FRAN ASHCROFT:  ALO, ALO, ALO

I just finished reading the first two volumes of 60s wunderkind Andrew Loog Oldham’s autobiography. At 19, he was managing and producing the Rolling Stones, after already having worked for for The Beatles as a plugger.

The books open an unexpectedly candid window into the seamy side of the institutionalised British music industry of the time, pulling no punches on the obnoxious characters and their unsavoury dealings – including his own, and is a must-read on that basis alone.  What was especially fascinating for me is an insight into a producer who had no formal musical or technical skills whatsoever; only a real, innate instinct about what makes great records, and  the wherewithal to bring in the right people to get the results he heard in his head, with no preconcived “rules” to hold him back. In light of today’s endless options of digital, that’s even more relevant today than it was then, and something we’d all do well to remember.

Along the way Oldham soaked up ideas like a sponge from Phil Spector, Andy Johns, Jack Neitzche, Lou Adler and a host of others, but was always in awe hearing his heroes at work; gobsmacked by the one take Frank Sinatra, blown away over Lennon and McCartney saving a Stones session in 15 minutes flat. He may have thought his own approach paled by comparison, but it didn’t.

Volume one deals with ALO achieving success and making a name for himself, by blagging and bluffing his way through or just plain making a nuisance of himself. There’s a real swinging 60s anything-is-possible feel to it, whereas volume 2 is a darker tale of ego battles, legal problems, and drug dependence once he got to the top. The overriding issue of book 2 is the hollowness of fame and how to handle – or not handle – knowing you peaked at 23 and the only way ahead is downhill from there. It’s gritty, graphic, sad, moving,arrogant, absurd and funny.

Expert publicist he may be – who else would deliberately include explicit interviews with everyone who ever hated his guts? But there’s no doubting his talent and the impact he had as a producer and manager – all the more apparent after reading these books.

Mr.Oldham has not paid me to say this.

Stoned and 2Stoned by Andrew Loog Oldham, Secker and Warburg/Random House

Fran Ashcroft’s website