Having just climbed every mountain Griff Rhys Jones, looking somewhat less than impressed at encountering these rough old rock faces

   As Londoner's consider life beyond our Ken, we have learned of an intriguing scenario that is being mooted on the Capital's streets. It has been suggested that a similarity exists between London Mayor Boris Johnson and Rollin Stoned's guitarist Byron Jones and the fact that at no time have they ever been seen together in the same place is more than mere coincidence.
    To the febrile minded who are our bastions against the great conspiracies that threaten our daily lives, the evidence clearly stacks up to a hill of beans, but are they just fermenting hot air?
    Of course the two share common initials and as anyone who reads detective fiction well knows, people who adopt an alias invariably use their owns initials (not to mention that Boris Johnson is an anagram of 'Rob Johnson Is', possibly an allusion to being the reincarnation of the great blues legend. Ed) (Thanks for that Ed).
    Then there's the distinctive matching golden 'barnets', even if Boris does look like he's wearing Byron's hair inside out. Add to that you have the birds and the booze, a tendency to get in over their heads, not being very popular in Liverpool and of course both heavily influenced by the Blues. It is true that Byron has a well earned reputation as a dapper dandy whereas Boris would not look out of place in the pages of the Dandy, but then if you were having to dash in and out of telephone kiosks in order to perform quick change costumes at the drop of a crisis on the streets of London, you might look a tad less than well shevelled. (Posted - 27-05-08)

   Members of The Rollin Stoned (pictured above) hitting the bar with a suitably bemused Griff Rhys Jones at the Drill Hall in London's West End prior to filming of "The Big Question" a pilot for a new Channel 5 panel show   
    Intended as a cross between The Oxford debating society and a pub brawl, the show aims to finally establish answers to some of life's eternal verities, ones that have been eluding the greatest minds from Socrates and Descartes to Jade Goody.
    A celebrity panel of Journalists and Comedians including columnist Rod Liddle were invited to opine on assorted topics including discussions on the relative merits of Cats against Dogs, Curry versus Chinese and Quilts over Duvets.
    The Rollin Stoned, had been invited to attend as guest members of the audience to act as expert advocates on the vexed issue as to who was the greatest out of the Beatles and The Stones.
   If you don't wish to know the result then look away now... but for those who do and don't have the patience to see if the series gets commissioned, well, let's just say if you like chasing sticks, prefer your Winalot in Chicken Vindaloo flavour and can't get no Satisfaction without wagging your tail, then , with out giving too much away, you'd probably get the panel's vote.
(Posted - 17-01-08)

   As listeners to BBC Radio 2 on Friday, Jan 4th, would know, the singeing sensation Byron Jones may have been experiencing in his ears would not, for once, be the fault of the thermostat on his wig permer. Rather, he had become a hot topic of conversation on that evenings edition of Mathew Wright's ''Weekender" programme .
   During the broadcast Mathew recounted having been at a party held in honour of Seth Lakeman's father in 2007 and had seen a band called The Rollin Stoned (shucks does he mean Us? Ed) he went to say how much he enjoyed the show, in particular, the celestial re-incarnation of Brian Jones, it was, he said "..the highlight of my life" (This remark did lead Bill Wymandy to ponder "what must his lowlights have been like" but the that's Bill for you, a carbuncle on the face of misery).
   This generous endorsement could easily have escaped our attention entirely - obviously living in the 60's, we can only tune in to the Light Programme and on occasion, if the atmospherics are right, Radio Luxembourg, - were it not for a tip off from a friend of the band, Tim Ewbank , to whom we are much indebted. His journalists antennae for relevant material has no doubt been well developed in compiling facts for his many excellent celebrity biographies.
   As we kick off a New Year and the dishing out season for honours and gongs, it seems somehow appropriate for the band to receive this modest token of recognition and it will serve us fine until Her Majesty decide to pull her finger out on our behalf. (Posted - 17-01-08)

   A charity premier screening of the latest in "Pirates of the Caribean" series was in need of a pirate copy celeb to make the red carpet entrance, or plank in this case

   So who better to answer their cry for help and climb on board than the The Rollin Stoned's very own timber shivering, ringed eared, rum snorting powder monkey, Keith Retched. Pictured here in danger of loosing his head to some rather shapely shipmates. (Posted - 17-01-08)

The odd mangled gear change apart, faultless was the verdict of Times rock reviewer David Sinclair "......... the period detail of the musical equipment; the overall sound, particularly of the older numbers, was probably more “authentic” than the Stones themselves would be inclined to muster at this stage" -
To read the full review go to REVIEWS  Times review  (Posted - 09-01-07)