STRAT! THE CHARISMATIC LIFE & TIMES OF TONY STRATTON SMITH

Chris Groom WYMER PUBLISHING Revealing biography of the man who was Mother.

The company you keep can say a lot about you as a person. In Tony Stratton Smith’s case, he’s still best known for his association with The Nice, Bonzo Dog Band, Van der Graaf Generator, Genesis, and the many artists who called the famous Charisma label their home.

AN ENGROSSING PORTRAIT OF A FLAWED BUT MUCHLOVED VISIONARY.

Managers and label bosses in the music industry don’t always enjoy a good reputation, least of all from those whose interests they are meant to represent. However, after his death from pancreatic cancer in 1987, aged just 53, it says something about the man and the depth of his relationship with the artists that so many of them still speak of Strat with genuine affection and respect.

Being the manager, record label, publisher, and booking agent all rolled into one for some acts on Charisma was, of course, ethically dubious, but commonplace in a business where musicians’ desire to record albums and play to the crowd dulled their capacity to properly query a contract or royalty statement. Yet there are few complaints from the groups who regarded him as a mother hen always ready to fight for them against industry indifference.

Chris Groom’s diligently researched book vividly brings the whirl of the late 60s/early 70s Soho to life, empathetically portraying a booze-soaked Strat lurching from threadbare offices to catch opening time at the pub and onwards to latenight watering holes, dispensing bonhomie and drinks to all who came within his orbit. That Charisma became a going concern was almost miraculous – though, as Groom makes clear, the real miracle is that his assistant and later, label manager, Gail Colson stayed as long as she did.

After selling Charisma to Richard Branson’s Virgin, he eagerly indulged his lifelong love of the turf as a racehorse owner but longed for the buzz that had gone with the label. Groom touches on the ennui of a man who perhaps only became himself being the centre of attention in that artistic milieu: “More than anything else, it was the people that Tony missed the most, the day-to-day contact with creative minds – a pint with Peter Hammill, a literary lunch with John Betjeman, whisky and cigarettes with Graham Chapman.”

Strat’s contribution to progressive music’s development was hugely influential, as Charisma’s impressive legacy demonstrates. Groom deftly paints an engrossing portrait of a flawed but much-loved visionary.