Over Under Sideways Down: Stories from inside the British music scene

by Mark Rye

The underbelly of the last fifty years of the British music scene is laid bare by people who were there, The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Who, Floyd, David Bowie, Marc Bolan, Elton John, Queen, etc., all have fascinating parts of their stories being told here for the very first time. Included are numerous musicians, songwriters, managers, agents, pluggers, record company executives, DJs, roadies, music publishers, producers, engineers, journalists and entrepreneurs alike, and their anecdotes range from the hilarious to the salacious, the unlikely, the downright ridiculous, and the near-slanderous. But now the inevitable has begun to happen….i.e. the march of time has intervened, and now some interviewees have sadly died, which renders their stories all the more poignant and this book more important. Classic examples being Bryan Morrison’s bitter-sweet memories of his attempt to manage a dysfunctional Syd Barrett, or his inadvertently working with the Kray Twins. Kevin Ayers recalling touring with Jimi Hendrix, Neil Christian on finding a young Jimmy Page, EMI Records boss Bob Mercer’s time with John Lennon & Keith Moon, manager Matthew Sztumpf trying to make sense of Madness and The Smiths, and ‘Big’ Jim Sullivan’s route to playing on all those hit records. All these stories and more are captured before they slip away. It makes for a compelling read, and at last you can hear, first hand, some of Rock Music’s eternal myths and facts either confirmed or quashed, by the people who were actually there when they happened.

Genres: Music

260 pages, Kindle Edition

First published February 3, 2014

Reviews

[Susan]

Rock History is a website, dedicated to collecting anecdotes from everyone in the British music business from the 1950’s to the 1990’s. As well as a great range of CD’s, they have also produced two books – “The Missing Charts”, which looks at record sales from the 1940’s onwards and this book of interviews and anecdotes, “Over Under Sideways Down,” which collects the stories and memories from musicians, road managers, record promoters, music journalists, concert promoters and virtually anyone associated with the world of music from the early fifties onwards. This is a great collection to either dip into or read cover to cover, with recollections – some fascinating, others enlightening and many simply hilarious.

Just about everyone is mentioned in this book and they all behave much as you would expect. So, Rod Stewart does not turn a hair when he enters his room with a young lovely to find one of his crew duct taped to his bed, John Lennon conducts an interview with Keith Moon cavorting on the balcony, a promoter discovers the reason why he had no problem collecting debts for ten years was due to the Krays, we discover the background behind the infamous Troggs tape and hear of a strange meeting with Syd Barrett, amongst many of the stories in this book. Think of a name – Larry Parnes, Derek Taylor, Joe Meek, Brian Epstein, Mick Jagger, Jimmy Page, Gene Vincent – they are all here and many more.

Much of the book, although certainly not all, takes place in the early years of rock and roll. One of the things about the early music scene in England was how accessible people were. So many people seem to have got an entrance into the music business by answering an ad in the newspaper or hanging out in cafes near Tin Pan Alley. Of course, people can look back with glasses that are rose tinted, but a lot of these stories are such fun and it’s lovely to read them. Great fun for anyone who is interested in the British music scene – from Lonnie Donegan to Kylie Minogue – you will find something here which will make you laugh and possibly bring back memories.