Another good man gone, erstwhile Chilli Willi & the Red Hot Peppers guitarman, also of The Action, Mighty Baby, Savoy Brown to name a few. The Willis were my main band as a mid to late teen and I caught them a number of times, Stone being one character there amongst many, sporting a beret long before anyone else popular here. Lovely clipped tone in his playing, almost a jazz sound but his style unmistakeably of the blues.
Play up, Martin at 1 min 25s in the clip
2016…….. Martin Stone.
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I think this LP features Jacqui McShee (Pentangle) on backing vocals – just about the only recording she made outside of Pentangle-related stuff.
Indeed it did, according to my copy, the Pepperettes being McShee, premier blues shouters Carol Grimes, and Jo-Ann (sister of Blues Band Dave) Kelly and a Sophie Israel.
Jo-Ann was a favourite of Peel, a wonderful woman taken outrageously young in 1990.
I recommend Just Restless – very soulful.
And also legendary rare book digger-upper, as immortalised in Iain Sinclair’s White Chapell, Scarlet Tracings.
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/martin-stone-heroes-villains-1573731.html
https://greatwen.com/2016/11/10/rip-martin-stone-guitarist-bookseller-hustler/
I think I have that book… or maybe it’s another one ‘A Sackful of Paper’ or something like that? A memoir type book by some seedy book trade character anyway, in which Stone appears. I must read it again… I also recall Stone the Book-grubber appearing in rather grumpy form in a documentary of some sort back in the early 90s – a BBC2 or C4 thing. I can’t recall what it was about – music or books – but I feel sure someone here will. Stone had come over from France to see some rare books that someone in the doc had phoned him about but was clearly unimpressed when he saw them.
That would be A Pound of Paper by John Baxter, another semi-legendary rare book bid. His books about Paris are great – he also wrote a J G Ballard biography.
Just stumbled across this thread, which I somehow missed. I was going to start a thread myself so I’m glad you got there first, Retro.
A pal of mine here in Stockholm has amused me several times with his accounts of life in Paris in the 80s when he and Martin shared a flat. The best story was about the weekend he spent in the countryside at the farm where Gong lived. I fear that he was traumatised for life by meeting the Wild Women of Gong, the Gongistas who lived there. Rather assertive amazons, those girls made Xenia, Warrior Princess look like Barbie. They knew what they wanted and if they wanted, they took.
He was really gutted at the sad news of his old flatmate’s passing and I suggested he write a few words. If he was likely to find someone who was interested it had to be here on the AW.
This is what he wrote:
“The last time I met Martin he came limping down Blvd Menilmontant – his concierge had shot him.
Something rather unlikely if it had happened to anyone else, but I wasn’t particularly surprised. He had been rehearsing with his band ”Almost Presley” in his small flat, rather late I guess, when his Polish janitor’s patience had abruptly come to an end. Strangely enough, the very first time I met him he was rolling around in a wheelchair, due to a bad fall from a statue during the 200-year celebrations of the French revolution. He had led a rather uncomfortable life that he commented on in his cartoon: In a wheelchair in Paris. I think some American book collector association finally payed for some rather exclusive surgery in the States. That was when I understood that Martin wasn’t your everyday book scout.
That he had been a musician back in the day wasn’t something he talked about a lot, but now and then, when some old pals appeared, he told me stories. Some of those visitors were not totally unknown themselves. Once he introduced me to Gong, who suddenly had re-emerged from obscurity after the Stone Roses had mentioned them as one of their favourite bands – I believe they lived on a farm somewhere, totally engulfed in esoterical agriculture.
One of his final triumphs was when Martin found and sold Mata Hari’s knickers. He had a special nose for stuff like that. He could always sniff his way to the real rarities. The same nose where the cancer was growing.”
Mata Hari’s knickers made Martin enough money to buy a small house. A rare find as Ms Hari was notorious for going commando. Mr Stone was rather a remarkable bloke.
Ooops! A slight correction.
My friend did not share a flat with Martin. They briefly lived in the same house.
And my apologies. My version of his visit to that farm bears little resemblance to what happened. I’ve seen too many drive in exploitation movies and I let my imagination run riot when describing the atmosphere.
He tells me it wasn’t at all like that. Sorry!
I recall Mother Gong had a farm in Georgeham north Devon, as an old friend was the caretaker etc for them?