These days he’s a bit more business-savy than your average zinester but, as is the way with any successful creative type, it only works if you are ‘for real’ and the ‘art’ comes first and foremost.

Life at Condé Nast was a culture shock for Brown – suddenly he was expected to schmooze at fashion events and shake hands with advertisers. James Brown will be in conversation with John Robb at The Louder Than Words Festival at INNSIDE Manchester on Saturday 12th November. Brown is generous in the book when it comes to the staff whose talents made the mag what it was: Jon Wilde’s interview skills, say, or Rowan Chernin’s loved-up club reports. Hachette Australia acknowledges and pays our respects to the past, present and future Traditional Owners and Custodians of Country throughout Australia and recognises the continuation of cultural, spiritual and educational practices of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. The cocky version of himself that he seemed to want to paint appeared to be bravado to hide a softer side.I’ve never brushed shoulders with royalty and I’d prefer it if the Royal Family invested a lot of their wealth in helping our schools and health service, so no, I don’t think my political outlook has changed since I was down the front of the Redskins or New Town Neurotics at the Hull Trades and Labour club. There are people I wish I’d seen rather than interviewed, so the Small Faces and The Clash and The Faces in their prime, for instance. He points out that the dials on his guitar amp go up to eleven because “ … you turn it up to ten, and where do you go from there?

James’ prose was a kind of turbofuelled psychedelic rant of infectious enthusiasm, like if Hunter S Thompson had been raised in Leeds on a diet of jam sandwiches and amphetamine. These days he doesn’t seem to need to look for gainful employment, he has made so many connections the phone regularly rings with people looking to drink from the James Brown fountain, whether it be writing or advice. Brown at least displays self-awareness throughout, yet still finds space to disingenuously fill his pages with accolades whilst feigning disinterest.I mean, we once got Olympic athletes and sports stars to comment on the technique of the stick men on Fox’s Sports biscuits! In the first few chapters he jumps back and fore mixing anecdotes from his career, such as tripping on acid at an awards ceremony, to tales from what he describes as his ‘first childhood’.