Martin Stone (guitarist)
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Martin Stone (11 December 1946 – 9 November 2016) was an English
guitarist A guitarist (or a guitar player) is a person who plays the guitar. Guitarists may play a variety of guitar family instruments such as classical guitars, acoustic guitars, electric guitars, and bass guitars. Some guitarists accompany themselve ...
and rare book dealer. He was a longtime resident of London and for a while lived in
Fingest Fingest is a village in Buckinghamshire, England. It is in the Chiltern Hills near the border with Oxfordshire. It is about six miles WSW of High Wycombe. It lies in the civil parish of Hambleden. The parish church of St Bartholomew's dates ...
in Buckinghamshire and, latterly, Montparnasse, Paris, before moving to Versailles.


Musical career

Stone was a few years younger than his later musical partner
Michael Moorcock Michael John Moorcock (born 18 December 1939) is an English writer, particularly of science fiction and fantasy, who has published a number of well-received literary novels as well as comic thrillers, graphic novels and non-fiction. He has wo ...
but grew up in the same part of South London, knew the same book and music-shops and had the same enthusiasms. The first time both met was on stage when Stone was in Mighty Baby and Moorcock was with Hawkwind. They became close friends. With Chilli Willi he made ''Kings of the Robot Rhythm'' and ''Bongos Over Balham,''. His last album, which he called his legacy album, was ''Live From the Terminal Café'', with Michael Moorcock and the Deep Fix (Cleopatra Records, Autumn 2019). Educated at
Whitgift School Whitgift School is an independent day school with limited boarding in South Croydon, London. Along with Trinity School of John Whitgift and Old Palace School it is owned by the Whitgift Foundation, a charitable trust. The school was prev ...
, he initially wanted to be a journalist and began as a cub reporter on '' The Croydon Advertiser'', interviewing
Jimmy Page James Patrick Page (born 9 January 1944) is an English musician and producer who achieved international success as the guitarist and founder of the Rock music, rock band Led Zeppelin. Page began his career as a studio session musician in Lo ...
when he was still a session musician. Stone's passion for the guitar led him to become a musician. He was given consideration as a possible replacement for Brian Jones in the
Rolling Stones The Rolling Stones are an English Rock music, rock band formed in London in 1962. Active for over six decades, they are one of the most popular, influential, and enduring bands of the Album era, rock era. In the early 1960s, the band pione ...
. He is said not to have turned up for the audition. He was known as 'a guitarist's guitarist' and had a legendary reputation as a literary book dealer. He had many friends in both worlds. Stone played in many groups, including Junior's Blues Band, Stone's Masonry, Almost Presley,
The Action The Action were an English band of the 1960s, formed as the Boys in August 1963, in Kentish Town, North West London. They were part of the mod subculture, and played soul music-influenced pop music. History 1963–1964: The Boys The band ...
, Savoy Brown Blues Band,
Mighty Baby Mighty Baby were an English band formed in January 1969 by former members of the Action. They released two albums, ''Mighty Baby'' (1969) and ''A Jug of Love'' (1971). History Following the 1968 departure of singer Reg King from the Action, k ...
,
Chilli Willi and the Red Hot Peppers Chilli Willi and the Red Hot Peppers were one of the main British pub rock groups of the early 1970s. Later managed by Jake Riviera, who first worked for the band as a roadie, they reached their peak as part of the "Naughty Rhythms Tour" of ...
, Les Soucoupes violentes, Southern Comfort,
Pink Fairies Pink Fairies are an English proto-punk rock band initially active in the London (Ladbroke Grove) underground and psychedelic scene of the early 1970s. They promoted free music, drug use, and anarchy, and often performed impromptu gigs and ot ...
,
The 101ers The 101ers were a pub rock band from the 1970s playing mostly in a rockabilly style, notable as being the band that Joe Strummer left to join The Clash. Formed in London in May 1974, the 101ers made their performing debut on 7 September at the ...
,
Wreckless Eric Eric Goulden (born 18 May 1954), known as Wreckless Eric, is an English rock music, rock and New wave music, new wave singer-songwriter, best known for his 1977 single "Whole Wide World (song), Whole Wide World" on Stiff Records. More than two d ...
, and the Gibson Girls. Stone also played live with French chanteuse
Anne Pigalle Anne Pigalle is a French singer and multimedia artist (writer, musician, art performer, poet, photographer and painter). Biography Early career Pigalle grew up in Montmartre, Paris. As a teenager, she played guitar in an all-female band, hangin ...
for a couple of years, including at the
Glastonbury Festival The Glastonbury Festival of Contemporary Performing Arts (commonly referred to as simply Glastonbury Festival, known colloquially as Glasto) is a five-day festival of contemporary performing arts held near Pilton, Somerset, England, in most su ...
in 2005 for a second time. He continued to play, backing
Marianne Faithfull Marianne Evelyn Gabriel Faithfull (29 December 1946 – 30 January 2025) was an English singer and actress who achieved popularity in the 1960s with the release of her UK top 10 single " As Tears Go By". She became one of the leading female art ...
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 the writer
M. P. Shiel Matthew Phipps Shiell (21 July 1865 – 17 February 1947), known as M. P. Shiel, was a British writer, remembered mainly for supernatural horror and scientific romances. His work was published as serials, novels, and as short stories. '' The Pu ...
, who first inspired his passion for book collecting and later book-selling, achieving an international reputation as a bookrunner. His personal collection of 19th-20th century French poetry was acquired in 2019 by Cambridge University Library. He was a major player in John Baxter's memoir ''A Pound of Paper: Confessions of a Book Addict''. He was the subject of a limited edition photographic book ''Martin Stone, Bookscout'' by the California rare bookseller Peter Howard of Serendipity Books. He appeared in the television documentary ''Without Walls: The Cardinal And The Corpse'' (
Iain Sinclair Iain Sinclair FRSL (born 11 June 1943) is a writer and filmmaker. Much of his work is rooted in London, recently within the influences of psychogeography. Early life and education Sinclair was born in Cardiff, Wales, on 11 June 1943. From 19 ...
/
Chris Petit Chris Petit (born 17 June 1949) is an English novelist and filmmaker. During the 1970s he was Film Editor for ''Time Out (company), Time Out'' and wrote in ''Melody Maker''. His first film was the cult British road movie ''Radio On'', while his ...
1992). He was also known to be the basis for the character Nicholas Lane in Sinclair's novel ''White Chappell, Scarlett Tracings'' (1987).


