Martin Stone (guitarist)
Martin Stone (11 December 1946, Woking, Surrey – 9 November 2016, Versailles, France)[1] was an English guitarist and rare book dealer. A longtime resident of Fingest in Buckinghamshire, and latterly Paris.
He was a few years younger than his later musical partner Michael Moorcock but grew up in the same part of South London, knew the same book- and music-shops and had the same enthusiasms. Educated at Whitgift Grammar, he initially wanted to be a journalist and began as a cub reporter on The Croydon Advertiser, interviewing Jimmy Page when he was still a session musician. Stone's passion for the guitar led him to become a musician.
Musical career
Stone played in many groups, including Junior's Blues Band, Stone's Masonry, Almost Presley, The Action, Savoy Brown Blues Band, Mighty Baby, Snakefinger, Chilli Willi and the Red Hot Peppers, Les Soucoupes violentes, Southern Comfort, Pink Fairies, the The 101ers, Wreckless Eric, and the Gibson Girls.
He continued to play, backing Marianne Faithfull in her live performances, lead guitar in the French band Almost Presley and others.
Book runner
By the 1980s Stone was earning much of his living as a bookseller, with an almost uncanny knack for finding 'lost' or famous books. He was a great fan of M. P. Shiel, who first inspired his passion for book collecting and later book-selling. he achieved international notoriety as a bookrunner. He was a major player in John Baxter's memoir A Pound of Paper: Confessions of a Book Addict.[2] He was the subject of a limited edition photographic book Martin Stone, Bookscout by the California rare bookseller Peter Howard of Serendipity Books.[3] He appeared in the television documentary Without Walls: The Cardinal And The Corpse (Iain Sinclair / Chris Petit 1992).[4] He was also known to be the basis for the character Nicholas Lane in Sinclair's novel White Chappell, Scarlett Tracings (1987).[5]
References
- ↑ "Martin Stone, guitarist and rare book dealer – obituary". Daily Telegraph. 2016-11-29. Retrieved 2016-11-29.
- ↑ Baxter, John (2005). A Pound of Paper Confessions of a Book Addict. London: St. Martin's Griffin/Thomas Dunne Books. ISBN 978-0-312-31726-3.
- ↑ "Martin Stone, Bookscout : twenty-two photographs by Steven J. Gelberg with an essay by Peter B. Howard.". SU LAIR. Stanford University. Retrieved 2009-11-21.
- ↑ "WITHOUT WALLS: The CARDINAL AND THE CORPSE". Film & TV Database. British Film Institute. Retrieved 2009-11-21.
- ↑ "Cunningham, David White Chappell, Scarlet Tracings". The Literary Encyclopedia. 21 March 2002. Retrieved 21 November 2009.
External links
- Mighty Baby 1995 Martin Stone interview (Ptolemaic Terrascope 1995)
- The Legend of Martin Stone, Bookscout extraordinaire.(Bookride 2007)
- French Bibliomaniacs on YouTube CBS TV Sunday Morning segment includes Stone (2009)
- Paris sans Martin Stone, sans arcades, mais avec le marché et les amateurs de certains Radio program featuring Stone in 2012 buying books in the Paris markets (Resonance FM Nov 15 2016)