Chris Charlesworth
Chris Charlesworth first heard the call of rock'n'roll at the age of ten: Little Richard singing 'Tutti Frutti'. Seeing the Beatles in 1963 inspired him to buy a guitar and, after training as a journalist, he joined the Bradford Telegraph & Argus whose first ever pop music column he wrote in 1968. Two years later he became a full time music writer on the staff of Melody Maker, first as their News Editor and, in 1973, as their US Editor, based in New York. In seven years on MM he interviewed and/or wrote about just about every rock icon of the era, and his sole regret is never seeing Elvis.
After a spell working for a management company in New York and at RCA in London, he began writing books, including biographies of the Who, David Bowie, Deep Purple, Slade and Cat Stevens. In 1983 he succeeded Miles as Editor at Omnibus Press, whose editorial fortunes he guided until early 2016. In that time he commissioned and edited over 700 rock and pop books, probably more than anyone else in the world, and he remains a consultant to Omnibus and its parent company Music Sales. Outside of Omnibus, Chris' long association with the Who resulted in his compiling and co-producing their 30 Years Of Maximum R&B box set, released in 1995, and subsequently overseeing the wholesale upgrade of their back catalogue on remastered CDs. Though now mostly occupied by freelance projects, he posts on a blog called Just Backdated and his occasional musings appear in sundry music magazines and on RBP.
361 articles
List of articles in the library
Led Zeppelin: Progressive Pop Supergroup Flies High
Profile and Interview by Chris Charlesworth, Bradford Telegraph & Argus, 1 April 1969
THE IDEA of individual musicians getting together to form a "supergroup" was started with the highly successful Cream, who have now disbanded, but four more ...
Interview by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 27 June 1970
A band who are slightly embarrassed by that long-awaited hit ...
Report and Interview by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 4 July 1970
Beatlemania-type Free-fever grips Britain. CHRIS CHARLESWORTH reports from the front line ...
Cat Stevens: Cat's Back With The Cream...
Interview by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 11 July 1970
LAST WEEK SAW the return of Cat Stevens to the MM chart after a disappearance act worthy of Houdini. It is 12 months since the ...
Noir — and those good black vibrations
Interview by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 18 July 1970
THERE ARE few groups around today who can boast that they are a "musicians' group" — a group whom musicians go out of their way ...
The Rolling Stones: Get Your Ya-Yas Out
Preview by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 18 July 1970
Live Stones album — MM exclusive preview ...
Free, Mott The Hoople: Fairfield Hall, Croydon
Live Review by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 19 September 1970
FAIRFIELD Hall, Croydon, has seen some amazing scenes since it became South London's home of rock, but I doubt whether the old faithfuls at the ...
Live Review by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 19 September 1970
JOHN SEBASTIAN brought a little sunshine into a gloomy Hyde Park, London, on Saturday. ...
Review by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 19 December 1970
ONE OF THE criticisms levelled at Free since their final acceptance earlier this year is that many of their songs sound very much alike. With ...
Monty Python's Flying Circus: Monty Python's Flying Circus (BBC Records)
Review by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 19 December 1970
OF ALL THE comic programmes to arrive on the magic box, Monty Python's Flying Circus seems to be the one that most people talk about afterwards. ...
Black Sabbath: Sabbath, Singles and the States
Interview by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 2 January 1971
TALES OF hardship and woe generally follow a group's first trip across the Atlantic. Many bands have returned to inform us that "it's not all ...
Badfinger: Fickle Fate Of Badfinger
Interview by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 30 January 1971
"EVERYONE who interviews us wants to talk about the Beatles. Sure, we were influenced by the Beatles, like ten million other groups. ...
Manitas de Plata: Little Hands of Silver...
Interview by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 20 March 1971
MANITAS DE PLATA picked up a guitar autographed by Charlie Chaplin and played some flamenco music in his hotel bedroom. It looked a bit like ...
Alan Price, Georgie Fame: Price and Fame: The Name Game
Interview by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 10 April 1971
THERE I WAS sitting interviewing Messrs Fame and Price — or should it be Price and Fame — when this lady walks into the room. ...
Jeff Dexter: Dexter's Job — Creating Good Vibes
Interview by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 24 April 1971
"WELL, who else could do it? Maybe Jimmy Savile because he's got lots of blond hair as well," replied Jeff Dexter when asked why he ...
The Rolling Stones: Stones In Exile
Report and Interview by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 24 April 1971
CANNES is a strange place. It sits on the Cote D'Azur beckoning the rich to part with their dollars, pounds and francs in glorious sunshine. ...
Deep Purple: The Roundhouse, London
Live Review by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 8 May 1971
ALTHOUGH it wasn't one of Deep Purple's best nights on Friday, it was certainly one of the best nights of the Camden Festival with London's ...
Funkadelic: It's Just To Get People's Attention
Interview by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 8 May 1971
EVER since Keith Emerson set fire to an American flag on the stage of London's Royal Albert Hall, the banning of groups from that particular ...
The Faces: The Roundhouse, London
Live Review by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 8 May 1971
IF ANYONE still doubts that the Faces haven't yet "made it," talk to one of the 2,000 or so who visited Thursday night's show at ...
Bobby Keys, The Rolling Stones: The Rolling Stones: Bobby Keys
Report and Interview by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 8 May 1971
"IT'S BOBBY Keys, the greatest saxophone player in the world," said Mick Jagger. And Bobby smiled modestly towards me. ...
The Byrds, The Dixie Flyers, Rita Coolidge: The Byrds, Rita Coolidge: Fairfield Halls, Croydon
Live Review by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 15 May 1971
THE BYRDS are like an institution. They seem to have been around as long as the Houses of Parliament with their own particular style of ...
Chicago: One Date Only For The Chicago Seven
Report and Interview by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 22 May 1971
WITH THE news that Chicago will play just one concert at London's Royal Albert Hall on June 1, instead of two as they planned after ...
Review by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 22 May 1971
Mutton dressed as Ram? ...
Live Review by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 17 July 1971
Mott: Britain's Grand Funk? ...
The Who: Civic Hall, Dunstable
Live Review by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 17 July 1971
MOUNTAINS MAY tumble and fall, supergroups come and go, but the Who will always be with us. And while they are they continue to wear ...
Profile and Interview by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 11 September 1971
OFTEN ABUSED BY critics and disc jockeys, Deep Purple have won through during the past two years to become one of this country's top groups. ...
Jack Bruce, King Crimson, Roy Harper: King Crimson/Roy Harper/Jack Bruce: Hyde Park, London
Live Review by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 11 September 1971
JUDGING BY THE weather this week, the title of Saturday's free concert in Hyde Park – "Farewell To Summer" – was a little premature. And ...
Bullet, Deep Purple: Deep Purple, Bullet: Guildhall, Portsmouth
Live Review by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 18 September 1971
Purple patch ...
