Carl Miller has put together Backstage Chronicles, a series of stories and anecdotes about life on the road in the music business, spanning several decades with contributions from people closely connected to either the artists or the situations involved. Some stories are hilarious, Spike Milligan giving Bill Wyman a Zimmer frame as a wedding present. Others are quite sad, leaving you wondering how someone could be so foolish. And some defy belief entirely. Was John Lennon really turned away from a party because nobody recognised him?
Miller’s starting point is that artists always need someone to take care of everything: travel, wardrobe, hotels, sometimes even finding their way to the stage. As he says, being treated often as a ‘gofer’ means you get to see the real person as well as the pop star, and they can be “a real pain in the arse.” But being a gofer sometimes requires quick thinking. At the border between East and West Germany in 1969, a potentially tricky situation was resolved by offering border guards a bundle of West German porn magazines, which were illegal in the East.
Throughout these pages, various contributors have witnessed the types of behaviour and petulant tantrums that might be considered acceptable for pre-pubescent children, but from grown adults with sizeable fan bases across the world? Who’d think it acceptable to delay a flight to Tokyo for two hours, inconveniencing countless other passengers, just to spend longer in the duty-free lounge, then demand a burger, causing missed connecting flights and delayed shows? Which star phoned their manager in England from a hotel room in Spain to complain about missing soap in the bathroom? When told to speak with the hotel staff, she replied, “But I don’t speak Spanish, can you sort it?” Which egotistical star sacked Miller for buying the wrong chocolate? You’ll find it all here.
You’ll also discover that musicians don’t always make the best decisions in their own interests. When asked if they wanted one of their songs included in a film in 1984, Judas Priest declined because they’d never heard of the star (“who the f**k is he?”) and the film didn’t sound like much. They put the song on their next album instead. The film was Top Gun, the star was Tom Cruise, and the soundtrack album sold nine million copies. Charlie Harper, singer with punk band UK Subs, once sold a song he’d written for £20 to buy beer. That song, ‘Tomorrow’s Girls’, became a top 20 hit, has appeared on numerous punk compilations, and is estimated to have earned around £100,000.
Backstage Chronicles is a fairly lightweight read, a collection of stories that never venture too far over the edge. Most are told from a humorous perspective, and if it’s stories about bona fide rock ‘n’ roll debauchery you’re after, Mötley Crüe‘s The Dirt would be more to your liking. Here, there’s just enough referencing of bad behaviour to keep things interesting without sliding into full-on rock ‘n’ roll clichés of tour life.
