Needs | Akateeminen Kirjakauppa

Just A Shot Away:69 Revisited is veteran author-journalist Kris Needs' highly-personal account of 1969 as he experienced it happening in real time, remembering the gigs, bands and records that bombarded his young radar and shaped his future path.

Following Part One's account of January-June's pivotal events, including the births of Aylesbury's legendary Friars club and Pete Frame's Zigzag (which he wrote for before becoming editor), witnessing Hendrix in concert and his lifelong love of the Stones, Part Two shows Kris growing up fast; including discovering and meeting David Bowie, Mott The Hoople and Iggy and the Stooges, seeing many more bands and exploring his love of Sun Ra, Can, the Doors, Pearls Before Swine, Spirit, Moondog, Love, Tim Buckley and Syd Barrett, not forgetting the Stones and Hendrix.

With Foreword by mentor Pete Frame, Kris's 45 year career as a music writer impacts time machine fashion, including conversations with Keith Richards, Mott The Hoople, the Doors, Iggy Pop, Suicide, Can's Irmin Schmidt, Silver Apples, Pete Brown, Spirit's Mark Andes and more, along with perspective and knowledge gained from living a life the teenage Needs could never have imagined, some leading characters becoming lifelong friends. In a year that ends with Mott The Hoople about to change his life, there's never time to care about the death of a decade in which he's coming alive, let alone any loss of innocence when he can't lose his fast enough.

The book carries a sad back story as, while Kris was writing it, his beloved partner Helen succumbed to cancer, his grief inevitably casting a tragic shadow over the story, instilling greater appreciation of life when it's just getting under way. Moving back into the family home with his mum, Kris wrote the book in the same bedroom where he actually experienced 1969 - and still got told to turn down his Stones records!