Cochise, Rory Gallagher: Rory Gallagher, Cochise: Queen Elizabeth Hall, London
Live Review by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 18 September 1971
LONDON'S QUEEN Elizabeth Hall bar sold out or Guinness very quickly last Wednesday. Which isn't surprising because Rory Gallagher was playing, and Rory's admirers know ...
The Kinks: Muswell Hillbillies
Interview by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 25 December 1971
SUPERSTARS may come and go but the Kinks keep marching on. They don't change as much as musical styles change around them; not for them ...
Slade: Melody Maker Band Breakdown: Slade
Interview by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 4 March 1972
UNLIKE MANY of the groups currently enjoying chart success with hit singles, Slade have been in the game a long time. ...
Badfinger: Finger: Straight Up
Report by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 11 March 1972
BADFINGER may be underrated in Britain — but in the States they're a bill topping band. Chris Charlesworth reports from New York... ...
Interview by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 22 April 1972
2005 note: As well as being their drummer and resident comedian, Keith Moon was the Who's PR man. Journalists unfamiliar with the group may have ...
Lindisfarne: We Can Swing Together: A Day In The Life Of Lindisfarne
Report by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 26 April 1972
SIMON COWE ordered a pint of cider and told me he hadn't eaten anything for two days. He'd had plenty of cider though. ...
The Animals, Jimi Hendrix, Slade: Chas Chandler: Slade Driver
Interview by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 7 October 1972
Chris Charlesworth talks to CHAS CHANDLER, ex-docker, ex-Animal, ex-manager of Jimi Hendrix and now manager of Britain's hottest band, Slade ...
Genesis, Lindisfarne: Lindisfarne, Genesis: Dublin Stadium, Dublin
Live Review by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 7 October 1972
TO BE CASUAL is to be Lindisfarne, but even the most relaxed of bands have a hard time putting over a set of new numbers ...
Alice Cooper: Alice Is Still Swinging — By The Neck!
Report and Interview by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 18 November 1972
THE KIDS AT GREEN'S PLAYHOUSE, GLASGOW, were yelling "Alice, Alice, Alice" at the top of their voices in deafening unison as the object of their ...
Tim Buckley: Digging Deeper to the Roots
Report and Interview by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 1973
IN A WORLD that seems grossly over-populated with singer/songwriters whose crotchets and quavers reflect their personal attitudes and experiences, Tim Buckley stands out like the ...
Jerry Lee Lewis: "You laughing at me, boy?"
Report by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 20 January 1973
GOSFIELD STREET, LONDON, W1: Advision Studios is where Yes create their music and put it on record. ...
Interview by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 17 February 1973
Noddy's fans like football, beer, sex and Slade — in any order. So does Noddy. That's what makes him a true working-class hero ...
Live Review by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 7 April 1973
GEE, YOU GUYS from Roxy sure do have style. Mmmmmmm, yummy yummy. what I couldn't do to that Bryan Ferry if he dropped around my ...
Humble Pie, Steve Marriott: Humble Pie: Pulling In The Soul Audience
Report and Interview by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 23 June 1973
THE STORY SO FAR: Steve Marriott, one time leader of pop idols the Small Faces and now boss of "progressive" rock and rollers Humble Pie, ...
Jefferson Airplane: Plane Sailing
Interview by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 23 June 1973
A LITTLE GIRL on a bicycle, who couldn't have been older than 12, overheard me asking the way to Olympic Studios last Wednesday night. I'd ...
Deep Purple: Who'll Be Purple's New Voice?
Report by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 30 June 1973
THE NEWS that Ian Gillan is to leave Deep Purple comes at a time when the group are on the crest of world-wide acclaim. Yet ...
Jack Bruce, West, Bruce & Laing: Jack Bruce
Interview by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 7 July 1973
JACK BRUCE has turned full circle. The best bass guitarist Britain has produced, whose career has merged jazz and rock to the extent where he ...
Slade, Sensational Alex Harvey Band: Earls Court, London
Live Review by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 7 July 1973
IT'S MONDAY morning and my ears are still ringing. The night before, I'd been among the 20,000 fans who packed London's Earls Court to prove ...
Review by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 7 July 1973
The Os come of age ...
Deep Purple: A New Bassman — But Still No Singer
Interview by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 14 July 1973
"PAUL RODGERS was asked to join us, but there were just too many things in the way. Apart from just the contractual side of it, ...
Review by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 28 July 1973
A PERSPEX cut out face on the sleeve introduces us to Mott The Hoople Mark III, a group with a scarred history whose fifth and ...
The Rolling Stones Hit The Road…
Report and Interview by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 4 August 1973
...and at every date the promoter is expected to provide 50 security men, five limousines, a doctor, ten dozen roses, two bottles each of whisky, ...
Interview by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 11 August 1973
THE 'PHONE DOESN'T stop ringing in Eric Burden's room at the Holiday Inn at Swiss Cottage. So many people, explains Katie from Island Records, are ...
Nicky Hopkins: Sixth Stone Rolls Alone
Interview by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 11 August 1973
THE NEWS THAT the Rolling Stones are to tour next month without their long serving pianist Nicky Hopkins will come as a surprise to those ...
Blood, Sweat & Tears: Blood Sweat & Tears: New Sweat
Report and Interview by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 18 August 1973
THE WIND of change that spread through Blood Sweat and Tears a year ago is beginning to make itself felt at last. Their forthcoming album ...
New York Dolls: Whisky a Go Go, Los Angeles
Live Review by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 8 September 1973
Living Dolls ...
Elton John: Elton's Finest Hour!
Live Review by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 15 September 1973
Elton John: The Hollywood Bowl, Los Angeles ...
Dave Mason: Why Dave Mason Is Trying To Go The Paul Simon Route
Report and Interview by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 15 September 1973
THE VERY fat man with a pony tail who sat himself down next to me twitched almost uncontrollably as the Englishman with the red Stratocaster ...
Joe Walsh: Barnstorming the USA
Profile and Interview by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 29 September 1973
THINGS ARE starting to happen for Joe Walsh. In the corridors of rock and roll where informed people discuss what, where and when, elbows are ...
Live Review by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 29 September 1973
Neil joins Roxy music! ...
Allman Brothers Band: The Allman Brothers Band: Forum, Inglewood CA
Live Review by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 29 September 1973
Allmans: hot rockers ...
The Carpenters: It's Plane Sailing!
Interview by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 29 September 1973
HEAD DOWN THE Santa Ana freeway, turn off on San Gabriel, make a couple of rights and you're in Downey, a right-wing, unpretentious suberb of ...
Duane Eddy: The Guitar Man Twangs Back
Interview by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 6 October 1973
THE FIRST REAL guitar superstar of the rock and roll age sits in an office no larger than a bathroom on North Vine off the ...
