Ian McLagan was an avid follower of the Los Angeles radio station KCRW’s daily show Morning Becomes Eclectic. He would sit at the dining table/business HQ at his house in Pasadena, California, making his plan for the day, the phone at one ear, the radio at the other, and drawing, always drawing, the ex-Twickenham art school student advising me how best to drive across the bewildering network of LA freeways. “You want to take the 405, hang a right, then take the ten, after that, get on the one-ten … ” He made me beautiful hand-drawn maps with perfect arcing arrows.
Back then, his hair was that straight, upspiked black that he had perfected in the Faces’ days with Ronnie Wood. The style was achieved, he one day revealed, stepping out of his bathroom, by rubbing the scalp vigorously with a towel.
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