Cook's Tours : Tales of a Tour Manager Paperback / softback

Throughout his 44 years in the entertainment industry, Malcolm Cook met and worked with some of the biggest names in show business -- Eden Kane, Cilla Black, Billy Fury, Tom Jones, Gene Pitney, Del Shannon, Gerry & The Pacemakers, P.J.

Proby, the Kinks, Glen Campbell, Roger Whittaker, Rudolf Nureyev, Alvin Stardust, Bad Manners, Canned Heat, the Ronettes, Kris Kristofferson, Tammy Wynette . . . the list goes on and on. In this humorous, fast-paced biographical account, Cook lifts the lid on what it takes to keep a show on the road and artists and audiences happy.

It's all here: transport problems, unscrupulous promoters, run-ins with East German police, hassles with the Mafia, tea with the Duke of Norfolk, the wind-ups, the laughter, the heartbreak and the tears.

Along the way, the author also includes vignettes of some of the prime movers and shakers of British showbiz including Brian Epstein, Arthur Howes, Hal Carter and Michael Levy to round off this unique insight into what really goes on behind the scenes.