Lloydyman: The Statesman

Born and raised in Jamaica, schooled with Bob Marley, emigrated to Birmingham, club-owner and music promoter, father of twelve...what a life and Lloyd George Blake describes it in wonderful bite-sized chunks, evoking the atmosphere of every decade from the '60s onwards, and justifiably name-checking so many along the way from Mohammed Ali and Bishop Desmond Tutu to reggae stars like Dennis Brown and Dennis Bovell, not to mention politicians and the movers and shakers who made Birmingham musical culture the seething hive of inspiration it still is today.