One Train Later: Memoir, A

Description: In this remarkable book, world-renowned guitarist Andy Summers provides a revealing and passionate account of a life dedicated to music. From his first guitar at age 13 and his early days on the Bournemouth music scene, to his relationships and encounters in London and the US with Zoot Money's Big Roll Band, Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, John Belushi and Eric Burdon, among others, Summers proves himself a master of telling detail and dramatic anecdote. But, of course, the early work is only part of the story, and Andy's account of his role as guitarist for The Police - a gig he almost didn't get, despite the wishes of bassist/singer Sting, until a chance encounter with drummer Stewart Copeland on a London train - is the first full inside story of the band ever published. The heights of fame that The Police achieved have rarely been duplicated, and they were rivaled only by the personal chaos that such success brought about, an insight never lost on Summers in the telling. With never-before-published photos from Summers' personal collection, 'One Train Later' is a constantly surprising and poignant memoir, and the work of a first-class writer. Review: '* 'A consistently droll read... [Summers] freely acknowledges the many idiocies and falsities of the rock'n'roll life but is equally assured of music's redemptive, unifying force.' Q * 'A Joy to read... One Train Later should sit happily between those other life-in-a-band classics, Ian Hunter's Diary of a Rock'n'Roll Star and Julian Cope's Head On, tracing the archetypal rock'n'roll arc from innocence to arrogance via moments of exquisite melancholy and untrammelled hedonism. Top memoir.' Mojo * Summers leaves no stone unturned, even at the risk of casting himself in a less than flattering light. Truly great.' Record Collector' Author Biography: Andy Summers is a Grammy Award winner, an inductee in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Guitar Player Hall of Fame, and was the guitarist for The Police. He lives in California.