Iggy Pop, The Stooges: Iggy Pop: Iggy Breaks Out Of His Cage
Interview by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 6 October 1973
IGGY POP swam out to sea, his wiry frame floating over the waves of Manhattan Beach, his dyed blonde head bobbing along the ripples, his ...
Interview by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 13 October 1973
"I'M TELLING ye mon, there was this bird in 'ere and she can't 'ave been more than fifteen mon, and she's telling me she's wearing ...
The Doors, Ray Manzarek: The Doors: When The Music's Over
Interview by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 13 October 1973
HELPING HIMSELF to one of my British cigarettes and inhaling deeply, Ray Manzarek coldly and without emotion spoke about why The Doors finally decided to ...
Profile and Interview by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 27 October 1973
Los Angeles Report by Chris Charlesworth ...
The Stooges: Iggy & The Stooges: Pop Loses Sparkle: Whisky a Go Go, Los Angeles
Live Review by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 3 November 1973
LOS ANGELES: How low can rock and roll sink? This is a question that can never be answered as new depths will always be found ...
Interview by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 3 November 1973
WHERE DOHENY DRIVE cuts Sunset at the edge of the Beverly Hills estate, there's a tobacconist shop that carries all makes and brands. It's called ...
Slade: America Feels The Noize
Report and Interview by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 3 November 1973
NO COMPROMISE says Noddy. No compromise at all. America will just have to go crazee, feel the noize and get their boots off Just like ...
Grand Funk Railroad: Isn't Life Grand!
Interview by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 10 November 1973
THEY said it would never happen. ...
Sly & The Family Stone: The Palladium, Los Angeles
Live Review by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 10 November 1973
HOLLYWOOD: Will he? Won't he? Will he? Won't he? Sly Stone's reputation is too firmly etched for these questions not to be asked when he's ...
Jackson Browne, Phillip Goodhand-Tait: Roxy, Los Angeles CA
Live Review by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 17 November 1973
LOS ANGELES: It would be nice to be able to report in true nationalistic spirit that Phillip Goodhand-Tait swept the audience off their feet in ...
Jackson Browne: Jackson's Song For Everyman
Interview by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 17 November 1973
JACKSON Browne arrived half an hour late. He'd been figuring out how to repair the plumbing at his house, and had finally succeeded in getting ...
Interview by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 17 November 1973
Carlos Santana is in Britain this week with a new vocalist, a new name and a new energy – thanks to the divine intervention of ...
Interview by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 24 November 1973
I OWN TWO albums by Chet Atkins, both of which are old and scratched. One features country picking and the other is titled Chet Picks ...
Linda Ronstadt: Linda's Liberation
Interview by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 24 November 1973
WHEN THE film industry was at its peak and the Hollywood Hills beamed down on the Babylon city in its celluloid wrapper, someone decided that ...
Dawn, Glen Campbell: Live in Las Vegas: Dawn and Glen Campbell
Report by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 1 December 1973
"HANG ON tight," said the man in the next seat on the Western Airlines jet. "Landings in Las Vegas are the roughest in the world." ...
The Beach Boys: Good Vibrations In The Rain
Live Review by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 8 December 1973
The Beach Boys: Convention Centre, Anaheim, California ...
Alice Cooper: A Christmas Chiller
Report by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 22 December 1973
The great Sherlock Holmes, cleverly disguised as MM investigator Chris Charlesworth, pulls his deerstalker over his eyes and sets forth on his most dangerous adventure. ...
Electric Light Orchestra: ELO: Live in Philadelphia
Live Review by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 5 January 1974
WE ARE gathered together, ladies and gentlemen, for a recital by that promising septet of young British musicians who call themselves the Electric Light Orchestra. ...
Alice Cooper: Alice through the looking glass
Interview by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 12 January 1974
Shep Gordon worked for firm making clothes for the dead... Now he manages the killer himself, Alice Cooper. Gordon talks to MM New York writer ...
Phil Ochs: Home Thoughts Of Phil Ochs
Interview by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 19 January 1974
ALTHOUGH I'M typing this in Greenwich Village, New York City, this story really begins 3,000 miles away in Los Angeles. ...
Liza Minnelli: Winter Garden, New York NY
Live Review by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 19 January 1974
Sweet Liza ...
Allman Brothers Band, Gregg Allman: Gregg Allman
Interview by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 26 January 1974
GREGG ALLMAN picked up an old Gibson acoustic guitar and allowed his nimble fingers to slide over the six new strings. He tuned it and ...
John McLaughlin, Mahavishnu Orchestra: John McLaughlin: It Was Natural Evolution
Interview by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 2 February 1974
NEW YORK: Although John McLaughlin's decision to disband the Mahavishnu Orchestra came as a surprise in the closing weeks of 1973, further reflections point to ...
Report and Interview by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 2 February 1974
DOWN ON COTTON Avenue in Macon, Georgia, lie the offices of Capricorn Records, slotted between a funeral parlour and a beauty salon that's anything but ...
The Band, Bob Dylan: Bob Dylan & The Band: Knocking On Heaven's Door
Live Review by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 9 February 1974
THEY CHEERED and clapped and waved for fifteen minutes even though the house lights were up and 'Greensleeves' was playing through the PA system and ...
Bruce Springsteen: Springsteen Turns On The Heat…
Profile by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 9 February 1974
HE STANDS there looking like a cross between Elvis Presley and a reject from Sha Na Na with faint Dylanesque overtones and a battered Fender ...
Allman Brothers Band: Leavell Headed Allman
Interview by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 16 February 1974
PIANIST CHUCK Leavell is the least heralded member of the Allman Brothers Band, a musician first and a talker second. ...
Profile and Interview by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 16 February 1974
NEW YORK: They say that heavy rock is on the decline and it's become fashionable to put down bands whose music is based on a ...
Maggie Bell: Queen of the Night
Review by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 16 February 1974
MAGGIE BELL'S first solo album is with us at last. It's been a lengthy wait and there have been countless rumours concerning who would be ...
Slade: Ambassador Theater, St. Louis, MO
Live Review by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 16 February 1974
ST LOUIS: The wide Missouri River flowed beneath the hotel window and a few paddle steamers, now tourist traps or floating restaurants, were securely tied ...
Profile and Interview by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 23 February 1974
Black Oak Arkansas are UK bound and MM's man in America, Chris Charlesworth, warns: watch out for the sexiest thing since Jim Morrison ...
Black Sabbath: Sabbra Cadabra!
Report by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 23 February 1974
THE GRINDING riff sears through the eardrums, ripping the senses and dulling with monotony. It crashes through the PA system, hurtling itself towards the back ...
Elliott Murphy, New York Dolls: New York Dolls, Elliott Murphy: Academy of Music, New York NY
Live Review by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 23 February 1974
NEW YORK: A noticeable aspect of the current rock scene here is the number of artists who are very directly influenced by musicians of the ...
