{"id":552438,"date":"2026-04-27T00:03:11","date_gmt":"2026-04-27T00:03:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/552438\/"},"modified":"2026-04-27T00:03:11","modified_gmt":"2026-04-27T00:03:11","slug":"keith-altham-pop-pr-maestro-who-gave-jimi-hendrix-the-idea-of-setting-fire-to-his-guitar-obituary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/552438\/","title":{"rendered":"Keith Altham, pop PR maestro who gave Jimi Hendrix the idea of setting fire to his guitar \u2013 obituary"},"content":{"rendered":"

As well as Hendrix\u2019s guitar pyrotechnics, Altham could also lay claim to another small slice of history. In 1966 Larry Page, manager of an up-and-coming band, the Troggs, was stuck for a stage name for the lead singer, a bricklayer named Reg Ball. \u201cWhat about Reg Presley<\/a>?\u201d Altham suggested. Within weeks they were camped out at the top of the charts.<\/p>\n

In 1971 he founded KA Publicity and was soon the go-to pop PR man, with Rod Stewart, T Rex, Slade, Van Morrison, Phil Collins and Sting among those on his roster. He took Jim Morrison to see another of his clients, Status Quo. \u201cTell them to turn down, give up and go home,\u201d advised the Doors frontman.<\/p>\n

One of Altham\u2019s favourite stories concerned the occasion when Mick Jagger asked him to remove Marc Bolan from the backstage area of one of their gigs. \u201cGet him out of here,\u201d said the Stones singer. \u201cHe just grabbed my balls.\u201d As Bolan was escorted out, he muttered: \u201cI didn\u2019t realise they were sacrosanct.\u201d<\/p>\n

Altham also witnessed Keith Richards repeatedly punching the impresario Robert Stigwood, who he said owed the Stones money. \u201cKeith, why do you keep punching him?\u201d Altham asked. \u201cBecause he keeps getting up,\u201d the guitarist replied.<\/p>\n

Alan Edwards, who went on to represent Paul McCartney, David Bowie<\/a> and the Spice Girls, learnt his trade at the feet of the master. \u201cTo be honest, Keith was a hard taskmaster and I served an old-fashioned apprenticeship,\u201d he recalled. \u201cIt certainly was in terms of the salary. I used to have to supplement my wages by appropriating spare Uriah Heep albums from the review cupboard and selling them. I saved on rent by sleeping on the office settee.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs well as introducing me to Fleet Street\u2019s movers and shakers, Keith taught me the tricks of the trade. He drummed into me the basics for an efficient PR \u2013 things like always returning calls, actually sending a record when you said you would. I make light of it, but the grounding advice that Keith gave me has been a bedrock throughout my career.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As well as Hendrix\u2019s guitar pyrotechnics, Altham could also lay claim to another small slice of history. In…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":552439,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[165302,96,23630,128,3879,11654,51803,5438,660,10447,9738,56,54,55,157732],"class_list":["post-552438","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-culture-obituaries","tag-entertainment","tag-jimi-hendrix","tag-music","tag-obituaries","tag-rock-music","tag-rolling-stones","tag-standard","tag-sting","tag-the-beatles","tag-the-who","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom","tag-us-content"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/552438","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=552438"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/552438\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/552439"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=552438"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=552438"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=552438"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}