A Gas, Gas, Gas

How excellent are the Keith Richards memoirs? On Saturday, we got to read a few choice extracts from 'Life' in the papers. There were shenanigans at Redlands, his country pile, and a dramatic prison sentence in 1967. A trip to Tangiers with Brian Jones and Anita Pallenberg finds the loyalties, the drugs and the passions all getting royally confused. Later, there are star-crossed encounters between Mick and Anita, Keef and Marianne as the Aquarian age gets more feverish.

Richards has previously cut a heroic swathe in books by Marianne Faithful and Stanley Booth. He is totally up to expectations here, and the book sustains that unique voice - camp and bohemian, a kind of swaggering Chelsea palare.

The recent reissue of 'Exile On Main Street' revealed more of the band's musical fibre. And while the book serialisations have so far dealt with the intrigue and the lifestyle, there's an expectation that the riff-meister will have plenty more to deliver.