Just A Shot Away:69 Revisited is veteran author-journalist Kris Needs' highly-personal account of 1969 as he experienced it happening; from starting the year as a wide-eyed 14-year-old Rolling Stones/Hendrix nut and turning 15 the day Brian Jones died to becoming part of the UK's longest-running club and befriending its hottest new band. There have been endless books that take a well-researched look at that tumultuous year but few that actually live it in real time. Rather than recycle hoary cliches about Manson and Altamont snuffing the 60s after Woodstock's brief optimism, or any ludicrous rivalry between the Beatles and Stones, Kris remembers the gigs, bands and records that bombarded his own young radar and helped shape his future life as a music writer, DJ and, briefly fan club secretary. With John Peel a lifeline, 1969 was pivotal for Kris, including the births of the legendary Friars Aylesbury rock club, for which he designed the membership card and flyers, Pete Frame's Zigzag magazine, which he later wrote for before becoming editor, and Mott The Hoople, who he befriended after they played his school dance and ended up running their fan club. As a member of the Jimi Hendrix fan club, he witnessed the guitarist in concert, plunging himself in black music and becoming fascinated with the Black Power movement. As a lifelong Stones fan, he saw them early and ended up hanging out with Keith Richards in later years. There was never time to care about the death of a decade in which he was coming alive, let alone any loss of innocence when he couldn't lose his fast enough. With Foreword by his mentor Pete Frame, Kris's 45 year career as a music writer impacts on the narrative time machine fashion, including sessions with Keith Richards, Captain Beefheart, George Clinton and Marianne Faithfull, epic conversations with Ian Hunter, the Doors, the Magic Band, the Fugs, Traffic, Silver Apples, Last Poets, "voice of Woodstock" Chip Monck and many more. Obviously, the book gains perspectives and knowledge from 50 years reading, writing, listening, investigating and living a life the teenage Needs (or anyone else, for that matter!) could never have imagined, some of those leading characters becoming lifelong friends. The book also carries a sad back story as, while Kris was writing it, his beloved partner Helen, who he fell in love with at a Mott The Hoople reunion gig in 2013, succumbed to cancer, his grief inevitably tangible and casting a tragic shadow over the story. Helen's death instilled a greater appreciation of life when it was just getting under way, along with the romantic notion that none of his many experiences can ever compare to finding his true soul mate. Helen's death resulted in Kris moving back to the family home with his 93-year-old mum; now writing in the same bedroom where he experienced 1969 as it unfolded, and still getting told to turn down his Rolling Stones records! Once Kris finished writing the book, it was twice as long as the average music tome so will now come in two volumes, each covering half that year.

About the Author
After running the Mott The Hoople fan club in the early 70s, Kris started contributing to Zigzag, horrifying the old guard with his coverage of the nascent punk scene. Founder-editor Pete Frame ran his interviews with groups like the Sex Pistols, Clash, Johnny Thunders' Heartbreakers and Flamin' Groovies before, acknowledging the new movement, he asked Kris to take over as Editor in June 1977. For the next five years, Kris reported from the front line with The Clash, Ramones, Slits, Siouxsie and the Banshees, John Lydon, Motorhead and Blondie, also up close encounters with Keith Richards, Bob Marley, U2 and Kate Bush. He interviewed a new band called U2 in return for what turned out to be the last UK interview with Bob Marley. Throughout this period, Kris also contributed to Sounds and NME while acting as New York Rocker's UK correspondent. After Zigzag became victim of shady publishers, Kris helped run the Bat Cave goth club and became UK correspondent for Creem, moving to New York in '86 to become their Manhattan correspondent. Arriving back in the UK in 1990, Kris dived into the club scene for the rest of the decade, writing for NME, Mixmag, Echoes, DJ and Muzik, making records as Secret Knowledge and Delta Lady, producing over 100 remixes and DJing around the world with Primal Scream and Prodigy. After forming a disco group with Irvine Welsh, running Creation's dance arm Eruption and becoming resident DJ at Ibiza's notorious Manumission club, Kris chose writing over an early grave and wrote his autobiography Needs Must before books on Primal Scream, Keith Richards, The Clash, New York Dolls, Blondie, George Clinton and Suicide. He contributes to MOJO, Record Collector, Classic Rock, Prog, Electronic Sound, Vive le Rock and Shindig!. After finishing his 1969 teenage memoir, Just A Shot Away:'69 Revisited, Kris is currently working on the official biography of Alex Paterson, aka The Orb.


Book Information
ISBN 9781912587247
Author Kris Needs
Format Paperback
Page Count 280
Imprint New Haven Publishing Ltd
Publisher New Haven Publishing Ltd