Published in Vive Le Rock Magazine June/July 2013 edition
THE MAMMOTH BOOK OF THE ROLLING STONES
Sean Egan
(Robinson)
7/10
The 50th anniversary of the band’s signing has inevitably spawned a number of new accounts of the rock phenomenon. So what does this latest offering bring to the table? Well, Sean Egan does a neat job of pulling together a range of interviews, reviews and analysis, documenting the group’s compelling and iconoclastic beginnings – rivalling the ostensibly tamer Fab Four – right up to their renewed success on the live circuit today. Both devotees and detractors are represented here (try Robin Eggar’s “Self Satisfaction” for a searing example of the latter). The 534 page anthology would perhaps have benefited from some indexing and better signposting but overall it’s a fun, informative and balanced compilation spanning the five decades. Serious fans will want to devour it from cover to cover while others will dip in to find out more about what really went on behind the making of this band’s timeless classics.
Tom Willmott
