On The Road With Fela Kuti

Since Fela Kuti's death in 1997 at the age of 58, his former manager Rikki Stein has devoted much of his energies to the musician's legacy, managing his huge catalogue of recordings and being instrumental in bringing the hit-musical Fela to audiences across the US, Canada, the UK and Lagos.

Born into a middle-class Jewish home in London, Stein cut his teeth in the UK in the swinging '60s, with artists such as The Jimi Hendrix Experience, The Kinks, The Animals, The Yardbirds, and The Moody Blues. He reminisces about time spent in Jimi Hendrix's hotel room, recalling a revolving door of young ladies keen to spend time with the guitar wizard.

He switched from promoting performers with his business partner, Jean Vanloo, to bringing over bands from the UK to gigs in clubs in Belgium and northern France.

He then moved to the French capital. Arriving almost penniless in Paris after falling out with his business partner, he survived by walking across the city and living on "the two boiled eggs, toast and marmalade breakfast that came with my hotel room".

However, proving the old adage that you can't keep a good man down, Stein "walked in cold" to Barclay Records and with his undoubted chutzpa, and was soon employed as an directeur artistique.