Stephen Stills: Carnegie Hall, New York City
Live Review by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 23 February 1974
NEW YORK: There's really no substitute for experience in rock music and there are few musicians around with as much experience as Steve Stills who ...
Brownsville Station: Smokin' Out America's Slade
Profile and Interview by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 2 March 1974
FIRST PLACE the tip of the digit finger on the first fret of the third string, then place the second finger on the second fret ...
Report by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 2 March 1974
Rick Wakeman said it: the MM's Yes concert at Madison Square Garden was the best yet. ...
Interview by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 9 March 1974
UP ON THE 37th floor of a Park Avenue office block which faces north and thus commands an extensive view of New York's Central Park ...
Dr. Hook and the Medicine Show: Hook, Line And Sinker
Profile and Interview by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 16 March 1974
"HEY MAN, that was really great. They really hated us out there. There was a guy at the front who kept shouting 'you suck' all ...
Interview by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 16 March 1974
From 'Hang On Sloopy' to the Winter Brothers – and now Rick Derringer's got a hit US single and album ...
Jefferson Starship: Academy of Music, New York NY
Live Review by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 13 April 1974
Jefferson Starship in orbit ...
Profile and Interview by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 13 April 1974
DESPITE substantial success in the United States, Loggins and Messina have remained an unknown quantity in the U.K. ...
Rick Nelson & the Stone Canyon Band: Bottom Line, New York NY
Live Review by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 13 April 1974
Nostalgic Nelson ...
Interview by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 13 April 1974
ALTHOUGH IT'S quite incidental to the story that follows, let's begin by explaining the meaning of the term Steely Dan. It has nothing to do ...
Gregg Allman: Carnegie Hall, New York City
Live Review by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 20 April 1974
GREGG ALLMAN, the usually shy keyboards wizard, emerges into the limelight at last. Chris Charlesworth was there... ...
Interview by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 27 April 1974
TODD RUNDGREN loped into Bearsville's offices on East 55th Street the other day with a South American raccoon on one arm and a lady dressed ...
Grand Funk Railroad: Funk On A Grand Scale
Report and Interview by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 4 May 1974
RINGING EARS are a symptom of excessive listening to loud rock and roll. When the ears tingle after a gig, you know the band in ...
Report and Interview by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 4 May 1974
"JEEZ, I HOPE the sound guy is straight tonight." said Al. "The guy who did it last night didn't have a clue. Might wind up ...
Todd Rundgren, Utopia: Carnegie Hall, New York NY
Live Review by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 4 May 1974
Todd tape show ...
Report and Interview by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 11 May 1974
DISNEY WORLD, Orlando, Florida: You wouldn't catch the Rolling Stones gigging here, or anyone else who's even remotely associated with an anti-establishment following for that ...
Review by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 11 May 1974
A NEW album release by David Bowie is today looked on with as much awe as a release by the Beatles in the sixties. Later ...
Live Review by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 11 May 1974
NEW YORK: Fanny have gone glitter! Eyeshadow, legs, fancy hair, satins, black tights, the lot. They're now a female New York Dolls, and although the ...
King Crimson: Felt Forum, New York NY
Live Review by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 11 May 1974
NEW YORK: King Crimson command a small but loyal following in the United States, partly, one suspects, because of Robert Fripp's deadpan Englishness but also ...
Harry Chapin: Short Stories of Harry Chapin
Report and Interview by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 11 May 1974
SHORT STORIES is the most apt title for Harry Chapin's new album, for Chapin is not so much a singer as a storyteller, an artist ...
Pete Townshend, The Who: Pete Townshend: March Of The Mod
Profile by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 18 May 1974
IT MAY WELL have been pure chance that produced the most visually exciting guitarist in rock. If Peter Townshend hadn't been born with a big ...
Roxy Music: We're Not Killing Ourselves In America
Interview by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 18 May 1974
BRYAN FERRY was exhausted. Utterly. Not much lounging for the lounge lizard this week. All go. Up at dawn to another city. Another round of ...
Sly & the Family Stone: Sly Stone: Super Sly
Interview by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 8 June 1974
HE EXTENDED A HAND but looked elsewhere. Who could tell where his eyes focused beneath those silver shades? He gripped and I felt pain through ...
Sly & the Family Stone: Sly Weds on Stage
Report by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 15 June 1974
THE EVER-unpredictable Sly Stone married the mother of his nine-month-old son in front of 20,000 fans at Madison Square Garden on Wednesday evening. ...
David Bowie: Birth Of The New Rock Theatre
Live Review by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 22 June 1974
A FEW THOUSAND lucky Canadians witnessed a completely new concept in rock theatre last weekend when David Bowie opened his North American tour in Montreal ...
The Who: 'The Least I Could Do Was Smash a Guitar'
Report and Interview by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 22 June 1974
Chris Charlesworth reviews the Who's return to New York — and talks to Pete Townshend ...
Buffy Sainte-Marie: Buffy St Marie: Buffy Breaks Away
Interview by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 6 July 1974
"HI, IT'S Buffy St. Marie here. How are you?" The call came through some 48 hours after it was expected, rousing this writer from a ...
Report by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 6 July 1974
— that's how the Americans describe those freaky New York bands like Wayne County and Teenage Lust. Chris Charlesworth, guided by photographer Bob Gruen, takes ...
The Band, Eric Clapton: Eric Clapton: A Hero Comes To Town
Report by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 20 July 1974
PITTSBURGH, PA. – The tint on the TV screen gave the newscaster a peculiarly reddish face, almost as if he was genuinely quite excited about ...
Gary Puckett & The Union Gap: Gary Puckett: How We Split The Gap
Interview by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 20 July 1974
"YEAH I GUESS you could say I was kinda surprised when I got the news. But the funny thing is that I kinda predicted it ...
George McCrae's Last Chance – A Smash
Profile and Interview by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 20 July 1974
STRANGE how chance plays its part in the record business. If George McCrae hadn't decided to have one last try at making a hit record ...
Edgar Winter: Great White Wonder
Interview by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 27 July 1974
EDGAR WINTER shoots pool pretty good considering he's as blind as a bat. The green ball gives him trouble because that's the same colour as ...
Interview by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 10 August 1974
Bad Company's formation has been a shot in the arm for Paul Rodgers – and he's raving over the band's tour of the States as ...
Crosby Stills Nash & Young: Love The One You're With!
Report and Interview by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 10 August 1974
MILE HIGH STADIUM, as the name implies, is 1,760 yards high. That's a mile above sea level, but even so it sits at the foot ...
The Jackson 5: Madison Square Garden, NYC
Live Review by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 10 August 1974
NEW YORK: There's something about Michael Jackson that is almost frightening to behold. How can it be possible for a kid that age to be ...
