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New music is old hat – big stars are far too busy with biopics, tours, memoirs and investment portfolios to waste time on anything as unprofitable as an album

Taron Egerton as Elton John in Rocketman: a glimpse of how the rock industry used to be

I’ve found myself becoming curious lately about a man named John Reid. He’s a former music manager who pops up in the new Elton John film Rocketman and in Bohemian Rhapsody, the Oscar-winning biopic about Queen.

Reid’s Wikipedia page is mysterious – it tells us merely that he lives in Australia – but his portrayal on celluloid is fascinating. A handsome man, played by Aidan Gillen in Bohemian Rhapsody and by Richard Madden ...