proud of having been in the Rolling Stones." Earlier this year, the band's 40th anniversary, he decided to release a portion of his carefully catalogued archives in the form of a scrapbook. Writer Richard Havers helped him with the text, and also in choosing what material from Wyman's vast archives to include. ("When you've lived it," Havers said, "it's hard to delineate what's vital ... and what's not.")
The Stones, of course, roll on without Wyman. Although he has not seen the band's current tour, he wishes them well-"we're still mates ... more like family now." However, he chose not to enlist the help of his former band-mates - Jagger, Richards, drummer Charlie Watts and guitarist Ron Wood - on this project. "This is my life with the band, not Mick's," Wyman said. "This is the way I remembered it." Besides, he added, "their memories aren't that good."
Wyman apparently has a memory like a computer, which may explain why he's been using one since 1979. (He was one of the first people in Britain to own an Apple.) He has kept his diaries and catalogued his materials digitally ever since. The actual collection is kept somewhere else. ("I won't tell you where," he says. "It's worth millions.") Most of the 3,000 photos in the book, he says, are from that collection, as are all the other ephemera reproduced in this 512-page volume: news clippings, album cover art, press books, tour posters, advertisements, cartoons, ticket stubs - heck, Wyman even includes the receipt from his Musician's Union payment for 1964 and his government Ration Card, distributed to British citizens during the lean years immediately following World War II.
Who could possibly care about this giant attic-full of rock memories? Lots of people - Stones fans, of course - about 450 of whom packed the Book Revue in Huntington last week to see Wyman during a brief New York area book store tour. When Wyman arrived (late - not even a Stone can roll on the rush hour LIE), flashbulbs popped, applause rang out and there were some gasps of recognition as he strode to the podium, accompanied by Havers, for brief remarks before signing books. Wearing a dark suit and with a full head of long brown hair, Wyman still cut a trim, youthful figure - his only concession to age being his spectacles. He also displayed his droll wit, referring to himself as looking like "your favorite undertaker." But there was one poignant moment when, in response to a question about Ian Stewart, beloved road manager and sometimes keyboardist for the band, who died in 1985, he was overcome by emotion.
Asked later about his favorite Stones songs, he clicked off a characteristically well-organized list. Favorite single: "Honky Tonk Women." Favorite obscure song: "Parachute Woman." Favorite LP: A four-way tie: "Beggar's Banquet," "Let It Bleed," "Sticky Fingers" and "Exile on Main Street."
Some of the fans in attendance had memories as encyclopedic as Wyman's. "I remember them on the Clay Cole Show," said Jack Rigney of Lindenhurst, referring to a 1964 appearance by the Stones, during their first U.S. tour, on that long-ago New York TV variety show. Rigney said he always had a special affection for Wyman. "He was the quiet one, and seemed most down to earth. He didn't seem to need the adulation or the spotlight. And he walked away from it, when he'd had enough. The other guys can't seem to walk away."
Wyman allowed that this was a pretty fair assessment of his role in the Stones. "That's why I stood in the shadows," he said. "I liked it over there."
John Hanc is a frequent contributor to Newsday.
Copyright � 2002, Newsday, Inc.
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| sasca |
My favourite - a two-way tie between Beggar's Banquet and the UK Aftermath. Runners-up - The Rolling Stones, Let It Bleed, Sticky Fingers, Exile. |
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| Mother baby |
quote:
jb wrote:
Seems to be always putting Mick and Keith down, and propping up himself, Charlie and Brian...
Hmnnn, I never sensed that...you got some references..lol..
even though on an interveiw I hosed off the radio right after Stone Alone came out he claimed to have created the main JJF riff on a key board??????? |
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| CS |
BRIAN: KEY TO STONES' FAME
10:30 - 05 November 2002
A new book written by Rolling Stone Bill Wyman gives a unique insight into the life and death of Brian Jones.
Guitarist was linked with Bardot
Rolling with the Stones is Mr Wyman's biography and it also chronicles the life of the Cheltenham-born star from his childhood in the town to forming the band and becoming a hugely respected musical innovator.
Mr Wyman hails guitarist Brian as the band's driving force and the key to its success.
He tells of Brian's love affairs with a string of glamorous women and friendships with the likes of Bob Dylan, The Beatles and Hollywood actor Dennis Hopper.
He describes his two arrests and near jailing for drugs possession.
