A couple of months back I was commissioned to review Andrew Loog Oldham’s latest book Stone Free for a website, but my copy was rejected on the basis of my use of  “criticism”; they prefer to keep things – in their words – “upbeat”.

I like the commissioner, think the site is good and had no problem with the rejection, but thought it may be of interest, so here it is:

“I have little use for the past and do not give it much thought.”

Now that is rich.

One anticipates and has often applauded bare-faced sauce from the music business maverick turned self-chronicler Andrew Loog Oldham, author of Stoned (384 densely-packed pages of reflection on life from birth in 1944 to the point of managing the Rolling Stones in 1963, with “drug-cuts” into the 70s and 80s), 2Stoned (480 pages on his four-year stewardship of same) and a “fictionalised biography” of Abba (on which we need not dwell).

When this confession – even if it is soon qualified – arrives 10 chapters and 140 pages in to Oldham’s new digital-only tome Stone Free, it produces a whoop not of glee but of derision.

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Tags: 2Stoned, Alec Morris, Allen Klein, Andrew Loog Oldham, Don Arden, Edward Albee, Frank Rich, Johnny Rogan, Lana Clarkson, Larry Parnes, Phil Spector, Rolling Stones, Sergei Diaghilev, Sharon Osbourne, Small Faces, Stone Free, Stoned, Svengalis & mythmakers, The Babys

Continental Europe appears to have gone bananas for British popular culture this Jubilympics* summer, hence Franco-German arts channel ARTE’s new four-part series London Calling.

The programme was made by seasoned documentarist Simon Witter and looks to be a treat (particularly the intelligent use of archive material; great to see rare footage of John Stephen striding along Carnaby Street).

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Tags: Andrew Loog Oldham, ARTE, Boy George, Carnaby Street, Central Saint Martins, Fred Deakin, Jill Furmanovsky, John Stephen, Jon Savage, London Calling, Paul Morley, Simon Napier-Bell, Simon Witter

//TV crew sets up in the basement.//

Yesterday I was visited by a camera crew for an interview about the behind-the-scenes individuals who have made the difference to British popular music over the years.

The team, from Kobalt Productions in Berlin, are producing the documentary for Franco-German arts channel ARTE. The director is Simon Witter, who has a fine pedigree in journalism and broadcasting.

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Tags: Andrew Loog Oldham, ARTE, Blur, Boy George, Charles Shaar Murray, Colin Newman, David Bowie, Gered Mankowitz, Graham Coxon, Hapshash & The Coloured Coat, Heaven 17, Jill Furmanovsky, Jon Savage, Kevin Rowland, Kobalt Productions, Lloyd Johnson, Malcolm McLaren, Mark Powell, Martyn Ware, Miles Copeland, Paul Morley, Pennie Smith., Peter Blake, Simon Napier-Bell, Simon Reynolds, Simon Witter, Storm Thorgerson, Wire