My choice of Brian Jones as a major influence on my life was determined by two criteria. The first and most obvious is that the man was one of the founding fathers of that (then) rebellious group The Rolling Stones, who challenged the supremacy of those nice boys The Beatles. The second deciding factor was that Brian was not only born in my home town of Cheltenham but also close to two members of my family, and, perhaps more importantly, our paths crossed before I was seven. Even though I was a young child, this encounter still remains indelibly etched in my memory.
Much has been written about the curious figure of Brian Jones, but very little of it sheds any light on his complex personality and his pre-Stones era in Cheltenham (although he undoubtedly had an unhappy childhood as pointed out by members of my family and several of his school friends).
