Butterfly on a Wheel

Book excerpt: When Keith Richards threw a drug-fuelled party at his West Sussex house in early 1967, it was never going to be an uneventful affair. Mick Jagger and Marianne Faithfull were the star guests but the police came uninvited, so launching a legendary confrontation. The drugs bust spawned a media frenzy of salacious speculation and led to a famous summer trial that pitted the hedonistic poster boys of the counterculture against the British Establishment. It was intended as a high-profile show of strength from on high. As it happened, things turned out rather differently. Using previously unpublished police and court documents, best-selling author Simon Wells reveals what really happened on the night of the drugs raid as well as the extraordinary conspiracy mounted to end the careers of Jagger and Richards, and how the Establishment widened their net to drag in the Beatles and other rock stars. With fresh interviews with lawyers, police, eye witnesses and those present at the notorious party, Wells reveals the truth about the celebrity pushers, London gangsters, bent cops, corrupt newspapers and dodgy politicians.