A few days ago I got the book Me And My Friends by Tony Woolliscroft from www.abramsbooks.com and even though it’s rather old news and those of you who wanted it probably bought it already, I felt I had to write a few words about the great journey this book led me through. I simply couldn’t put it down until I reached the last page and then I had to go over some of the most interesting parts again. Me And My Friends will take you right to the core of the Red Hot Chili Peppers hurricane that will rock your world.

The book is written through the eyes of Tony Woolliscroft, the band’s personal photographer, who followed them since their Mother’s Milk tour and was a big friend with all the band members, Chad especially, who even helped him with the book. Me And My Friends is a perfectly balanced mixture of words and pictures, composed in such way you can almost feel the movement and the energy of their adventures.

The book consists of six chapters, named after their albums – Mothers Milk, Blood Sugar Sex Magik, One Hot Minute, Californication, By The Way and Stadium Arcadium. The foreword is written by Chad Smith, who joined Red Hot Chili Peppers at about the same time as Tony – the photographer.

“I hope you see his passion for his art, for music and for people. We’re still growing with him, letting him capture the good times and bad times, happy and sad. But what we are most proud of is that he captures the love” – Chad Smith

From then on, they got to really know, respect and trust each other, so as an outsider, Tony was able to get as close to them as possible. Looking at those pictures from their early days made me feel like I’m really getting to know each and every one of them, and Tony’s comments and funny little personal stories behind every photo make them even more entertaining and alive. The book shows all the aspects of the band’s life, the way they grew as musicians and as people, along with the chemistry they have between them, which is perfectly portrayed.

Tony managed to capture all the entertaining moments, and crucial people that helped create Red Hot Chili Peppers world. He captured their wild rocking live performances on the stage, yoga exercises backstage, chill out times before and after the shows as well as some personal moments that only he was allowed to record.

“He’s braved a typhoon with them in Japan, captured Anthony Kiedis walking off the edge of a skyscraper hotel roof in Venezuela, witnessed John Frusciante’s remarkable private comeback show in Washington, and had drumsticks affectionately thrown at him by Chad Smith during a live performance for taking pictures of Flea’s naked girlfriend”

“When I first saw the Peppers I was mesmerized, I really was. I’d seen nothing like these guys. Sparks seemed to fly off stage between each band member. Their workrate was phenomenal. Nonstop. The energy, God, it was infectious.” – Tony Woolliscroft

So if somehow, by mistake, you missed to buy this book, I suggest you to think about it again and check it out on amazon.com where you can buy it . If you want to peek at some pictures that were used in the book before you decide to buy it, you can visit this photo gallery on nerve.com.

Enjoy yourselves, I know I did !

This entry was posted on Monday, December 7th, 2009 at 6:36 pm and is filed under miscellaneous, red hot chili peppers. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.