Books, magazines, bits & pieces

Phelge's Stones

You read about James Phelge and his book plans in IORR 26 two years ago. The book is just out, close to 400 pages, and tells about the time in 1963 when James Phelge shared a flat with Mick, Keith and Charlie in Edith Grove. Comments so far from Stones fans reading the book have all been great - so just go get it now! The book ia available through mail order from: BA Books, April Cottage, Alcocks lane, Kingswood, Surrey KT20 6BB, England. Tel or Fax 0044 1737 370409. Price £15 (approx US $25) plus postage inside Europe £3.94, outside Europe £7.66 maximum. Visa or Mastercard accepted.

The Rolling Stones over Germany

This is a new book out in Germany just now, by Gerd Coordes and Wolfgang Thomas. The 264-pages hardcover book with many unique photos and press articles is based on stories about the Stones and their fans during the tours in Germany, from the tour in 1965 to the Voodoo Lounge Tour in 1995. A very interesting book, written in German. The price is DM 79 (approx. US $40). For more info and orders contact the publisher: Maria Thomas Verlag, Im Bastenseifen 2, D-57072 Siegen, Germany. Tel: 0049 271 370608. Fax: 0049 271 370553. Email: [email protected].

Wood On Canvas by Genesis

See review in IORR 32 page 19. This great book is an expensive luxury edition with hight quality print, great reproductions of Ronnie Wood art, and a rare CD with tracks by Ronnie and Bob Dylan. Now there is an even more exclusive edition out, numbered 1-100, called the GOLD EDITION, with a golden CD, golden book production, and a unique Ronnie Wood lithograph made just for this edition, "Keith with Chanel", showing Keith with Ronnie's dog in Ireland. The book is priced £750, and if you want the book, you may contact IORR for more details.

Guitarist magazine (May issue) has got Brian Jones on the cover, and inside four pages about Brian, including pictures. Also, the same magazine has got a 3-pages article on "The guitars of the Stones".

NJR Magazine is a new French magazine dedicated to the Rolling Stones. It's 100 pages of great photos, plus lots of articles in French. The photos includes brand new shots from Ronnie's boat accident in Brazil, the press conference in New York last yesr, Bill Wyman at Sticky Fingers and lots more. The price in France is FF 29, about US $5.

The Stones in German press

Due out for the planned tour start in Berlin, German magazines did Stones stories and presentations in new issues out in May. Playboy has got an extensive interview with Keith (in German). Musik Express is having Mick on the front cover, plus lots more Stones related stuff inside. Also, for Stones contents in German press see Der Stern, Der Focus, Der Spiegel, Gala and Good Times nr.2/98 Mai-Juni (Mick and Keith on Cover).

The Argentina press

The paparazzi photographers have been real busy in Argentina, and the results can be seen in the glamor press, as the Stones are in-depth covered on both covers of Gente and Caras, magazines a la Hola and Hello... They have 20 or so pages of photos each, from the Argentina press conference, from their arrival, from the concert, and from Mick jogging at a trip out to Punta del Este in Uruguay. Plus of course paparazzi shots from the hotel, of Keith and Ronnie at a resort place, you name it, the paparazzi's were all over in Argentina!

German Rolling Stone
magazine with cover CD

The German edition Rolling Stone magazine (no. 6/98) incliudes a CD containing Stones cover tracks. The tracks are mostly done by more or less known German artists, and includes versions of Bitch, 2000 Light Years From Home, Angie, Backstreet Girl (x 2), Sister Morphine, Play With Fire (x 2), You Can't Always Get What You Want (Luther Allison), Miss You, Might As Well Get Juiced (A Subtle Plague), Let's Spend The Night Together, Satisfaction, Mothers Little Helper, Sway and Dead Flowers.

Honest I Do on Hope Floats

The Stones contributed a song to the soundtrack of the recently released U.S. film "Hope Floats" (a low key romantic comedy starring Sandra Bullock). The CD is in U.S. shops now and the track is "Honest I Do", a new live studio version from the 1995 Toshiba-EMI sessions in Tokyo when several "Stripped" tracks were recorded. It sounds wonderful; a lazy, bluesy version with nice guitar, harp and Keith backup vocals on top of a slinky Mick vocal in classic style. It has very much the same feel as the versions of "Spider and the Fly" and "Little Baby" recorded at the same time.

SAT-1 and TV4
broadcasting facts

The German SAT-1 broadcast featured some interesting takes from the Munich rehearsals, Keith explaining how he feels, Lisa massaging his ribs (!), interviews, pieces from the press conference in Munich June 11, plus some pieces from the Nuremberg opening concert. Nice work! The Scandinavian TV4 broadcast is similar, but it is more complete, because it does not have any commercial breaks.

UK shows postponed until
`99 due to tax reasons

The cancellations of the four UK shows, scheduled for August, then postponed until June 1999, made big headlines in major newspapers in UK, as well as large press inserts in many other countries. UK headlines includes Jumping Jack Stash, Moaning Stones and Taxman gives no Satisfaction. The original Reuters report tells the facts, while The Independent explains and fills in in a very good and sensible way, while papers like The Mirror does it the tabloid way. The truth and the plain fact is that new tax laws introduced this spring in UK would have dramatically changed the paycheck for each and every UK living crew member involved in the Stones tour, and even if Mick offered to play for free, he knew that his crew all have families to feed, budgets of their own lives, and rather than being nice to his fans, he paid respect to the crew, i.e. 270 or so people who makes this tour posasible. And as a bonus, next year we will get more shows, smaller shows, and shows in new UK cities.

New dates have been set to the two week-ends in the summer of next year, i.e. 1999, to Friday June 4 in Edinburgh, Sunday June 6 in Sheffield, and Friday/Saturday June 11/12 in London. In addition there will be several other shows in UK.

Underground releases

There are plenty of underground releases out these days, from virtually each and every show the Rolling Stones have done this BtB tour. Some are private made, from private tapes (CR-R). Others are manufacturing copies from bootlegger labels including such names as VGP (Vinyl Gang Productions), Crystal Cat, Dandelion etc. The plan is to make an extensive list of all these releases for IORR 34. Until then, this is a piece of advice if you look for the best. Top releases to collect:

Rock And Roll Babylon (VGP 155) or Out There In Babylon (Dandelion DL 004) (10 Spot, Fashion Award, Chicago 97 (2 tracks)

Piece Of Gold (Phoenix RST 9709 230) (Chicago 9/23/97 opening show)

Take Me Up St. Louis (VGP 164) ore one of the many other St. Louis CDs (Famous PPV concert St. Louis 12/12/97). A Bridge Too Far is another great release from this show...

Sweet Home New York City (Crystal Cat CC 450/451) (3rd MSG show, great quality!)

You Get The Best Of Me (RR 013/14) (Great release!!! Contains 30 rare tracks from the BTB tour, like web choice tracks and other songs they played only once or a few times, inc. Factory Girl, Already Over Me, Low Down and many more).

Generally, there are great underground releases out from the San Diego broadcast (including Memory Motel), as well as the Buenos Aires broadcast (March 30) and the Rio de Janeiro show. All broadcasting quality. More details in IORR 34...