Product Description

Ian McLagan was the keyboard player with the Small Faces and Faces, then went on as a backing player with the Rolling Stones. This book looks at his 30 years in the rock'n'roll business, telling of his times with rock icons such as Rod Stewart, Mick Jagger and Keith Richard.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #13851 in Books
• Published on: 2000-02-18
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 432 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
Ian McLagan isn't the household name that his rabble-rousing peers--Keith Moon, Keith Richards and Rod Stewart--have become, but one could hardly argue that he has languished in the obscurity of rock'n'roll. A humble organ-playing art student, Mac joined diminutive mod heart-throbs The Small Faces and shot to stardom on the back of songs like 'Here Comes The Nice', 'Itchycoo Park', 'Lazy Sunday' and copious hits of LSD and amphetamines--not to mention the odd joint rolled up in the back of their record company limo.

All The Rage is infused with the permissive spirit of the Sixties. Mac has admitted that he'd "shag anything with a pulse--but the girls who hung around with us were no slouches in the pulse department!". But more endearing is the rather twee naivety of the era: a drugs bust on the Small Faces' London pad meant ransacked drawers but missed the lump of cannabis resin sitting on the mantelpiece; and the Small Faces got swindled out of thousands of pounds of royalties by their manager and future Stones svengali Andrew Loog Oldham--which culminates in Mac having to chase away the bailiffs with a full bedpan.

The swinging Sixties give way to the depraved Seventies, though and, after The Small Faces dissolved, Mac formed The Faces with Rod Stewart. He developed a habit for smashing up faulty keyboards with an axe, stole Keith Moon's wife and was told--by Keith Richards, of all people--to cut down on the drugs. All The Rage is so debauched that sometimes, you wonder how they got away with it. "We'd check into Holiday Inns as Fleetwood Mac and they wouldn't bat an eyelid," explains Mac. Ah, that's how. --Louis Pattison

Customer Reviews

CALLING ALL BRITPOP ENTHUSIASTS - BUY THIS BOOK!!!
Ian Mc Lagan has been the keyboardist extraordinaire behind three of the strongest voices in Rock Music - first with Stevie Marriott in the Small Faces, then with Rod Stewart in the Faces, and on and off with Mick Jagger and the Rolling Stones (four if you count his stint with his friend Bonnie Raitt). And I might add, he's a pretty good vocalist in his own right! In this candid - at times hilarious, at times poignant autobiography Mc Lagan, or Mac, writes of his life both on and off the road. The early days with the Small Faces and the brilliant yet insecure Marriott and the down-to earth Ronnie Lane; the non-stop party atmosphere that characterized the Rod Stewart Faces - until Rod began using these talented musicians as simply a backing band, and of course life with Ron Wood, Kenney Jones, and the Stones. Mac writes movingly of the deaths of Marriott and of Lane, both gone too early. He discloses that Marriott suffered an apparent drug-related heart attack at the time of the abortive Small Faces reunion in '77-78. Besides his bandmates, a recurring theme is his love of family and wife Kim, the ex-wife of the late Keith Moon, and the at times funny yet harrowing shadow dancing friendship with the Who drummer. Throughout it all Mac remains the extremely modest, non-egomaniac man that he is - only that he is definitely on anyone's top ten Rock and Roll Keyboard players' list. "All The Rage" is simply put a compelling, great read of a time so dear to the "Baby Boomer" generation. As Mac would say - "Have a Look, Have a Laugh, Have a Listen!" Cheers, mate.

Best book I know on its times
I lived pretty much the same experiences as Mac McLagan, visitng the same gigs, having the same ambitions, but after that
he got in the Small Faces and I didn't. The bands I was in weren't nearly as successful, nor did I have the privilege as he did of touring with Dylan, the Stones and, most recently,
Billy Bragg. That said, this is a really authentic account of those rock and roll times, so much better than most and with
absolutely no bs quotient. It tells it like it is. And like it was. And it was good. There might be a better rock and
roll autobiography and there might be better rock and rollers who write as well as Mac, but if so I haven't come across them.
This is the best. If you want to know how it really was from
the 60s to the present day -- this is the rock and roll book
for you. Totally recommended.

A Touching Tale Of Sex, Drugs and Rock 'n' Roll!
This is a heartwarming tale of the life Ian McLagan. The book is split into 3 sections - the early years & Small Faces, the Faces and then finally session/touring work (mainly with the Rolling Stones). "Mac" is very open about his rollercoaster life and doesn't hold back on his tales of his musician life including drugs, sex and life with the stars such as Rod Steward and the Stones. Such tales are told in an honest and warm manner. Like all good stories it ends happily but along the way Marriot and Lane are lost, in addition to millions of pounds worth of royalties. I've read this book twice and out of the dozens of rock biographies/autobiographies that I've read, it's possibly my favourite.