Martin Stone (11 December 1946,

Woking Woking ( ) is a town and borough status in the United Kingdom, borough in northwest Surrey, England, around from central London. It appears in Domesday Book as ''Wochinges'' and its name probably derives from that of a Anglo-Saxon settlement o ...

Surrey Surrey () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South East England, bordering Greater London to the south west. Surrey has a large rural area, and several significant urban areas which form part of the Greater London Built-up Area. ...

– 9 November 2016,

Versailles The Palace of Versailles ( ; french: Château de Versailles ) is a former royal residence built by King Louis XIV located in Versailles, about west of Paris, France. The palace is owned by the French Republic and since 1995 has been managed, u ...

, France) 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 themselv ...

and rare book dealer. He was a longtime resident of

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 date ...

in Buckinghamshire and, latterly, Paris.

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, best-known for 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 work ...

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. His last album, which he called his legacy album is LIVE FROM THE TERMINAL CAFE with Michael Moorcock and the Deep Fix (Cleopatra Records, Autumn 2019). Educated at

Whitgift School ("He who perseveres, conquers") , established = , closed = , type = Independent school , religious_affiliation = Church of England , president = , head_label = Head Master , head = Christopher Ramsey , c ...

, he initially wanted to be a journalist and began as a cub reporter on ''

The Croydon Advertiser ''The Croydon Advertiser'' (with locally branded editions) is a paid-for weekly newspaper with five editions covering the London Boroughs of Croydon, Sutton and two neighbouring towns and with a free up-to-the-minute maintained web presence. Ci ...

'', interviewing

Jimmy Page James Patrick Page (born 9 January 1944) is an English musician who achieved international success as the guitarist and founder of the rock band Led Zeppelin. Page is prolific in creating guitar riffs. His style involves various alternative ...

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 six decades, they are one of the most popular and enduring bands of the album era, rock era. In the early 1960s, the Rolling Stones pioneered the g ...

. 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. Career The band was formed as the Boys in Au ...

Savoy Brown Blues Band Savoy Brown (originally Savoy Brown Blues Band) were an English blues rock band formed in Battersea, south west London, in 1965. Part of the late 1960s blues rock movement, Savoy Brown primarily achieved success in the United States, where t ...

Mighty Baby Mighty Baby were an English band formed in January 1969 from the ashes of The Action. They released two albums, ''Mighty Baby'' (which appeared in December 1969, but had been recorded almost a year earlier) and ''A Jug of Love'' (October 197 ...

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 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 other stunts, s ...

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/ new wave singer-songwriter, best known for his 1977 single " Whole Wide World" on Stiff Records. More than two decades after its release, the song was included in ''Mo ...

, and the Gibson Girls. Martin 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, hangi ...

for a couple of years including Glastonbury in 2005 for a second time. He continued to play, backing

Marianne Faithfull Marianne Evelyn Gabriel Faithfull (born 29 December 1946) is an English singer and actress. She achieved popularity in the 1960s with the release of her hit single " As Tears Go By" and became one of the lead female artists during the British I ...

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. His legal surname remained "Shiell" though he adopted the shorter version as a ''de facto'' pen name. He is remembered mainly for supernatura ...

, 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. Biography Education Sinclair was born in Cardiff in 1943. From 1956 to 1961, he was educate ...

Chris Petit Chris Petit (born 17 June 1949) is an English novelist and filmmaker. During the 1970s he was Film Editor for '' Time Out'' and wrote in ''Melody Maker''. His first film was the cult British road movie ''Radio On'', while his 1982 film ''An Unsu ...

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.

References

External links

Daily Telegraph obituaryTimes 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 four permanent staff members, including programme controller Ed Baxter and ...

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