The Stones in the Park - The Summer of '69 and the making of THE GREATEST Rock and Roll Band in the World Richard Havers RRP: £18.99, ISBN: 978 1 84425 815 4 Format: Hardback, Publication Date: 1st June 2009 40th Anniversary Story of the thirty-three days in the summer of '69 during which The Rolling Stones changed forever. The Stones in the Park tells this amazing story as well as featuring many unseen photographs For the Rolling Stones everything changed in the summer of '69. They were no longer the blues band that Brian Jones had put together in 1962, they had stopped being a pop band and had hardly performed on stage since 1967 - and it was live that the Stones always excelled. This is the story of the thirty-three days in the summer of '69 during which The Rolling Stones changed forever. Drug busts, fall-outs, at least one album that failed to live up to expectations and uncertainty surrounded the band, they had flirted with psychedelia but were on the cusp of becoming the 'Greatest Rock and Roll Band in the World. It tells how, on Sunday 8 June 1969 Brian Jones left the band he had founded, and less than a month later he tragically died just days before the band played a free concert in London's Hyde Park for somewhere close to 500,000 people. Unfortunately, Mick Jagger and Keith Richards both missed their old band mate's funeral, Mick was in Australia filming Ned Kelly (his performance recorded in numerous unseen photographs). Undaunted, the Stones, who have always been greater than the sum of their parts, recruited Mick Taylor to play guitar in place of Brian, recorded one of their greatest ever singles and played the largest ever concert in Britain to that point, and Mick Jagger, like many pop singers before him, went off to be a film star. They also became - The Greatest Rock 'n' Roll Band in the World and since then the Rolling Stones have gone on to be watched in concert by more people than any other band. They have come to epitomise everything that is excessive, exciting, powerful, lavish and brilliant about rock music. They are dynastic, imperial and majestic... true Rock Royalty. "The greatest rock and roll band in the world. They're incredible; let's hear it for the Stones!" - Sam Cutler introducing the band on Saturday 5 July 1969 - the first time they were given the accolade Richard Havers other books include Bill Wyman's Blues Odyssey, which won the Blues Foundation's Award For Literature in 2002, Bill Wyman are Rolling with the Stones and The Stones - A History in Cartoons; all co-written with Bill Wyman. He's also written Sinatra, an illustrated biography of Frank Sinatra; co- authored My Take with Gary Barlow, Bowie, Bolan & The Brooklyn Boy, Tony Visconti's autobiography, Blues - The Golden Era, and The Woodstock Chronicles. For more information, or to request a review copy please contact Emma at Eventageous PR on Tel: 01452 260 063 or email: emma@eventspr.co.uk Press release content is available for download from http://www.haynes.co.uk/Press
