Allan Jones launched Uncut magazine in 1997 and for 15 years wrote a
popular monthly column called Stop Me If You've Heard This One Before,
based on his experiences as a music journalist in the 70s and 80s, a
gilded time for the music press.
By turns hilarious, cautionary, poignant and powerful, the Stop
Me...stories collected here include encounters with some of rock's most
iconic stars, including David Bowie, Lou Reed, Leonard Cohen, Van
Morrison, Neil Young, Elvis Costello, The Sex Pistols, The Clash, The
Smiths, R.E.M. and Pearl Jam. From backstage brawls and drug blow-outs,
to riots, superstar punch-ups, hotel room confessionals and tour bus
lunacy, these are stories from the madness of a music scene now long
gone.
Allan Jones is an award-winning British music journalist and editor. In
1974, he applied for a job on the UK's best-selling music paper as a
junior reporter, signing off his application with 'Melody Maker needs
a bullet up the arse. I'm the gun, pull the trigger'. He was editor of
Melody Maker from 1984 to 1997 and until 2014 editor of music and film
monthly Uncut.