I Was There: Dispatches from a Life in Rock and Roll

A Telegraph and London Standard Book of the Year for 2024, Alan Edwards' I Was There lives up to the enthusiastic praise it has garnered. Debbie Harry rightly calls Edwards "a wonderful storyteller," and Nihal Arthanayake of BBC Radio 5 Live insists, "If you love music, you should definitely read this book." Jon Savage aptly describes Edwards as "a class act: observant, attentive, always in the right place at the right time," and this memoir certainly delivers on that promise, offering a compelling insider's view of the music industry over the past five decades.

Alan Edwards, often hailed as the godfather of British music PR, has undeniably worked with a pantheon of legendary artists, from David Bowie to the Spice Girls, taking in the Rolling Stones, the Stranglers, Prince, and the unforgettable Amy Winehouse along the way. In I Was There, he vividly recounts his unlikely entry into this world in the mid-seventies: a slightly dishevelled, twenty-year-old fresh from the hippie trail. His encounter with London's vibrant punk scene proved pivotal, igniting the spark that led him to establish his own PR company.

Edwards charts his expanding horizons as his work with the likes of Blondie takes him across the Atlantic and beyond, before plunging into the tabloid frenzy of the nineties pop scene with the Spice Girls. However, at the heart of this engaging narrative lies the defining relationship of his career: his close and enduring thirty-year collaboration with the enigmatic David Bowie.

Through a series of vivid, often funny, and consistently insightful behind-the-scenes anecdotes, Edwards grants the reader privileged access to moments both grand and intimate. Whether it's an impromptu kickabout with Bob Marley, listening to Prince's musings on the future in a nightclub VIP area, or finding himself an unwitting player in the ongoing power dynamics between Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, Edwards' storytelling is captivating.

Above all, I Was There offers Edwards' fascinating observations on the brilliant and often complex artists he has championed, providing a unique perspective on what truly makes them tick. As he reflects on his significant role in shaping the last five decades of music and culture, this memoir is more than just a collection of star-studded encounters; it's a warm, raw, and incident-packed account from someone who was not just present, but deeply involved in the making of music history. As Tony Parsons eloquently puts it, it's "a beautiful, warm, jaw-dropping, once-in-a-lifetime, lifting-the-stone guide to a secret world."