Rock journalism as an occupation is rapidly heading in the direction of the watch-mender or lamplighter so Chris Charlesworth’s account of life at the Melody Maker in the ‘70s is already starting to feel like an historic document. ‘Just Backdated’ covers a time when the rock press set the agenda, sold over half a million copies a week and was courted by attention-seeking musicians of every rank, a lost world remembered in this conversation with Mark Ellen which includes …

… the unwritten rules of ‘70s rock journalism and its limitless access.

… the “homesick and slightly lost” John Lennon when living with May Pang.

… life at Melody Maker’s Fleet Street office and staff writer Max Jones’s fling with Billie Holiday.

… touring with Led Zeppelin alongside the 17 year-old Cameron Crowe (part of the inspiration for Almost Famous).

… “Beatles to reform?” and other coverline staples.

… the night Frank Zappa was thrown off the Rainbow stage – ‘people thought he’d been killed’.

… the first British interview with Steely Dan.

… Debbie Harry when she was still in the Stillettos and the day Blondie asked him to manage them.

... why the Bay City Rollers at an airport was “the nearest thing to a nightmare while being awake”.

… his time as MM’s West and East Coast correspondent aka “the best job in the world”.

Order ‘Just Backdated’ here:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Just-Backdated-Melody-Maker-Seventies/dp/1915858224

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