Guns, Cash & Rock’n’Roll: The Managers
by Steve Overbury

By-the-numbers rock writing…

Here’s a bunch of potted biogs of rock’n’roll’s management gurus. Although the more interesting (Don Arden and Andrew Loog Oldham among them) have already written their memoirs, or have been the subject of excellent biographies (Brian Epstein, Peter Grant), this is the first time a proper collection on the cult of the manager has appeared. The four aforementioned organ-grinders, plus Kit Lambert, Chas Chandler, Malcolm McLaren and others get their life stories compressed into brief chapters, with quotes from the artists they exploited (sorry, assisted), up and down the greasy pole.

Overbury does a reasonable job, but he draws heavily from previously available works and doesn’t go too deeply into what makes a manager tick. We’d like to have read his thoughts on the nature of the managerial beast (Why are they so often despised? Is there such a thing as an honest manager?) as well as the barebones facts. All this makes it unclear what new information this book brings. And where’s Colonel Tom Parker, the most despicable of the lot?

Add to this rookie clich�s such as, “Creatives have turned to drink or drugs since the dawn of time,” and this book isn’t much more than a khazi-side pot-boiler.

2 stars 2 stars

ISBN 9781845962340

Reviewed by Joel McIver
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