It’s December 1963 and a 15 year old Yorkshire boy is asked by his mother, “The Beatles are in Bradford soon, do you want me to get tickets?” Thus began the musical odyssey of one Mr Chris Charlesworth.
Back in the day, before the advent of social media and websites etc, for any self-respecting rock/prog fans in the 1970s, if you wanted to know who was touring or playing at festivals, or what the thoughts of members of leading bands were, or what mischief they’d been up to whilst touring the USA, reading the ‘inkies’ (Melody Maker, NME & Sounds .. so called because the ink from the paper stained the fingers) was de rigueur. Published weekly, they were the fans insight into the music business. Indeed, the top writers from this era.. Nick Kent, Richard Williams, Charles Shaar Murray, Chris Welch, Allan Jones, Kris Needs, et al, as well as going on to make their names with learned articles and, later, books of their writings .. were simply privileged music fans with tickets to gigs, an endless supply of free albums, first class flights to see bands perform or to conduct interviews and, occasionally, with ringside seats to all kinds of bacchanalian excesses and outrageous behaviour. Today, Ozzy Osbourne urinating against the Alamo memorial in Texas (witnessed by Allan Jones), or Phil Kaufman stealing Gram Parsons’ coffin and driving it to the Joshua Tree in southeast California before giving it a D-I-Y cremation, would be known within moments of their occurring. Back in the day, however, it could be one or two weeks later before any of this was known about.
Chris Charlesworth was one such privileged music fan writing for Melody Maker (MM). He joined the paper from a provincial local paper in Slough. Unlike several of the names above, he’d had journalist training and served time on local papers before becoming a full-time music critic in May 1970, which, as he says, really was the first day of the rest of his life. For the next seven years, this life would be that of a music critic.
He joined at a unique time, when the whole music scene was changing, including the music press. In 1972, the inkies really were a force in the music business, with Melody Maker the biggest-selling music paper in the world, selling 200,000 copies weekly, the success of which saw the paper appointing a critic to cover the US from the other side of the pond, something which Charlesworth would do on and off until leaving Melody Maker in June 1977. He had an insider’s view of albums replacing singles, gigs becoming ‘concerts’ and organised into tours, bands now playing longer sets because musicians were prizing technique and expertise on their instruments .. and behind all this, record companies who were happy to allow bands time to develop their full potential with three album contract deals.
This is largely the story you’d expect from a music scribe in a privileged position, told in an almost chronological ‘as it happened’ sequence, with stories about or interviews with legendary figures like Zappa, Bowie and Lennon, famous artists and bands (The Who, Led Zep, Rod and the Faces, Little Feat, Steely Dan, Free, Floyd, Fleetwood Mac plus many with now long forgotten acts) and all conducted without PR reps sitting alongside vetting what could be asked. There were details of events and mishaps which couldn’t be reported in as much detail today as access to rock’s biggest names is much more tightly controlled. The ease with which Charlesworth was able to approach John Lennon and arrange an interview would be unthinkable today!
Whilst ingratiating himself in the LA rock scene in 1973 as Melody Maker’s US correspondent (all expenses paid) one thing which clearly comes out is Charlesworth having a lot more fun writing about rock music than many of his contemporaries on leading US music magazines, such as Rolling Stone or Creem, whose perspective was rock ‘roll was there to educate, whereas Charlesworth believed music was all about entertaining the fan, and he gives short shrift to those musicians he thought were overly pretentious or boring, one of which might surprise you.
His time as a music journo ended when the paper recalled him from the US as the decline in the value of sterling vis-a-vis the dollar meant keeping a full time reporter in the US was no longer economically feasible. Plus the reinvigorated NME was increasingly winning the circulation war, meaning Melody Maker was selling less copies as many of the US acts it wrote about were of little interest in a country celebrating a jubilee and where punk was sweeping all before it. Refusing a staff job in London, Charlesworth quit the music press and went to work at, amongst other things, being David Bowie’s PR man before going into publishing in 1983, being on the ground floor when books about music and major artists started to be taken seriously he was to go on to write several himself, notably about Deep Purple, Elton John and Pete Townsend.
‘Just Backdated’ is a very entertaining read about a time now unlikely to be repeated and, with some of the anecdotes he hinted at .. bands being ripped off by corrupt managers, Led Zep’s treatment of bootleg sellers, wine tasting with Lennon, any number of Keith Moon’s antic’s, to name a few .. there’s a book about rock ‘n roll war stories just waiting to be written about for sure. But, all credit to Chris Charlesworth for making a living writing about what his father referred to as ‘a bit of rhythm.’
