Old gods almost dead - Stephen Davis

This summer the Stones tour the UK for the first time in four years. As even Mick and Keith improbably near 60, it may well be the last time they play live. Certainly the anticipation has been such that the 70,000 capacity of Twickenham's giant rugby stadium was sold out within 40 minutes of tickets going on sale, while their intimate "club" gig at London's Astoria is eagerly awaited. As Mick Jagger said, they faced a choice between going on the road once more and settling down to become pillars of the community - and they "couldn't think of any communities that needed pillars..." The Stones' visit will be a huge news event, and Aurum's paperback edition of Stephen Davis's definitive biography is published in paperback to take full advantage: in the shops a month before the tour comes to Britain. Old Gods Almost Dead should become the standard history of the Stones, a truly compulsive read by someone who is both a true fan of their music and thoroughly aware of the darkness and danger that follows them around. While Philip Norman's previous biography of the band was written some 18 years ago when Bill Wyman was still with them, this book comes right up to the minute.;Its 600-page length, moreover, is testament to just how substantial, if not truly amazing, the Stones' achievement now is: so many albums, so many classic songs, so many women, so much drugs, excess and bad behaviour, and very much still going...