Personal life

Stone was married in 1980 to Ruth Bullock and their daughter is the actress
Sophie Leigh Stone use both this parameter and , birth_date to display the person's date of birth, date of death, and age at death) --> , death_place = , death_cause = , body_discovered = , resting_place = , resting_place_coordinates ...
.


References


External links


Times Obituary
6 December 2016 (Reg. reqd.)
print
* Stone'
cameo appearance
as himself in the 1992 tv film ''The Cardinal & The Corpse''
Mighty Baby
1995 Martin Stone interview (Ptolemaic Terrascope 1995)

Bookride 2007) * 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 Resonance 104.4 FM is a London based non-profit community radio station specialising in the arts run by the London Musicians' Collective (LMC). The station is staffed by two permanent staff members, including Chief Executive Officer Peter Lance ...
15 November 2016)
"The new Martin Stone collection of French illustrated poetry, 19th-20th centuries at Cambridge"
Cambridge University Library European collections blog (16 May 2019).
Martin Stone's French illustrated books, 1873-1925
sale catalogue by Justin Croft (10/2017) {{DEFAULTSORT:Stone, Martin 1946 births 2016 deaths People from Woking English rock guitarists British rhythm and blues boom musicians Book collecting Savoy Brown members Chilli Willi and the Red Hot Peppers members The Dukes (British band) members The 101ers members 20th-century British guitarists 21st-century British guitarists