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Ian MCLAGAN first surfaced as a pop star in the '60s with The Small Faces, became a rock star in the 70s with The Faces, and bridged the 20-odd year gap between the band's demise and the present day as a jobbing freelance keyboard player with, among others, The Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, Bonnie Raitt, The Black Crowes and (currently) Billy Bragg. Along the Way, he's had seriously good and seriously bad times with drink drugs and women; earned a lot of money, some of which he has actually received; seen bands break up and friends die, and participated in the creation of a formidable amount of superb music.

And over the last few years he's found time to write his memoirs. All The Rage contains an unfeasibly large helping of unforgettable vignettes of the rich and famous at work and play, dating back to his pre-Small Faces kid band, The Muleskinners, who cut their R&B teeth backing Howlin' Wolf and Little Walter. Here's Keith Richards, back in his druggy period, shooting himself up in the arse straight through his jeans, and then walking around with syringe still protruding from his butt. Or Bob Dylan replying to a large man introducing himself as, "Hello, Bob, I'm Peter Grant. I manage Led Zeppelin", with a terse, "l don't come to you with my problems." Then there's the true origin of Ronnie "Plonk" Lane's nickname (clue: nothing to do with the noise his boss made or his taste in wine). And lots of stories about the less edifying characteristics of one Rod Stewart.

Less humorously: there's a scarifying account of the systematic harassment and intimidation Mac received from that tormented (and tormenting) clown Keith Moon, after he commenced his love affair with Moon's estranged wife Kim, who subsequently became- and still is- Mrs Mac. That climaxed when Moon paid a former roadie £200 to break Mac's fingers- a fate averted only by Pete Townshend paying the guy the same amount not to do it. And similarly short on laughs is Mac's tale of his lengthy enslavement by (and final victory over) freebase cocaine.

Apart from his ability to turn a pithy phrase and his insider status with so many key figures, what makes this book so much fun is the bouncy pretentiousness which sees this unsinkable little guy through good and bad times alike, whether he's largeing it on the razzle (again!) or simply scuffling for the next job, Hey Mac, let's make a deal- you stop writing books and I'll cancel the piano lessons.

"I didn't feel very good about him then..But I love Keith to this day. There were so many keiths; he could be very nasty, he could be lovely, childish, funny. We'd go to clubs and he'd be rotten to Keith Richards but he loved Ronnie Wood and Ronnie Lane. But there was this other person. Unlike his image, he would go to bed quite early when he was at home at Tara. His job was being a clown, but it didn't make him happy."

"He was so full of' energy he was tiring, you couldn't keep up. Steve needed constant approval, he wasn't that secure about his talent, which was unbelievable considering how much he had. Ronnie was different, he was so cocksure about everything. But I loved them both dearly. We were all like brothers."

"I walked past Arden's old apartment building off Berkeley Square a few years ago. I hadn't been there since the '60s and I went all cold, I wanted to kill him. I got horrified that if he walked out at that moment, I'd go for him... it was very strange. Andrew Oldham? I'd love to see him. Actually, I saw him across a room when the Stones played in Los Angeles once. I said, "Hi, Andrew, you thieving bastard!"'

"Funnily enough, I met Noel Gallagher last week. I went to see Paul Weller at the BBC- he's been very good to us- and Noel was in the dressing room. He was a lovely bloke, very natural and unaffected; I found out that day that their [Oasis's] "live" version of I Am The Walrus used the crowd noise from a Faces bootleg, so I said, "How about same royalties?" He said, "Nah 'cos it was bootleg." The bastard!"

"Kenney wants it to happen, I want it to happen, Woody wants it to happen. Who's missing? He [Rod Stewart] talks about it, but he never does anything about it. He'd enjoy it...but I think he wouldn't want to split the money like we used to. He could make me a millionaire in three weeks if he wanted."

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