Rod Stewart: I Dream Of A Solo Concert
Interview by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 31 August 1974
"ANYTHING I say is not meant to be a blot on anyone's character...or trousers." ...
Interview by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 7 September 1974
From the Turtles via the Mothers and T. Rex to their own radio show. Chris Charlesworth meets Flo and Eddie in New York ...
New York Dolls: The New York Dolls: Broken Dolls
Report by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 7 September 1974
NEW YORK: The many critics of the New York Dolls will doubtless be pleased to hear that their fortunes recently have spiralled downwards. Unless a ...
KC & the Sunshine Band: KC & Sunshine Band: Let The Sunshine In
Profile and Interview by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 14 September 1974
ALTHOUGH it has yet to register in the US Top 100, 'Queen Of Clubs' by K. C. and the Sunshine Band represents the second big ...
Loudon Wainwright III: Loudon Wainwright: I Like To Be Laughed At
Interview by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 14 September 1974
...which is as good a reason as any for Loudon Wainwright to play a role in the weekly comedy TV series, Mash. He spoke to ...
Bad Company's Rodgers: No Compromises
Interview by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 28 September 1974
"MOOOOOVIN' ONNNN." Paul Rodgers stabs forward towards the microphone to deliver the lines pirouetting as he reaches the front of the stage and grabbing the ...
Hawkwind: How Hawkwind fell foul of the revenue men
Report and Interview by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 28 September 1974
Chris Charlesworth, exclusively covering Hawkwind's American tour for MM, reports on a major setback for the sonic assassins ...
Profile and Interview by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 28 September 1974
IT WOULD be difficult to count the number of musicians who have eulogised about Little Feat over the past year. This little known band from ...
Lindisfarne, Traffic: Traffic, Lindisfarne: Academy of Music, New York NY
Live Review by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 28 September 1974
Terrible Traffic ...
Report and Interview by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 12 October 1974
Chris Charlesworth has a round – of golf, that is – with Alice Cooper in New York and finds the ghoul of rock is a ...
Bad Company: Kings Of The Castle!
Interview by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 26 October 1974
CLEARWELL CASTLE, Gloucestershire, Thursday – Mick Ralphs, clad in blue jeans, tee-shirts with Texas written on the front and dirty white fur-lined coat, hovers around ...
Deep Purple: Stormbringer (Purple Records)
Review by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 2 November 1974
'Stormbringer'; 'Love Don't Mean A Thing'; 'Holy Man'; 'Hold On'; 'Lady Double Dealer'; 'You Can't Do It Right'; 'High Ball Shooter'; 'The Gypsy'; 'Soldiers of ...
Interview by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 2 November 1974
THE FORTUNES of Deep Purple have taken strange paths over the past 12 months. But changes in line-up and strange stories about their antics in ...
Retrospective by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 2 November 1974
ABOUT ONE year ago this week Dick Clark, in his infinite wisdom, decided to host a ten year anniversary edition of his TV rock show ...
Report by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 9 November 1974
"WELL, we are here and you are here so let's get started," announced a slightly apprehensive but essentially laid back Roger Waters from the stage ...
Pink Floyd: Usher Hall, Edinburgh
Live Review by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 9 November 1974
"WELL, WE ARE here and you are here so let's get started," announced a slightly apprehensive but essentially laid back Roger Waters from the stage ...
The Bay City Rollers: Kings Of Pop!
Report by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 9 November 1974
IN THE same week that Muhammad Ali regained his heavyweight boxing title, the featherweight crown of pop, too, has changed hands. ...
Jethro Tull: Usher Hall, Edinburgh
Live Review by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 16 November 1974
RISE SIR Ian of Flute, for thou hast indeed redeemed thyself. The critics have had their way, the Passion Play has been forgotten and Jethro ...
Interview by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 16 November 1974
IN THE current era, when groups and artists come and go with alarming regularity, the continuing success of the Pink Floyd is a peculiar state ...
Bad Company: City Hall, Newcastle
Live Review by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 7 December 1974
BAD COMPANY were big before they were born. Any band that included Paul Rodgers in its ranks and a bassist with the talents of Boz ...
Interview by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 14 December 1974
"I TELL YOU... England is the most exciting and beautiful country I have ever seen," says George McCrae, now two and a half weeks into ...
Lynyrd Skynyrd: Rainbow Theatre, London
Live Review by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 21 December 1974
I DOUBT very much whether Lynyrd Skynyrd, those Southern rock and rollers who take the stage to the strains of a tape of 'Dixie', could ...
Doobie Brothers: Doobies — With Added Skunk
Report and Interview by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 11 January 1975
KALAMAZOO: Over thirty guitars, mostly Gibsons, sit on racks in one dressing room and a wooden packing case in another contains suits of clothing that ...
Graham Central Station, Larry Graham, Sly & the Family Stone: Larry Graham: Platform For Station
Interview by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 11 January 1975
OAKLAND: Few people can ever have listened to a Sly Stone record without experiencing a gut feeling as the bass guitar runs through its paces, ...
Little Feat: Real Dixie Chickens
Profile and Interview by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 11 January 1975
LITTLE FEAT come to Europe with a high reputation to live up to. While the Doobie Brothers headline one of the two nights at each ...
Interview by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 11 January 1975
LOS ANGELES: For Montrose this is their second visit to the UK having played here as support act on a Status Quo tour earlier this ...
Profile by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 11 January 1975
BY FAR THE biggest ensemble to be visiting Europe on the Warners tour is Tower of Power, the Oakland based blues and soul outfit whose ...
The Ohio Players: Ohio Players: Ohio Fire
Interview by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 25 January 1975
With an album racing up the US charts, the Ohio Players are big timers. CHRIS CHARLESWORTH in New York meets the tour de force behind ...
Led Zeppelin: Whole Lotta Zeppelin!
Report by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 1 February 1975
Chris Charlesworth reports from Chicago ...
Barry Manilow: From a Jingle to a Scream
Interview by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 8 February 1975
Chris Charlesworth in New York meets Barry Manilow, who made Number One in the States with 'Mandy' — and looks set for a hit in ...
Manhattan Transfer: Cafe Carlyle, New York NY
Live Review by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 8 February 1975
NEW YORK: While nostalgia for the 'fifties seems to have run its course, nostalgia for the 'thirties has taken a jolt in New York with ...
Led Zeppelin: Robert Plant: Recording's No Race For Us
Interview by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 8 February 1975
WITH WEEKS of the current Led Zeppelin tour under his belt, Robert Plant is feeling the strain. One show has been cancelled because he caught ...
Disco-Tex and his Sex-O-Lettes: How Disco-Tex Got Dancin'
Interview by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 22 February 1975
"MY FIRST single? Ha... ha... ha... that was about ten years ago. Wes Farrell wrote it in his car on the way to the recording ...
