Call Upon The Author

Rock star biographies have long been popular, so when the likes of Don Arden started spilling the stories of went on behind the scenes of the music business it was no surprise their books would be immensely popular too. Now legendary manager/lawyer Steven Machat has joined the fray. Unlike a lotof his peers Machat was pretty much born into the business, but as he tells in the book, it was meeting Frank Sinatra that cemented his passion to rise to the top of the pile. These books are always full of interesting anecdotes, though as always one has to keep a semblance of doubt about what is going on – this is after all a single person’s perspective. Machat makes a superb guide into the industry, he’s written a genial and relaxed autobiography, eschewing chronology in favour of a relaxed style that is almost conversational. The roll-call of names makes for interesting reading in itself, from his father managing Sugar Ray Robinson and being the lawyer who wrote up Allan Klein’s contracts with The Rolling Stones, to Steven attempting to break into Hollywood only to find himself producing a low budget indie film starring a drug-addled Tom Sizemore. There’s even a fascinating chapter on the excess of Neil Bogart and Casablanca records that’s worth the cover price alone. For a fascinating perspective on the ‘biz’, you could do a lot worse than this!