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Rolling Stones' Ronnie Wood at Cheltenham Literature Festival: I forgot I met Peter Sellers

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I reckon Ronnie Wood knew he was in for a great evening too: looking back on the good times with a packed out forum of appreciative fans, happy memories, fags in pocket, your lovely wife scratching your dog's tummy in the aisle and you're still buzzing about your latest grandchild: It's all good.

Most of us would dread revealing anything that we wrote in our teenage diaries, but Ronnie Wood's unexpectedly rediscovered scribblings are an achingly cool snapshot of the sixties, that have put a smile on everybody's face - even his peers.

"They all had a nice reaction to it because its harmless, its done, its way back then, they're quite understanding and tender towards it, all my peers, they love the idea"

Ronnie was talking to a full house at The Times Forum at Cheltenham Literature Festival, reminiscing about the days when he was in The Birds before he eventually made his way to becoming the newest Rolling Stones. His diary, published now as 'How Can it Be', gives an account of Ronnie's early days in the Birds. But even at just 17, Ronnie always knew he'd end up with The Stones:

"In the sixties, at that time anybody that was alive then in their teens was really not short of things to do, you were busy all the time. For me it was a case of always being more adventurous and trying to keep up, basically my sights were on the Stones, even then I'd come home from art school and watch them on the TV.

"I knew what was coming next with the music, I knew everything in my head, what they were playing and all the different angles and the actual approach and everything, and I thought I'm on the same wavelength as this band, yeah."

But Ronnie would still tell his teenage self to strive harder: his diary also reveals his rock star past was underpinned by determination and hard work, which he reckons is essential and is what's needed today for rockers young and old.

"Today's bands, instead of suddenly appearing on the X Factor, it's nice to have the groundwork. I don't know how many years we were doing this but for many years it seemed like you were banging our head against a brick wall to try to make an impression, but if you didn't give up and you kept your ambition going and you sort of think you'll make it one day, you keep trying and stick in there.

"That's what we were doing in those days and in a way that's what I'm doing today, I'm always trying to get better, always trying to come up with a new riff, little has changed"

And he reckons the diary is a little piece of social history too, giving an insight into sixties London and the gigging scene, when he would got to the Marquee Club, or when he first met Rod Stewart at the Intrepid Fox in Wardour St when Rod was dressed as Coco the Clown.

"Those days you used to have these programmes that were once a week and it really gave you something to strive for because you had charts, and it really meant something.One mention in the melody maker for instance it meant you could sell a few more records, you'd actually gauge the groups climb up the ladder."

But those early days on the road in the gig wagon in the days when fan belts used to break and bands lugged their equipment around were a learning curve."We'd lumber the stuff out, it was quite backbreaking, then we'd go backstage and change into our stage clothiers and pretend we were different people and then go on and play"

"It was a slog, i used to get back to my house,but I'd get rewards because Keith Moon would come over and see me, and my mum thought he was very polite and he was always really nice to her, and i remember Mitch Mitchell came over one night and he'd just had a gig with Jimi Hendrix, and I said how's it going, what's Jimi like? I knew what he was like because I'd shared a flat with him for a couple of weeks in Holland Park, but I said how's he treating you? He said he's a very fair man; there's three of us in the band and he splits everything down the middle!"

Ronnie's blast from the past has clearly delighted him and helped revive great memories, he did, after all, belong to quite an exclusive club but the haze of time and addiction over the years had dulled those memories for him.

He forgot that he shared a dressing room with Wilson Pickett, "I'd completely forgotten I'd met him, i saw him not long before he died with Bobby Womack, and we went back to the dressing room with him, and he was so rude to a girlfriend of one of these hells angels that they were beating the living daylights out of him, he was going 'you don't do that to The Pickett!' They came in with these big baseball bats and Bobby Womack and I hid in the toilet. They'd already nailed Picket they were just going for anyone."

He forgot that he'd met Sid James and Peter Sellers, but he remembers that Cliff Richard didn't speak to him when they shared a dressing room: "No I didn't forget that, but he didn't speak to me either. They were successful, he was number one, he was our Elvis, you know, or he tried to be!"

And he reckons his Rod Stewart was drawn to him because "He thought we went to the same barber. We both did it ourselves, he doesn't do his anymore but I still do mine myself!". One diary entry tells of his buying outfits for The Birds from a ladies shop: "Well, some things don't change - I still get my jeans from ladies shops!"

But Ronnie wouldn't be drawn on choosing which of his frontmen, Mick Jagger and Rod Stewart, would sing in his fantasy band: "That would have to be a duet!"

As a cameo of the sixties, Ronnie's diary are a fascinating insight. As one lady said as we filed out "Well, its a piece of our social history isn't it, we had to come".

And he's in a good place, is Ronnie. Lovely beagle too.
http://www.gloucestershireecho.co.uk/Ro ... #4qCE_0410

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Indice ~ Generale ~ Ronnie, sempre lui...