Square one

Taken from the real-life experiences of an ex-manager of a group called 'The Cyan Three', it tells the nitty-gritty tale of a photographer who forms a pop group in hope of fame, but has to swallow strong doses of reality as his every effort to get the lads gigs and, ultimately, a recording contract, is met with by setbacks. Time Out ran a review which called it 'one of the better books about pop' – possibly because it deglamourised that world and showed it for what it more usually is – a struggle in which dreams get a kicking and ambition a roasting. Reading it again after all this time I was struck by what those lads went through, the seedy changing rooms, miles and miles of driving in a rattly van, the groupies, the fights, the wild hopes, the unquenchable spirit.

Director Val Guest wanted to make a film of Square One, with his neighbour in St. John's Wood, Paul McCartney, standing by to write the song in the book which amazes audiences everywhere yet somehow goes unrecognised. However, when the guy who was to have directed a film with Olivia Newton-John, titled Toomorrow, had a car accident and Val was called in, not wanting to do two films about pop he put Square One on one side and it has languished ever since.

How funny it would be to make a film of it now, set in the late 1960s when BBC's Radio 1 was new, and have Macca write the song at last!