'Gods, Gangsters & Honour' by Steven Machat

‘God, Gangsters & Honour’ is longtime music industry lawyer Steven Machat’s honest and candid tale of who’s using what and who’s using who in the music industry. It’s no surprise that there were attempts to block the book’s publication as it gives an insight into the character, and business dealings, of many of Machat and his father’s well-known clients, from Peter Gabriel to Phil Spector and Leonard Cohen.

Machat reels off plenty of interesting tales that would be great to throw into conversation with other music lovers; he’s been propositioned by David Geffen, observed in a somewhat Big Brother-esque manner by Phil Spector and shared drugs with some of the greatest. The book’s biggest issue is the fact that it feels very fragmented and leaps about in time with no real explanation, making it somewhat hard to follow. Machat’s narrative voice may be a realistic one, but it’s also often very arrogant and alienates the reader who begins to feel a little weary at all this name-dropping. The most engrossing parts of the book are perhaps those about Machat’s own family and the way in which his daughter’s life became consumed by drugs, like many of the other celebrities he dealt with. On this subject Machat drops his guard a little and becomes and real person who you can empathise with for once.

Machat’s stories are fascinating and well worth a read, if you can put up with his brash style.