The idea for a guide to rock and pop sites in London came to me, oddly enough, while I was living in Tokyo in the mid-1990s. Maybe I was feeling nostalgic. Whatever ... I was working as a music and entertainment correspondent for a couple of English language magazines, and part of the job involved reviewing the latest books and CDs. One of the books I reviewed was the then newly-published Bill Wyman autobiography, Stone Alone. It's a highly detailed work - Wyman is a notorious hoarder of Stones ephemera and obsessive curator of the Stones saga - and his attention to detail - the dates and locations, many of which were in London - got me thinking about the significance of London as a catalyst in the evolution of rock and pop, and what a good idea it would be to gather this information together in some sort of 'guide' for fans.

Well, as I soon found out, many others have had this idea before me, and while this was momentarily discouraging, when I actually got around to reading what was on offer I realised that much serious work had still to be done. In a word, while often entertaining and mildly diverting, the many London rock and pop guides that popped onto and off the market with alarming regularity tended to be limited in scope and peppered with inaccuracies. One, for instance, managed to confuse two entirely separate venues (the Kilburn State Theatre and the Kilburn National Ballroom, both on Kilburn High Road) as a single location.

That said, no London rock and pop guide can ever claim to be definitive. At times, even the most celebrated names - Jimi Hendrix springs to mind, here - have left a fog of myth and uncertainty in their wake. I've attempted to pin down the 'where and when' with as much accuracy as possible. But I admit, I'm as fallible here as the next guy - particularly as I'm relying, in the main, on secondary sources.

Since casually launching myself into this project a decade ago, I've reached a stage where it's time to get this thing out into the wider world. It's been passed around a dozen or so publishers over the past five years, one of whom was about to publish ... then backed out at the last minute. I still haven't abandoned that route, and am definitely open to offers. But if none come through, then this will be going out - hopefully - as an e-book. E-publish and be damned? We'll see ...