Chris Charlesworth - Just Backdated (Melody Maker: Seven Years In The Seventies) (2024)

Just Backdated (Melody Maker: Seven Years In The Seventies) - the brand new memoir by former Melody Maker writer and editor Chris Charlesworth - is a well-conceived, honest, first person history of what it was like to write about, befriend, and travel with the biggest bands in the world from 1970 until 1977. For four of those years Charlesworth was the weekly British music magazine's American editor. He worked briefly in Los Angeles before transfering to New York City for the remainder of his time here.

Among the many acts Charlesworth toured with were Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple and his favorite of them all, The Who, a band he saw in concert twenty-seven times. He shared airplanes, taxis, limousines, restaurant meals, and bar tabs with the most famous names in rock.

In many ways, the book is really a truelife account of Cameron Crowe's 2000 hit movie, Almost Famous, that is a fictionalized version of Crowe's life on the road as a teenage writer for Rolling Stone with a pretend band named Stillwater.

Charlesworth provides excellent details on the inner workings of running a magazine during the golden era of 70s music journalism. During those years the now defunct Melody Maker was the United Kingdom's biggest and most highly respected music publication with a weekly circulation exceeding 200,000 at its peak. Artists everywhere craved positive write-ups within its pages and many would do almost anything to make that happen.

The author met Rod Stewart, David Bowie, Genesis, Yes, Slade, The Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin. Pink Floyd, all four Beatles individually, and many more rock legends. Charlesworth correctly predicted Elton John's fame, and he told the world that Bruce Springsteen would become one of its biggest stars eighteen months before the New Jersey native finally achieved success. He introduced Deborah Harry before she became famous.

Charlesworth wrote: “Looking back now, from the perspective of the 21st century, what I did and who I met between 1970 and 1977 seems unreal, a fantasy. Unlike the tightly controlled situation we have today, it was access all areas for rock writers in those years. Perhaps John Lennon’s tragic murder was to blame for that tight control. John tops the list of those I hung out with, along with The Who, Led Zep, Bowie and many more, but my memoir does not name-drop for name-dropping’s sake, just tells it how it was when I was lucky enough to be slap band in the middle of it all.”

The British writer doesn't hold back when describing the wild life he and the world's biggest musicians lived on the road at a time when many of them were considered rock gods. The debauchery is handled delicately. When discussing a young pickup by Roger Daltrey on page 69, Charlesworth wrote, "Back at the hotel we all headed for the bar. Roger soon left, accompanied by a girl who smiled like she'd won the lottery...."  When telling us how and why - on the same night - Keith Moon threw a TV out of his hotel room window, Charlesworth passes no judgement. He gives readers only the facts, just like a good reporter should.

The photographs are courtesy of renown photographers Bob Gruen and Barrie Wentzell.

Today, Charlesworth continues to write about rock music on his blog, also named Just Backdated.