PUNCH April 11th. 2001
Reviewed by Peter Kavanagh
Diary of a Teddy Boy By Mim Scala

THE ONLY problem I have with this book is why Mim Scala has titled it Diary of a Teddy Boy. He and I first came across each other in 1959 at the
White City Greyhound Stadium. One of the lads he certainly was, a Teddy boy he was not. Dressed in a City suit and trilby hat he blended in well with other gambling movers and shakers who hung out in the tracks restaurant.
The sub title to this book , A Memoir of the long Sixties is OK because Mim was around for the whole decade, usually on the fringes of the different social groups that made up the period: First it was the Chelsea set, a group of
trustaferian toffs who spent their days in the Markham Arms, now the kings Road Branch of The Abby National, followed by the Debutantes and the debs delights, of which Mim was one.
Then came the Ronnie and Reggie mob who moved in with the coming of the gaming act in 1961 that legalised casinos, followed in 1963 by the rock explosion. This was the right time for Mim to become a rock manager and agent, and for a time he had one of the biggest agencies, Scala Brown, which was backed by banking heir Sir William Pigot-Brown.
Every year he disappeared for a few months leaving people to wonder where he had gone. We now know, for the best bit of the book is about his travels in Spain, Morocco and Sri Lanka. Later he ran an agency for record producers and for a time "looked after" Marianne Faithfull in the USA. In the Eighties he packed it all in and retired to Ireland.
There have been a lot of books about the Sixties but very few have captured the excitement and uniqueness of the period. The best two, so far, are Mim’s book and Stoned by the Rolling Stones first manager Andrew Loog Oldham.
You had to be there to appreciate the best decade of the 20th. century, and, of course, if you were there you are not meant to remember it. Luckily, these two do.
By Peter Kavanagh
(Review £9.99)