Swiss Bob kindly sent me a copy of this book to review – so here you go.
I had expected the book to be a series of articles that Nicholls had previously published in the many music journals that he has worked for over the years but instead it is a set of personal anecdotes from when he met the people he went to interview.
Mike was born in the same year as I was (1955) so our musical interests coincide quite a bit although his tastes are not quite as eclectic as mine although it is nice to encounter someone who is a bigger name dropper than me.
The chapters are pleasingly short and also in alphabetical order so you can happily skip forward when he is writing about people like Bruce Springsteen.
Some of the articles are quite sad – particularly the ones about Ray Davis and Kate Bush both of whom seem incapable of forming lasting personal relationships.
I am always keen to discover new music and as Jack Bruce is one of my favourite musicians I listened to Songs for a Tailor which Mike describes as “one of the finest ever LPs by a UK artist” – I listened to it on YouTube and I’m afraid I had to disagree. At least that saved me a few quid.
In the chapter on John Martyn he tells the tale of when Danny Thompson walked into a bar and slapped a bundle of cash on the bar saying “That’s for the damage”.
The barman responded that there wasn’t any damage to which he replied “there will be”.
What he didn’t mention was that Danny has since become Muslim and given up drinking.
Martyn also noted that he didn’t like multinational record labels because they are always run by lawyers and accountants, a theme echoed by Adam Ant who said that he had to play almost everything on the Ant Music tracks as whenever he asked someone to join him in the studio they would check their contract first.
I note that on Amazon you can “Get your copy here – signed by the author on request!” which reminded me of the Harold Wilson autobiography The Governance of Britain where the unsigned copies sold for a premium due to their scarcity value.
A useful source of anecdotes about artists from Adam Ant to Zodiac Mindwarp if that is the sort of thing you like.
© Upset 2025
Website My Life With Rock N’ Roll People and you can buy the book here buy My Life With Rock N’ Roll People
