Tony King owns two Warhols, one of Mick Jagger, which he bought for $800, and the second a "thank-you sorry" gift from John Lennon
During a long career as a music promoter, the Primrose Hill octogenarian worked with both stars - as well as hitmakers from Elton John to Freddie Mercury.
Straight-talking and unflappable, he was also their friend, sharing nights out, taking their mothers shopping, and sometimes clearing up their mess.
"I am always very straightforward. I got on well with them, had a good sense of humour, and kept them real," he says. "People are as difficult as you make them. My default was always to be friendly and helpful."
In Lennon's case that involved repairing smashed glass and gold discs in producer Lou Adler's apartment, rented during his 'lost weekend' period.
"He got out of control and crazy one night in the studio, they brought him home and he smashed up the house. I got a call at 3am and jumped in the Thunderbird to go round and calm him down. He started wrestling me, then blacked out. When he came round on the floor with me on top of him, he said 'I didn't know you were so strong dear'."
The Warhol arrived with a drawing of Lennon crying and a note: 'To Tony, with love from one of your problems'.
The Jagger reminds him of working on Stones tours.
"He's a superb frontman who knows how to work a big stage and work the band. He's such a patient man with all that goes on, him and Keith quarrelling, and Keith saying things in the press. But he never let it get to him. Other bands would have broken up years ago, but Mick never let that happen. After one tour he gave me a card saying 'Thanks for keeping it right'.
"There was a lot of keeping it right."
King quit school on his 16th birthday to work as a 'progress chaser' at Decca Records, getting sleeve notes and album covers approved. By 19 he was at London American Records, looking after US artists like Roy Orbison and The Ronettes on their London visits; taking them to interviews, appearances and dinner, involving liberal use of the expense account.
"My first order was to pick up Brenda Lee from Heathrow," he said. "I didn't know what I was doing, I hoped I recognised her. I ended up taking her mother out shopping. I was running around with celebrities but living in a horrible bedsit with a gas stove and a shared bathroom eating packet curries. But it was very exciting because the times were exciting. You were a part of a gang of photographers, models and musicians who mixed together and went to the same clubs and restaurants."
He first met The Beatles in 1963.
"I was in the green room of Pop In plugging a record and in breeze these four people who had the most amazing energy, John Lennon especially jumped out straight away, I thought 'Oh my God who are they? We started talking about music, and swapping notes about American records, I said I could get them A-side pressings and got an address to send them stuff. The friendship developed and we used to hang out and go clubbing. They were having a really good time, just before they went to America and became huge."
Tony later worked at The Beatles' Apple Records on a Ringo Starr album, and with Lennon during his 18-month split with Yoko Ono.
"I got a call, he wanted help with his album. I had previously been on my guard with him, he made me nervous, but he was lovely, super friendly. We got on well, he asked me to come and live in America and I set up some friendly interviews, I said 'People think you are missing in action. You need to let them know John's back among us.'"
Lennon asked him to visit Ono in the Dakota in New York.
"He was insistent, he still loved her. We had coffee and she was very sweet and rather fragile, not the dragon lady I expected. She asked how John was, and when I said he was doing ok, she started crying."
It was the pair's reconciliation in 1975 that ended his work with Lennon.
"She had to stay in bed throughout her pregnancy and he said 'I am not going to work, I am going to look after Yoko', so that was the end of me and Apple," he added.
Luckily, old friend Elton John offered him a job at Rocket records overseeing album artwork and promotion. He met the star in 1966 when he was sharing an office with music publisher Dick James.
"I noticed this enthusiastic guy at the front desk a lot and we became friends. He was fascinated because I had worked with the Stones and knew The Beatles. I got him session work, I had no idea he was gay, he had a girlfriend called Linda - he was Reg from Pinner."
When James signed the singer and Bernie Taupin in 1967, he told King: 'you are going to have to start calling me Elton from now on.'
"I said 'that's going to be difficult'. I couldn't bring myself to say it for a while, then one day 'my God I said it'. We had an awful lot of fun together, we would go out to concerts, restaurants and shopping to Cartier. We hung out with Ringo, Charlie Watts, David Bowie and Angie, and we adored Marc Bolan."
King fondly recalls the New York 70s disco scene "before the horrible drugs, when people were having a good time and a lot of sex".
But he is still haunted by friends he lost during the AIDS epidemic.
"Seeing them die a slow, miserable death in those horrible circumstances was a very sad time," he said. "People were very anti-gay. When you lose that amount of friends you don't forget it. I still remember all the memorials and funerals."
When Freddie Mercury fell ill, King kept him company at his Kensington home.
He said: "I adored Freddy, he was such a lovely, fun, clever man. It was very scary for people to know you were HIV positive, he kept it under wraps, and as he began to get thin, he had to hide. At the end of his life we would watch TV together and I would hold his hand. He still liked buying things - he bought me two lovely chests of drawers - and would buy art. I said: 'What are you doing Freddie?' He said: 'What else have I got to do?'"
For years King's friends urged him to write his memoir but he refused to write a "kiss and tell scandal".
"I didn't want to betray the friendships I had with these people - being part of their private life - by saying something unkind or gossipy. I had the privilege of working with them and didn't want to abuse that because I had a great time and benefited financially and creatively."
Last week, King watched Elton John's triumphant Glastonbury set in the flat where he has lived for 26 years.
"He was great, he's a showman who came on and did the business. He told me 'I am going to do lots and lots of hits,' I said 'that's the way to go with Glastonbury.'"
Spotting a familiar look on the performer's face, he's unsure we've seen the last of Elton.
"He has such a work ethic, he won't be able to stay away."
Published by Faber, The Tastemaker has won the MiCannes Music Book of the Year award.
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