THEY say if you remember the 1960s, you weren’t really there.

But veteran rocker Trevor Hayward has managed to fill a book with memories of that swinging decade in Oxford, along with the 1970s for good measure.

Mr Hayward, whose own music career in Oxford with local groups spans 41 years and 25 bands, made it his mission to show how the city of the dreaming spires really rocked 40 years ago.

The book is packed with accounts of the great bands who took to the stage in Oxford in the days when mods and beat bands, hippies and glam rockers roamed the bars and concert venues.

Fans tell what it was like to cram into the Town Hall to see the likes of the Rolling Stones and David Bowie or see the Tremeloes at Elms Court in Botley.

Middle-aged music lovers are reminded of some of the city’s long lost venues – like The Forum, off the High Street, or the Stage Club, overlooking George Street, where Pink Floyd once played.

The book grew from Mr Hayward’s freelance work with BBC Radio Oxford, when he was involved making a programme about the Beatles in Oxford.

He said: “During the course of making the programme I interviewed many people, members of the audience, some managing and promoting, some playing on stage.

“Their stories were fascinating and they would put me on to other people with equally good tales.

“Then, one wet November night, when I was reallystruggling with a tooth abscess, to cheer myself up I thought ‘why not put it all in a book?’”

In the book, a poster shows the original Woodstock Festival was actually staged in Woodstock, Oxfordshire, two years before better-known event held in its US namesake.

The English Woodstock in Blenheim Park, which raised money for the St Ambulance Brigage on July 23, 1967, featured Jeff Beck, Rod Stewart, Manfred Mann and PP Arnold.

And I wonder how many knew Freddie Mercury played two shows at the Randolph Hotel and at Highfield parish hall, in Headington to raise money for Shelter, shortly before joining Queen?

There is also an account of how the Rolling Stones ended up playing Magdalen College for £100 in 1964.

Oxford bands the Falling Leaves and Steamroller reunited for the launch of the book, Rocking Oxford: A Personal History of the 1960s and 1970s Music Scene, at the Cellar, off Cornmarket.

The Falling Leaves famously supported The Beatles in 1963 when the band played their only Oxford gig at the Carfax Assembly Rooms.

In the book, lead guitarist Will Jarvis recalls taking John Lennon and Paul McCartney for a Chinese meal in Ship Street.