One Train Later A Memoir Andy Summers

"The train jerks to a halt, and as I get out at Oxford Circus, Stewart gets out with me. We look at each other, laugh, and make the standard remark about it being a small world. But this is the brilliant collision, one train later and it might all have turned out differently." In this extraordinary memoir, world-renowned guitarist Andy Summers provides a revealing and passionate account of a life dedicated to music. From his first guitar at age thirteen and his early days on the English music scene to the ascendancy of his band, the Police, Summers recounts his relationships and encounters with the Big Roll Band, Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, the Animals, John Belushi, and others, all the while proving himself a master of telling detail and dramatic anecdote.

But, of course, the early work is only part of the story, and Andy's account of his role as guitarist for the Police---a gig that was only confirmed by a chance encounter with drummer Stewart Copeland on a London train---has been long-awaited by music fans worldwide. The heights of fame that the Police achieved have rarely been duplicated, and the band's triumphs were rivaled only by the personal chaos that such success brought about, an insight never lost on Summers in the telling.

 

Complete with never-before-published photos from Summers's personal collection, One Train Later is a constantly surprising and poignant memoir, and the work of a world-class musician and a first-class writer.

"Entertaining, highly readable... Summers discusses, quite eloquently, the Faustian pact fame seemingly involves, which in his case entailed divorce and estrangement from his daughter. A candid appraisal of the cost of celebrity." June Sawyers, Booklist

"[An] engaging memoir. Summers is refreshingly endearing." Kirkus Reviews

"Finely written. Readers curious about the dissolution will find lots of insight, at least from Summers's point of view. This terrific book should be in demand in public libraries. For academic libraries collecting rock'n'roll history, it is essential." Library Journal

"The train jerks to a halt, and as I get out at Oxford Circus, Stewart gets out with me. We look at each other, laugh, and make the standard remark about it being a small world. But this is the brilliant collision, one train later and it might all have turned out differently."

In this extraordinary memoir, world-renowned guitarist Andy Summers provides a revealing and passionate account of a life dedicated to music. From his first guitar at age thirteen and his early days on the English music scene to the ascendancy of his band, the Police, Summers recounts his relationships and encounters with the Big Roll Band, Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, the Animals, John Belushi, and others, all the while proving himself a master of telling detail and dramatic anecdote.

But, of course, the early work is only part of the story, and Andy’s account of his role as guitarist for the Police — a gig that was only confirmed by a chance encounter with drummer Stewart Copeland on a London train — has been long-awaited by music fans worldwide. The heights of fame that the Police achieved have rarely been duplicated, and the band’s triumphs were rivaled only by the personal chaos that such success brought about, an insight never lost on Summers in the telling.

Complete with never-before-published photos from Summers’s personal collection, One Train Later is a constantly surprising and poignant memoir, and the work of a world-class musician and a first-class writer.

"A disarming, surprising literary memoir by the ex-Police guitarist . . . A rollicking you-are-there history of the 60s-80s rock era."---Entertainment Weekly

 

In this extraordinary memoir, world-renowned guitarist Andy Summers provides the revealing and passionate account of a life dedicated to music. From his first guitar at age thirteen and his early days on the English music scene to the ascendancy of his band, the Police, Summers recounts his relationships and encounters with the Big Roll Band, Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, the Animals, John Belushi, and others, all the while proving himself a master of telling detail and dramatic anecdote.

 Andy's account of his role as guitarist for the Police---a gig that was only confirmed by a chance encounter with drummer Stewart Copeland on a London train---has been long-awaited by music fans worldwide. The heights of fame that the Police achieved have rarely been duplicated, and the band's triumphs were rivaled only by the personal chaos that such success brought about, an insight never lost on Summers in the telling. Complete with never-before-published photos from Summers's personal collection, One Train Later is a constantly surprising and poignant memoir, and the work of a world-class musician and a first-class writer.

ANDY SUMMERS is a Grammy Award winner and an inductee in both the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the Guitar Player Hall of Fame. He has followed his work with the Police with a career that encompasses more than twelve solo albums, soundtracks, and collaborations in addition to concerts and exhibitions of his photography around the world. He lives in California.