He’s an iconic, legendary figure and that rarity in the music-business – loved by all. Michael Eavis is the man behind the most famous music festival in the world: Glastonbury.

But the man who helped turn it into a global sensation is slightly less well known.

Ben Challis is smiley and easy-going, not the serious, sober-suited type you’d expect a top-flight international lawyer to be.

Dressed in rumpled shirt and pink jeans, he looks more like a roadie than a legal exec as he sorts coffees, and makes sure elderly Robbie, his Border Collie, is settled down.

He lives with wife Jane, and Robbie, in a Victorian terraced house tucked into a quiet Keswick sidestreet.

There are no band posters on the walls, no racks of records, CDs and no photos of him with stars. In fact, he has to ratch around his battered laptop to dig out some pictures on himself with Eavis.

Selfies with superstars isn’t what Ben is about.

Sorting out the needs of the A-listers and making sure the stadium or venue or festival they play is legally covered is his job.

He got his break when he landed a three month stint with live music mogul Harvey Goldsmith while studying law at King’s College in London.

Harvey liked him and kept him on. It was 1985 and among the first contracts Ben drew up were for performances by the Rolling Stones, David Bowie and Bruce Springsteen.

“Some of the contracts were an inch thick and I was saying ‘no, no, no’ to the requests while Harvey was saying ‘don’t upset them, they won’t play’.”

Stories of superstars demanding only certain coloured sweets are true – but for a good reason, according to Ben.

“Van Halen deliberately asked for all the brown M&Ms to be taken out because they knew if it happened, you were dealing with a good promoter who listened and was doing things properly,” he explains.

“Paul McCartney likes an all-white dressing room with no animal products at all and Iggy Pop likes two powerful wall-mounted fans so he can stand in front of them wearing a scarf and pretend he’s in a Bon Jovi video! Seriously!”

Much of his work with Goldsmith was based around the broadcast rights for major concerts and events such as The Prince’s Trust.

After six years with the king of promoters, Ben struck out on his own in business management for bands and working on the odd live concert.

Out of the blue, he got a call from Michael Eavis, inviting him down to Worthy Farm in Somerset, home to the Glastonbury Festival.

“We walked across this field and all the way he kept saying ‘I don’t want a London lawyer’.

“In the middle of the conversation he started water divining.

“He took out these two copper rods to find where an underground water pipe was – and he did!”

Eavis had been approached by Channel 4 to broadcast his festival on TV for the first time and the canny dairy farmer wanted to make sure he got a good deal and looked after the rights of his show.

The first live broadcast went out in 1994, Ben thinks the Levellers might have been headlining, with the likes of Oasis, Blur, Pulp and Elastica also appearing down the bill.

The festival is now a key annual event for the BBC. The corporation devotes hundreds of hours of air time on TV channels, online and on the radio.

Ben admits that broadcasting the festival has transformed it.

Music award:

Ben Challis recently won the Professional Services Award at the International Live Music Awards, which are also known as The Arthurs.

He was presented with the award at a ceremony at The Savoy Hotel in London.

The prize is handed out to people who have impressed working behind the scenes in the music industry.

He said: "Picking up the Professional Services award in front of 400 people, who are the leading lights in the global live events industry was somewhat daunting, but also inspiring. I consider the award a massive honour."

It has become massively popular, as a result, fencing and gates have had to be erected round the perimeter.

Some might argue it has made it more corporate and completely changed its character. The lawyer disagrees, pointing out that the festival still refuses to take any sponsorship or adverts.

Ben grins: “It makes my job easier just to have to say no to these corporations, rather than enter into negotiations.”

And it has donated millions of pounds to charities over the years.

“We have given millions the opportunity to see it now,” he adds.

While the BBC has the broadcasting rights, the festival company controls the archive and the words Glastonbury Festival and in some cases “Glastonbury” have been trademarked by them.

It is understood that YouTube have approached the Eavis family about setting up a Glastonbury channel, though that is some way off.

Much of Ben’s year is taken up with the legal requirements of the festival and organising contracts with bands.

From now until the festival which runs from June 22-26, he will spend most of his time on the event and dealing with contracts for the bands due to appear and staying in his flat in London which makes it easier to get to Glastonbury and to attend meetings.

“The last two months will involve long hours every day and we get bands contracts in right up to the last minute.”

As well as Glastonbury, he also advises the Yourope European Festivals Organisation which is responsible for a series of huge events across the continent, including Sziget in Hungary, Melt! in Germany and Exit Fest in Serbia.

As well as ensuring all legal areas are covered for the festivals, he is helping them become more environmentally aware in how they operate.

He is also working with Damon Albarn’s Africa Express project and trying to get together as many of the Syrian National Orchestra as possible. Musicians have fled across Europe during the five years of the war that has split the country, but enough have been found for the orchestra to reform for two performances this summer.

“It is a great project, they do fantastic things,” he says. Damon works really hard.”

The high regard he’s held in by the notoriously shark-infested and fickle world of the music business is obvious from the list of names he has been associated with and currently works for.

Another sign is the fact that he recently won the “Professional Services Award” recently at the annual International Live Music Awards, otherwise known as “The Arthurs” at a ceremony held at The Savoy Hotel in London.

The Professional Services Award is given to those who have particularly impressed working behind the scenes, as well as being the ‘most professional professional’.

“It’s easier to deal with a dictator in this business – so long as they’re a benevolent dictator,” he laughs. “Michael Eavis is a benevolent dictator, I don’t know about Harvey…”

Ask him for his favourite music and the 54-year-old shrugs that he’s an “old punk” and reels of The Ramones, The Clash and The Damned. During the December floods the waters stopped short of his house, but his vinyl collection was the first thing to be moved upstairs.

He and Jane, a sixth form supervisor at Keswick school, moved to the town from Cambridgeshire 11 years ago.

It had always been an ambition to move here after spending many holidays and their honeymoon in and around Borrowdale.

The floods haven’t changed their minds about the place: “We moved in just after the first big floods, then we had a second, now we have had a third, but all of it is lovely, still.”