TO paraphrase the comedian Robin Williams, if you remember the Sixties you weren’t really there.

Thankfully, local author and music aficionado Alan Burridge was on hand to document the decade and its musical impact on the south coast.

Alan, 58, who lives in Upton, has just published his latest book, Bournemouth Rocks! A Brief History of Rock Music in Bournemouth, Boscombe and Poole, 1960-1980.

“I didn’t want that era to be forgotten. I wanted it catalogued, but didn’t expect it to be ever published,” says Alan.

Written from an autobiographical perspective to reflect the vibrancy of the period, Alan recalls his memories of the various musicians and groups who have played at local venues.

These Meccas of rock include The Ritz, The Gaumont, The Winter Gardens, Starkers and Poole Arts Centre.

The book chronicles musicians and bands from the local scene playing live music like The Push, Abel Cain, Natural Gas and Rock Circus.

They include the bands who achieved the dream of making records such as Spontaneous Combustion, Team Dokus, The Dictators, Infantes Jubilate, Bram Stoker, Elias Hulk and Room.

Alan also reminisces about those who went the extra mile with the mainstream success of Zoot Money’s Big Roll Band, King Crimson, Emerson, Lake & Palmer, The Greg Lake Band, John Wetton with Asia, Andy Summers with The Police, Lee Kerslake with Uriah Heep and Al Stewart.

At the book launch, many of the local band members reunited at the Bourne Beat Bar in Priory Road, Bournemouth.

“I managed to track down a lot of these bands,” said Alan. “I showed them pages from the book and asked if they agreed or disagreed.

“Having got in touch, I was then given permission to use exclusive photos and album sleeve artwork.”

Many of the bands have since left the music business... or have become rock legends.

“Members of the band Bram Stoker are trying to get the band back together again, whereas the band called Room said: ‘Absolutely no way!’ “Bands back then used to work very hard and if you look at the amount of gigs they did you’ll appreciate the efforts they made.

“Obviously Greg Lake started with his local bands at Oakdale Boys Club and ended up a millionaire megastar,” added Alan.

So what would be the rock music lover’s most memorable performance in Bournemouth?

“I kind of liked all of them, but in hindsight it would be any of the Jimi Hendrix shows I went to see,” said Alan.

“At the time we knew he was an exceptional guitar player but we didn’t know he was going to pass away.

“Perhaps we would have pulled out all the stops and gone to see him at the Isle of Wight Festival for one of his last gigs.”

Far out, man...

Bournemouth Rocks! (Natula Publications, £12.95) is available from local bookshops.