The Charlie Daniels Band: The South Rises Again
Interview by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 22 February 1975
Southern bands like the Allmans, Lynyrd Skynyrd and Wet Willie have smashed their way to the top of American rock. Now add a new name ...
Queen: Avery Fisher Hall, New York NY
Live Review by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 1 March 1975
Queen steam to new success ...
Profile and Interview by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 8 March 1975
AIN'T IT just like the February sunshine to play tricks with the mind? Here I am, sat aboard the Long Island Railroad Express, rattling out ...
Bruce Springsteen: Westbury Music Fair, Jericho NY
Live Review by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 8 March 1975
NEW YORK: Bruce Springsteen, an artist whose talent has inspired respected critics to fawn like teenage groupies, took over the revolving stage of the Westbury ...
Interview by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 8 March 1975
It's a busy time for JOHN LENNON – hit singles, a new album of oldies and recording with Elton John and and David Bowie. Plus ...
Roxy Music: Academy of Music, New York NY
Live Review by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 8 March 1975
NEW YORK: Roxy Music's apparent inability to register any real commercial success in the USA can, I feel, be blamed on their refusal to attempt ...
Blue Öyster Cult, The Faces: The Faces, Blue Oyster Cult: Madison Square Garden, New York NY
Live Review by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 8 March 1975
Faces bring back the fun ...
Don McLean: How A Hobo Could Save McLean From Endless Pie
Interview by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 22 March 1975
THE BIZARRE tale of a black hobo with one leg who fell from a Dallas bound train in the early part of this century and ...
Report and Interview by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 22 March 1975
HARRY CHAPIN, the singer who tells stories rather than sings songs, has recently moved his craft a giant leap forward with the opening of The ...
The Chambers Brothers, Kokomo: Bottom Line, New York NY
Live Review by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 22 March 1975
Kokomo keep the faith ...
Profile and Interview by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 29 March 1975
NO QUESTION about it. Styx were stuck. Their second album had lain on the record warehouse shelves for two years doing nothing but gather dust. ...
Gloria Gaynor, Labelle, Barry White: Disco: "Kids Want Something Different — This Is It!"
Report and Interview by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 5 April 1975
...so says Billy Smith, an expert on New York's booming discos. In a country where radio rules, it's an amazing phenomenon. CHRIS CHARLESWORTH reports... ...
Alice Cooper: Alice's Tasteful Nightmare
Live Review by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 12 April 1975
THE NEW Alice Cooper Revue, which opened in Chicago last week and moved on to Detroit and Cincinnati, is yet another step forward in the ...
Interview by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 12 April 1975
Top-rated guitarist JOE WALSH – due in Britain in June – talks to Chris Charlesworth in Iowa ...
Interview by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 12 April 1975
MINNIE RIPERTON is as fizzy as a soda bottle shaken on a hot summer day. Life, it is reassuring to know, can be enjoyed even ...
Interview by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 12 April 1975
HOLLYWOOD: On a clear day Glenn Frey can see from his living room right out to sea, right across the Pacific to Catalina, the island ...
Interview by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 19 April 1975
Stylistics, Sweet Sensation, Chi-Lites — all top names in the world of sweet soul music. But there's only one boss — AL GREEN. And no ...
Report and Interview by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 19 April 1975
Three years ago German rock bands like Can and Amon Duul took Britain by storm. Now Kraftwerk are spearheading an assault of new Kraut-Rock groups ...
Elton John: Elton's Bitter Sweet Album
Report and Interview by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 10 May 1975
Chris Charlesworth in New York previews Elton John's new album Captain Fantastic And The Brown Dirt Cowboy – and talks to the man himself... ...
Jeff Beck, Mahavishnu Orchestra: Mahavishnu Orchestra, Jeff Beck: Avery Fisher Hall, New York NY
Live Review by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 10 May 1975
NEW YORK: The pairing of John McLaughlin and Jeff Beck proved to be a guitarist's delight at the Avery Fisher Hall on Wednesday and Thursday ...
Gil Scott-Heron: Black Interpreter
Interview by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 17 May 1975
NEW YORK: "I hear they're asking Rockefeller to investigate the CIA. Well now, in my opinion that's stupid. Asking Rockefeller what's wrong with the CIA ...
Nils Lofgren: Training To Do A Guitar Flip!
Interview by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 17 May 1975
NEW YORK: "It's not that I don't like playing with Neil Young," said Nils Lofgren between shots on the pool table in A&M's office last ...
Interview by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 31 May 1975
Judy Collins – back in the MM chart with a hit single, 'Send In The Clowns' – talks to Chris Charlesworth in New York ...
Interview by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 7 June 1975
THE TWO guitarists, one long and lean and the other short and cuddly, twizzle forth in a grinding motion that reminds me of a curious ...
Hunter-Ronson, Ian Hunter, Mick Ronson: Hunter-Ronson: Till Death Us Do Part
Interview by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 14 June 1975
Forget all the rumours, Hunter-Ronson are still happily married, as they tell Chris Charlesworth ...
The Beach Boys, Chicago: Beachago: The Beach Boys meet Chicago
Interview by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 21 June 1975
PERHAPS THE MOST the most interesting side-effect of the depression in the United States has been the decision of two potential headliners to go out ...
Ritchie Blackmore, Deep Purple: Blackmore: I Was Getting Lazy
Interview by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 28 June 1975
RITCHIE BLACKMORE'S DEPARTURE from Deep Purple comes as no surprise to followers of Deep Purple who have watched their activities closely over the years. For ...
Procol Harum: Palladum, London
Live Review by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 16 August 1975
IT COULD WELL have been two different bands appearing at the London Palladium on Sunday. The first was a shambling, incohesive bunch whose dull, plodding ...
Biddu, Carl Douglas: Biddu's Indian Summer
Profile and Interview by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 23 August 1975
INDIA CONJURES up a variety of images in the mind of the British; steaming curries, turbans and saris, travel by elephant, and an accent superbly ...
Dr. Feelgood: 1975 Orange Festival, France
Live Review by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 23 August 1975
ON PAPER, Saturday evening looked to be the least attractive evening of the festival but it was, in fact, a triumph for Dr Feelgood, who ...
Buddy Holly: The Legend Lives On
Retrospective by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 11 September 1975
"DEAR BUDDY, I have several records of yours and my favourite is 'Oh Boy'. Please send me a picture with your autograph." With the constant ...
Santana: Guitarists Bore Me To Tears
Interview by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 20 September 1975
OF ALL the great groups to have emerged out of San Francisco since the mid-sixties, Santana have retained a musical credibility that surpasses their home ...
Art Garfunkel: Art For Art's Sake
Interview by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 11 October 1975
ART GARFUNKEL cut an odd dash at the Top of the Pops rehearsals last week. Slotted between Pan's People and Mud and closely followed by ...
