‘The Stones in the Park’ charts the rollercoaster summer of that year for The Rolling Stones, including friend to Havers, bassist Bill Wyman.

On the 40th anniversary, Havers names that summer as the one that changed the band forever.

In the book he says they moved away from the blues band that Brian Jones had put together in 1962, had stopped being a pop band, and had hardly performed on stage since 1967 – despite the Stones excelling as live performers.

And Havers goes on to tell the story of 33 days which included drug busts, fall-outs, and at least one album that failed to live up to expectations.

He also discusses the uncertainty that surrounded the band, having flirted with psychedelia and moved onto the cusp of becoming the ‘greatest rock and roll band in the world’, as former tour manager Sam Cutler named them in 1969.

It tells how, on Sunday, June 8, 1969, Brian Jones left the band he had founded, and less than a month later died just days before the Stones played a free concert in London’s Hyde Park for somewhere close to half a millon people.

Undaunted, the Stones, who Havers believes have always been greater than the sum of their parts, recruited Mick Taylor to play guitar in place of Brian and recorded one of their greatest singles.

They went on to play the largest concert in Britain to that point, and Mick Jagger, like many pop singers before him, went off to be a film star.

Havers has already written a number of books on The Rolling Stones, including how the band began in their early years.

Richard Havers will be signing copies of The Stones in the Park at Kelso’s Latimer Books on Saturday from 11am to 1pm.