In the book, the aging rock star pays tribute to his bandmate, who died aged 27 in the pool at his Cotchford Farm home in Sussex in 1969.
"It's true that Mick (Jagger) and Keith (Richards ) shaped our music. But it was Brian with whom millions identified - and not just our fans.
"Musicians from Dylan and Hendrix to John (Lennon) and Paul (McCartney) admired his talent.
"We were Brian's band and without him our little blues outfit wouldn't have become the greatest rock 'n' roll band in the world.
"Keith once said to Brian, 'You'll never make 30, man,' to which Brian simply replied, 'I know'."
The book also described the funeral; service at Cheltenham Cemetery in Bouncer's Lane.
Mr Wyman writes: "The drive through the streets of Cheltenham was, in all the sadness, a wonderful experience. Hundreds of people, stood in the falling rain, watching the cortege pass by."
Less than a month before he died, Brian had left the Rolling Stones.
Mr Wyman remembers: "Brian had moved away from us musically, or we had from him. He was contributing less and less in the studio and it was highly doubtful as to whether Brian could really contribute on stage any more."
A year before he had been admitted to a clinic, after failing to deal with his drug problems.
"On July 3 Brian checked into a Hampshire health clinic. He badly needed help; the drugs and his own demons were taking their toll.
"Forest Mere (clinic) said it could do nothing for him and he left for the Priory Nursing home in Richmond two days later."
The blues musician had a string of girlfriends and four illegitimate children. He was even linked with actress Brigitte Bardot.
"We were all totally captivated by Brigitte, especially Brian. We chatted for a while and she told us how much she'd enjoyed the show."
His antics at the Monterey Pop Festival in California are also recalled.
"On Sunday Brian introduced Jimi Hendrix on stage. The night before, Brian had dropped acid in a tepee with Dennis Hopper - 18 months before the actor made Easy Rider."
In New York Brian Jones had befriended the legendary Bob Dylan.
"Bob Dylan dropped by - he and Brian hung out a lot while we were in the New York area."
Mr Wyman was signing copies of the book at Ottakars in Eastgate Street, Gloucester, today at 1pm.
n Rolling with the Stone is priced �30 and published by Dorling Kindersley
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| Pants Make the Man |
Bill Wyman seem's to be the only person that will speak in Brian's defense. Bill is all right, isn't he? |
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| Sir Stonesalot |
I want to go on record that I fully recognize Brian's many, and great contributions to the Rolling Stones. I very much doubt that the Stones would be where they are today without those contributions. Brian was a supremely gifted talent, of that there is no question.
HOWEVER!
This does not change the fact that Brian was a miserable human being. He unceremoniouly dumped any chick who got knocked up, and ignored his children, both emotionally and financially. He beat up his girlfriends. Ugly stuff. No matter how great his accomplishments as a musician, it cannot gloss over these facts.
Brian Jones musician....A+
Brian Jones human being....F- |
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| sirmoonie |
quote:
Pants Make the Man wrote:
Bill Wyman seem's to be the only person that will speak in Brian's defense. Bill is all right, isn't he?
A putz sticking up for a yutz.
KaaaaayyyyyyyyyOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! |
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| sasca |
Brain screwed up. But I don't think he was as bad as he has been painted (nor as angelic as Laura Jackson believes). It has often been said that he nearly killed Anita in Morocco -but photos said to be taken of her the next day show no sign of this. |
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| sirmoonie |
quote:
sasca wrote:It has often been said that he nearly killed Anita in Morocco -but photos said to be taken of her the next day show no sign of this.
Allright, spuds. If you sign my petition to reopen the Morroccan investigation into Brian's assault on Anita, I'll sign your petition to dig the fucking dickhead up. Ok? |
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| sasca |
Certainly. Brian wins both ways |
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| kath |
oh, i think i was on this thread and got deleted....
brian was a brilliant talent. and his assholeyness raised the bar... |
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| gypsymofo60 |
Brian was a great talent! Nobody disputes that! But I don't agree with all this; no Brian, no Stones! And Bill's vested interests in claiming Brian was the be all, and end of all of the group. If Wyman felt Brian was so hard done by, why didn't he do the chivalrous thing in '69? Leave the group in protest, refuse to play Hyde Park, etc, etc. No he went with the flow because he knew where his future lay, when it was safe to start bitching he went for broke. No Glimmer Twins no Stones, and certainly, no Wyman(musician of renown.) |
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| Mother baby |
[quote]Sir Stonesalot wrote:
HOWEVER!
