Nigel Dick, one of the most prolific and celebrated music video directors in history, is set to publish his memoir this autumn.

Music Video Mischief: Ozzy to Britney, Oasis to GN’R, McCartney to Cher will be released on 15 September 2026 through Trouser Press, and it promises to be one of the most entertaining behind-the-scenes accounts of the music video era ever committed to paper.

The book charts Nigel Dick’s extraordinary journey from motorcycle messenger at a London record company to co-founder of Propaganda Films and director of more than 450 music videos.

It is a career that placed him on set with some of the biggest names in popular music, and the memoir pulls no punches in recounting what actually happened when the cameras were rolling – and when they weren’t.

Nigel Dick got his start in the music business at Stiff Records in London in the late 1970s, a stint that followed a period busking in the Paris Metro.

Dick’s introduction to the world of music video came through helping out on a Madness shoot, and from that modest beginning he built one of the most impressive directorial CVs the industry has ever seen.

The artists he has worked with read like a roll call of the past four decades of popular music: Oasis, Ozzy Osbourne, Cher, Paul McCartney, Guns N’ Roses, Toto, Britney Spears, Celine Dion, Alice Cooper, Def Leppard, Alice in Chains, Tears for Fears, and Nickelback, among many others.

Music Video Mischief goes behind the camera for a candid, often hilarious account of what it actually takes to make a music video. Nigel Dick covers the creative process, the logistics, the politics, and the egos – along with the natural disasters, the mad dashes around the world, and the moments of genuine triumph that punctuated a career spanning more than four decades. T

he tone throughout is self-deprecating and warm, written with the perspective of someone who never stopped being a music fan, even as he became one of the most in-demand directors in the business.

Among the ten videos highlighted in the book are some of the most iconic clips ever made:

Band Aid – “Do They Know It’s Christmas?”
Cher – “Believe”
Def Leppard – “Rocket”
Celine Dion – “Falling Into You”
Guns N’ Roses – “Sweet Child o’ Mine”
Nickelback – “Photograph”
Oasis – “Wonderwall”
Ozzy Osbourne – “Back on Earth”
Britney Spears – “Oops!…I Did It Again”
Tears for Fears – “Shout”

If you grew up watching MTV, you have almost certainly seen the work of Nigel Dick without ever knowing his name.

The memoir includes two excerpts that give a flavour of what readers can expect. In one, Nigel Dick describes the surreal experience of being handed Paul McCartney’s personal number by his manager and being told to call him directly – which he did, reaching McCartney mid-journey in a car with Linda. The call, he recalls, felt disconcertingly like chatting with an old friend.

In another excerpt, Nigel Dick recounts the making of the Oasis video for “Don’t Look Back in Anger,” which involved a single day in Los Angeles, an overnight treatment written under pressure, and the unexpected presence of Patrick Macnee – the Avengers star – in full bowler hat and umbrella.

Macnee, it turned out, always arrived in costume. “Everyone expects me to show up dressed like this,” he told Dick. “I’d hate to disappoint them.”

Noel Gallagher’s verdict on the finished product was characteristically blunt: “The biggest pain in the arse ever. Bag of shite, that. Waste of a fucking afternoon.”

The book has already drawn praise from some of the artists who worked with Nigel Dick over the years. Steve Lukather of Toto recalls that the band were reluctant participants in the video-making process, but that Dick made it fun and quickly understood their personalities. He adds, diplomatically, that he will apologise on behalf of the whole band for the clothes and the hair.

Chad Kroeger of Nickelback offers what may be the most concise endorsement in recent publishing history. Rob Tannenbaum, co-author of I Want My MTV, describes the memoir as a blunt and colourful account of the wild west early days of the format, when an entire art form was being invented in real time by people who had very little idea what they were doing.

That characterisation seems entirely fitting for a director who helped define what music videos could be, working intuitively and inventively at a moment when the rules were still being written.

Nigel Dick is a co-founder of Propaganda Films and has directed more than 35 documentaries and feature films in addition to his extensive music video work. He has won three MTV Awards, two Billboard Awards, three MVPA Awards, and a Brit Award.

His work has received a further 21 MTV Award nominations, 26 Much Music Award nominations, and a Grammy nomination.

He is also a lecturer, and played guitar in the Stiff All-Stars. Born in England, Nigel Dick has lived in the United States for many years.

Music Video Mischief: Ozzy to Britney, Oasis to GN’R, McCartney to Cher is published by Trouser Press on 15 September 2026.