MIXED MEDIA : * 1/2 “STEVE WINWOOD: ROLL WITH IT” By Chris Welch with Steve Winwood <i> Perigee Books, </i> ($8.95)

English music journalist Welch, a fan and apparent friend of Winwood’s since the singer’s days in the Spencer Davis Group a quarter-century ago, offers nary a discouraging word--nor an enlightening one--in this very authorized biography of the boy-wonder-cum-beer-pitchman who remains private as ever amid all the flattery. If Winwood offers a rare bit of self-criticism, the author pipes in, “I felt he was being harsh on his younger self.” If the more recent controversy over selling songs for Michelob commercials comes up, Welch is equally ready at the defense: “Rock has had a long involvement with consumerism.” But the book lets Winwood (as well as former members of the Davis group and Traffic) ramble on in enough apparently unedited quotes to ensure that he’ll stick his foot in his mouth almost as many times as his sycophantic biographer. Sayeth circa-’89 Stevie: “I used to have a pipe organ--but who needs a pipe organ or a grand piano when you can get the same effect by sampling?” Indeed, who needs this 160-page puff piece when you can get the same effect by perusing a record company press release?