New Book on 1960s Thames Valley Music Scene (quotes Eel Pie Island Dharma)

 
Hi there



You are receiving this email because at some point in the last couple of years you and I have met, spoken by phone or exchanged emails (actually, it may have been more than a couple of years ago). I would have been interviewing you for a book I was writing about the music scene in and around Richmond, Twickenham and the Thames Valley area in the 1960s. Well, I'm now done with the writing and the book has been edited and provided with the terrific cover above by local graphic artist Jem Panufnik.



Just in case you've forgotten, here's what it's about:



From 1963 to 1971, the riverside suburbs to the southwest of London were the setting for a music-led youth revolution. While Liverpool launched the Beatles and Merseybeat, the Richmond upon Thames area unleashed the Rolling Stones, the Yardbirds, Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck and R&B. Richmond's annual jazz and blues festival kick-started modern festival culture. Jazzman Ken Colyer called the hotel on Eel Pie Island the closest thing in England to New Orleans – where as well as the music, the jiving and other teenage kicks, the Eelpiland club doubled as a social working outreach centre. As the Sixties progressed, Richmond became the ultimate place to drop out and tune in, and the hotel on the Island became one of Europe's largest experiments in communal living. This is where the Stones met the Beatles, Clapton became Slowhand, Bowie admired Rod Stewart's knickers, Elvis Costello gave his first public performance and Tony Blair dabbled as a rock promoter. Orchestrating events were three maverick characters: Prince of Pan Arthur Chisnall, book-keeping jazz fanatic Harold Pendleton and the indefatigable Giorgio Gomelsky. Because of them, what happened in this area changed the course of Britain's musical history. It's a forgotten tale of Sixties London and one that this book aims to put back under the stage lights.



The book is currently in layout and we are chasing the last few images. It should be going off to print in a few weeks time. We expect to have copies in the shops before Christmas. Before then it should be exclusively available from the publisher's website. I will let you know more as soon as we have confirmed dates.



For now, best wishes,

Andrew