Antiques dealer Christopher Gibbs described the relationship as ‘one of the most successful and glorious culture clashes of our times’. He should know, since he first brought together his friends Mick Jagger and the banker Prince Rupert Loewenstein in 1968, at a time when Jagger’s band, the Rolling Stones, was weighed down with underperforming contracts and looking to make some money.

The prince was an unlikely saviour. He was not only a proper German aristocrat, but also a devout Roman Catholic with no interest in rock music, which he likens to the circus, even if he does admit to enjoying the odd Stones song such as ‘Paint It Black’.

He plays up that culture clash in this entertaining memoir, which sees him flitting between the high life in places such as St Moritz and Mustique and marshalling the business affairs of the world’s greatest rock ’n’ roll group. A reader unfamiliar with the German nobility might benefit from some