Extraordinary night Keith Richards told me: 'Listen 'ere sonny boy, I run the Rolling Stones, not that f****** p**f Mick Jagger!' Read a gripping account of the rock band's civil war by PR guru to the stars ALAN EDWARDS Read Part One of Alan Edwards' explosive memoir series By Alan Edwards Published: 11:55 BST, 19 May 2024 | Updated: 12:12 BST, 19 May 2024 e-mail 8 shares View comments Right. I'm off for a cheese roll and a pint of mild,' said my new boss, pulling his jacket round him. 'If Keith Moon phones, tell him I'm at lunch and I'll call him back.
' A legendary music publicist, Keith Altham represented at that time about 20 of the biggest bands in the world, including The Rolling Stones , The Who and The Beach Boys. It had famously been his idea for Jimi Hendrix to set fire to his guitar at Monterey Pop, the first ever major rock festival, in 1967. Keith's offices were in Pimlico, central London, and he'd taken me on as his assistant for £25 a week – a sum that seemed to me, as a poverty-stricken 20-year-old in 1974, like a fortune beyond my wildest dreams.
That first morning he had fired a dizzying list of names at me as he issued his commandments for getting on in music publicity. Mick Jagger and Keith Richards of The Rolling Stones performing circa 1980 'One: always return calls,' said Keith, counting on his thumb. 'Two: do what you say you're going to do.
' He counted on his index finger. 'And the most important thing of all, three: if the company – me – is buy.