This does not change the fact that Brian was a miserable human being.
The fact???? It's about time we had some facts on this thread.
Maybe...depends on who you ask I guess.
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| gypsy |
Sasca, you can get beat up and not have marks on your face. My dad trains pro boxers, and I used to spar with the teenage boys. So, I know from experience that you can have broken ribs, bruised abdomen, and other damage to your body from fighting that others can't see.
Why do all the Brian fanatics make such a big deal out of the Morocco thing? Yeah, it sucks that Anita ran off with Brian's friend and bandmate. But, you know what? Things like that happen. Anita and Keith, I think, fell genuinely in love. I've read that Brian was acting so foolishly on that trip, that it really turned Anita off. I don't blame her for her feelings. Keith was looking pretty good in those days...he kinda went through hsi gawky phase, and he was looking cool. Brian, on the other hand, was bloated with puffy eyes. I can't blame Anita at all for falling for Keith. I don't think she used anyone. It's apparent that Keith was completely and totally in love with her. Those two really had something special, I believe. They always have nothing but good things to say about one another. I admire the way Keith treats her, and what he says about her. Keith is a very loyal man, and that is one of his best traits. I do think Patti is awesome and totally gorgeous, and Keith is a lucky man and Patti is lucky too! |
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| Mother baby |
quote:
gypsy wrote:
Brian, on the other hand, was bloated with puffy eyes
Bad handlers I guess.
In those days I guess the photographers weren;t as ...."sensitive" shall we say....the Science of Illusion was still in its infancy.
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| gypsy |
Well, maybe I was being a bit shallow. But, as far as personality goes, Keith's takes the cake. I can understand her falling in love with Keith just for his wit alone. |
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| Child of the Moon |
quote:
sirmoonie wrote:
A putz sticking up for a yutz.
KaaaaayyyyyyyyyOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
Yeah, that's the way, sirmoonie. Fuck everyone's else's opinion. You're right about everything.
Am I laying the sarcasm on thick enough yet? |
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| sasca |
Oh, I agree that things like that happen and I'm a fan of Keith's as well. Towards the end of his life Brian accepted what had happened. He still cared about Keith and worried about his drug-use. |
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| gypsymofo60 |
quote:
sasca wrote:
Oh, I agree that things like that happen and I'm a fan of Keith's as well. Towards the end of his life Brian accepted what had happened. He still cared about Keith and worried about his drug-use.
Brian worried about Keith's drug use?........That's like a cancer victim worrying about someones migraine. WTF???? |
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| sasca |
Brian was cutting back on his drug-taking as Keith was increasing his. He said to a friend that he was worried about Keith and that he'd never seen him as stoned as he'd been during the making of the 'R'n'R Circus'. He new what drugs had done to him and what they would do to Keith. |
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| gypsy |
I just find it really sickening when people act like it was okay for Brian to beat Anita up. It seems like Brian fans think Anita somehow 'deserved' it. And NO woman or anyone else 'deserves' to get smacked around. I was appalled when I read about Keith hitting Anita when they had both reached rock bottom. I find that very sad. |
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| gypsymofo60 |
quote:
sasca wrote:
Brian was cutting back on his drug-taking as Keith was increasing his. He said to a friend that he was worried about Keith and that he'd never seen him as stoned as he'd been during the making of the 'R'n'R Circus'. He new what drugs had done to him and what they would do to Keith.
I hope we can do this without taking it personaly, but if Brian was cutting down/back on drugs why is it that the out come of the post mortem reported; that apart from all the internal degeneration, eg: oversized, fat, and flabby heart. A liver that was twice it's normal weight, and not functioning properly, his urine contained 1200 microgrammes of an undisclosed amphetamine, which indicated a fairly large quantity of the drug being ingested. He had also combined alcohol with this amphetamine. |
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| gypsy |
I've read so much stuff about Keith and Brian's 'feud' that I don't know what to believe anymore. All I know is that drugs ruined several lives-Brian's, Anita's, Keith's, Anita and Keith's children, and the baby that died due to 'pneumonia.' I mean, we all know it HAD to be from Anita's coke and heroin problem. That is just pathetic and sad that someone can be so addicted to drugs while pregnant. |
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