Supertramp: 'Tramp On The March
Interview by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 11 October 1975
FOR ALL THAT has been heard of Supertramp during the past six months, you could be forgiven for doubting their very existence. ...
The Who: Bingley Hall, Stafford
Live Review by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 11 October 1975
LIKE MOUNTAINEERS tottering on the brink of some huge ravine, the Who crashed into their first tour in over two years at the weekend and, ...
Profile and Interview by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 29 November 1975
LAST MONTH they caught Patti Hearst — and so ended the biggest man (or woman) hunt in the history of the US. ...
The Bay City Rollers: Can the Rollers crack America?
Report and Interview by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 6 December 1975
CHRIS CHARLESWORTH IN NEW YORK ANSWERS THE 64,000 DOLLAR QUESTION ...
Bob Dylan, Aretha Franklin, Billie Holiday, Bruce Springsteen: John Hammond: From Billie to Bruce
Interview by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 6 December 1975
John Hammond recalls his 40 years atthe forefront of popular music recording ...
Live Review by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 20 December 1975
Dylan's damp squib ...
The Brecker Brothers: Breckers Blow Into The Discos
Interview by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 20 December 1975
New York's top sessioneers tell Chris Charlesworth of their personal bid for fame ...
Report and Interview by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 27 December 1975
"YES," SAID Graham Gouldman without any hesitation, "we are deadly serious to break over here." ...
Interview by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 27 December 1975
BOBBY WOMACK is the kind of guy who lights up a room when he enters, and this suite in the Plaza Hotel is no exception. ...
Interview by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 1976
Ry Cooder, cult figure and esoteric guitarist, tells CHRIS CHARLESWORTH in New York why he's now into Tex-Mex music ...
Bonnie Raitt: Raitt place, Raitt time
Interview by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 10 January 1976
BONNIE RAITT juggled happily between the various lines on the desk telephone in an office at Warner Brothers' New York headquarters. She seemed to be ...
Bob Dylan: Jacques Levy: Dylan's Write Hand Man
Interview by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 24 January 1976
THOSE WHO have already acquired a copy of Dylan's new album, Desire, will have noticed at least one difference between this and other Dylan records ...
Interview by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 7 February 1976
AS AGATHA CHRISTIE discovered to her considerable advantage, everybody loves a mystery. The subject of this mystery is Leon Redbone, a musician whom we can ...
C.W. McCall: McCall Keeps On Trucking
Profile and Interview by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 21 February 1976
JUST IMAGINE the scenario: a thousand massive trucks, a petroleum-driven army, hurtling down the highway in a strict convoy formation, all the drivers linked together ...
Neil Sedaka: Sedaka's Rocket to the States
Profile and Interview by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 21 February 1976
NEIL SEDAKA does not look like a wealthy entertainer, not even when he's surrounded by the splendour of his rented luxury apartment above Fifth Avenue ...
Interview by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 21 February 1976
IT IS NOW ten months since Wishbone Ash packed up their troubles and settled in the USA, choosing a spot in Westport, Connecticut, that is ...
Interview by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 6 March 1976
IT IS, I GUESS, the third time around for Dobie Gray who, at the present moment, is stretched out full length on a bed on ...
Live Review by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 6 March 1976
NEW YORK: A four-act show always runs the risk of dragging, even when the organisation is as meticulous as it was last Saturday at the ...
David Bowie: Ringing The Changes
Interview by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 13 March 1976
"I'M JUST DOING this tour for the money. I never earned any money before, but this time I'm going to make some. I think I ...
Interview by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 27 March 1976
WITH THE SUNSHINE on his shoulders and the mountain water in his veins, John Denver is an enigma surrounded by moonbeams, a v friendly postman ...
Maria Muldaur: Bottom Line, New York NY
Live Review by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 3 April 1976
Muldaur flowers ...
Profile and Interview by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 3 April 1976
FEW ARTISTS have experienced such a turbulent – yet short – career as Phoebe Snow, whose second album, just released, is already on its way ...
The Beach Boys, Dennis Wilson: Wilson Returns!
Interview by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 3 April 1976
A NEW studio album is in the works, Brian Wilson is back in business and the Beach Boys are planning to visit England in late ...
Genesis: Beacon Theatre, New York
Live Review by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 24 April 1976
WITH THE RELEASE of A Trick Of The Tail Genesis demonstrated that, on record at least, they could carry on at the same degree of ...
Peter Frampton: How I Cracked America
Interview by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 24 April 1976
"IT'S ALL QUITE unbelievable really. I don't want to think about it too much. I know it's great and it's made me really happy, but ...
Led Zeppelin, Robert Plant: Robert Plant: Plantations
Interview by Chris Charlesworth, Creem, May 1976
SHOULD RALPH NADER JOIN LED ZEPPELIN? ...
Maxine Nightingale: Maxine — Right Back At The Top
Profile and Interview by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 1 May 1976
NEW YORK: Maxine Nightingale, who comes from Wembley, seemed neither over-awed nor surprised that her record 'Right Back Where We Started From' was topping the ...
Gallagher & Lyle, Robert Palmer: Robert Palmer, Gallagher and Lyle: Bottom Line, New York NY
Live Review by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 1 May 1976
NEW YORK: Looking rather like a male model in a smart grey suit, white shirt and stylishly cropped hair, Robert Palmer brought his brand of ...
Interview by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 15 May 1976
LOUNGING IN HIS suite at the Pierre Hotel, an opulent home for the wealthy, once owned by Paul Getty, Boz Scaggs completes a picture of ...
Profile and Interview by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 15 May 1976
"I DON'T feel I have to defend myself to you, and I won't take your criticism either. I'd take the criticism of a fan, though. ...
Bob Marley & the Wailers: Bob Marley: Beacon Theatre, New York NY
Live Review by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 22 May 1976
NEW YORK: Bob Marley needs an enthusiastic audience to light his particular fire, but his show at the Beacon Theatre lacked this essential ingredient and ...
Live Review by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 22 May 1976
Simon's magical living room ...
Bad Company, Led Zeppelin: Bad Company: Led Zep Join The Company
Report and Interview by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 29 May 1976
It was a night to remember...when Robert Plant and Jimmy Page jammed with Bad Company on stage in Los Angeles. ...
Andrea True Connection: True Story
Interview by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 5 June 1976
NEW YORK: After the success of Donna Summer's bump and grind discotheque-orientated single, 'Love To Love You Baby', it seems only natural that a girl ...
The Bellamy Brothers: Bellamy Brothers: Flowing Bellamys
Interview by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 5 June 1976
A CHANCE encounter with Larry Williams, one of Neil Diamond's roadies, during a studio session with Diamond's rhythm section led to the Bellamy Brothers recording ...
Profile and Interview by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 5 June 1976
AFTER TEN years of trial and error – with eight of them spent in England drifting in and out of Spooky Tooth – Gary Wright ...
John Sebastian: Welcome Back With A Half Hour Hit
Interview by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 26 June 1976
"YES...I can understand that people in England might have felt that I'd given up music or something, but the fact is I haven't at all. ...
Steve Miller: Flying Like An Eagle
Interview by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 3 July 1976
STEVE MILLER seems to be the kind of guy who would act first and ask questions afterwards, a tough-looking Texan brought up on bands and ...
Report by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 24 July 1976
PONTIAC Stadium rises out of the Michigan earth like a four-walled town. ...
Blue Oyster Cult: We Copped A Lot From Sabbath
Interview by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 24 July 1976
EVEN THE hardest of hearts must soften sometime, and so it is with Blue Oyster Cult, whose fifth album Agents of Fortune offers a degree ...
Loudon Wainwright III: Whimsical Wainwright
Interview by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 24 July 1976
NEW YORK: The smart way to begin a story about Loudon Wainwright III would be to concoct some snappy couplet not unlike those that form ...
Starland Vocal Band: Starry-eyed
Profile and Interview by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 31 July 1976
NEW YORK: As each summer rolls by it brings with it an easily identifiable summer hit which is almost always a catchy vocal treatment of ...
Donovan: Flower Child's Second Bloom
Interview by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 7 August 1976
FEW ARTISTS evoke memories of the Sixties as much as Donovan who, even in this enlightened age, still clings resolutely to the styles that developed ...
John Lennon Gets His Ticket To Ride
Report by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 7 August 1976
NEW YORK: John Lennon has won his five-year battle against the immigration authorities in the United States. ...
Elton John: He's Got The Whole World In His Hands
Report and Interview by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 14 August 1976
THE WHOLE FAMILY was there. Mum, dad and three children all waited patiently by the elevators in the lobby of the Hyatt Regency hotel on ...
The Eagles: The Spectrum, Philadelphia
Live Review by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 14 August 1976
SPECTRUM, Philadelphia: You can't get much more Los Angelean than the Eagles. Right down to the faded jeans and slightly wrinkled tee-shirts, the fuzzy moustaches ...
Interview by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 28 August 1976
WHAT'S A MIDDLE-of-the-road singer like Neil Diamond doing with the Band's Robbie Robertson? Making a hit album, Beautiful Noise, that's what. The two first met ...
Interview by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 28 August 1976
THOUGH Tavares are scoring for the first time in Britain with 'Heaven Must Be Missing An Angel', the quintet of brothers has been together as ...
Profile and Interview by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 28 August 1976
FEW ARTISTS have quite as much faith in themselves as Ted Nugent, the Midwestern rocker and former leader of the Amboy Dukes. He is getting ...
Interview by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 11 September 1976
OF ALL the guitar heroes to emerge from the British blues boom of the mid-Sixties, Jeff Beck has been the most slippery to follow. There ...
Buddy Holly: Norman Petty: How We Cut the Golden Hits
Interview by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 11 September 1976
"I THINK," said Norman Petty, carefully selecting his words, "that if Buddy Holly was alive today, he would be on an equal basis with Elvis ...
The Bay City Rollers: Rollers' American Civil War
Report and Interview by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 11 September 1976
THE STATE TROOPER, with his tall hat perched firmly on a head with very little hair, seemed to be in control. One hand grasped a ...
Crosby and Nash: Crosby & Nash: Central Park, New York
Live Review by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 18 September 1976
NEIL YOUNG and Steve Stills may have blown out their tour in a flurry of sore throats and, reportedly, short tempers, but the "other half" ...
Joan Armatrading: Bottom Line, New York
Live Review by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 18 September 1976
PERHAPS IF Joan Armatrading had opened for an artist less popular than Richie Havens, her U.S. debut would have been more fruitful. At the Bottom ...
Profile and Interview by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 18 September 1976
RANDY CALIFORNIA: re-formed Spirit after picking pineapples and advice from a fortune teller ...
Emmylou Harris Makes Up Leeway
Interview by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 25 September 1976
IT CAME as something of a surprise to learn that Emmylou Harris and the Hot Band were in town last week. To be precise, they ...
Roger McGuinn: Bottom Line, New York City
Live Review by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 25 September 1976
NEW YORK: Roger McGuinn is an institution in American rock music and, like all institutions, he seems to crop up at least once a year ...
The Band, Rick Danko: Rick Danko: Solo, But Not Alone
Interview by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 2 October 1976
WITH THE possible exception of Robbie Robertson, the individual members of the Band have enjoyed a remarkable anonymity that belies their status as one of ...
Profile and Interview by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 23 October 1976
EARLIER this summer, Bob Seger appeared in concert at Pontiac Stadium, a giant indoor arena on the outskirts of Detroit, attracting some 70,000 crazed Michigan ...
David Cassidy, Mick Ronson: David Cassidy & Mick Ronson: Cassidy Lights Up With Ronson
Interview by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 23 October 1976
DAVID CASSIDY is to form a band with Mick Ronson, the British guitarist whose services as a freelance player are much in demand these days. ...
Led Zeppelin: The Song Remains The Same
Film/DVD/TV Review by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 30 October 1976
THE FOUR members of Led Zeppelin received standing ovations at the premiere in New York last week of their film The Song Remains The Same. ...
Bruce Springsteen: The Palladium, New York
Live Review by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 6 November 1976
IT MAY rain or snow, and the temperature in New York might even drop below freezing-point this weekend, but so long as Bruce Springsteen is ...
Profile and Interview by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 6 November 1976
FOR A band that was formed virtually by accident one night on a European tour four years ago, Orleans have now come a long way, ...
Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes: Southside Johnny & The Asbury Jukes: Southside Of The Tracks
Interview by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 6 November 1976
SOUTHSIDE JOHNNY: Springsteen protege from Asbury, so-named because he sounds like a Chicago Southside blues singer. ...
Interview by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 6 November 1976
Steve Stills tells Chris Charlesworth in New York why he's touring solo after all these years... ...
Interview by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 13 November 1976
FEW BANDS have enjoyed the stability of Chicago, those rather dull "pioneers of jazz-rock" whose 'If You Leave Me Now' not only tops the charts ...
Earth, Wind & Fire: Madison Square Garden, New York NY
Live Review by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 13 November 1976
Fiery ELP of soul ...
Allman Brothers Band: Elected! Rock and US Politics
Report by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 13 November 1976
After Jimmy Carter's victory in the U.S. Presidential elections, Chris Charlesworth in New York investigates the role of rock in American politics... ...
Peter Tosh: Tosh Spreads the Message
Interview by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 13 November 1976
"REGGAE IS black. It was held back but you can't keep a good man down. It was just a manifestation but it had to happen. ...
Live Review by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 20 November 1976
NEW YORK: For better or worse, John Denver has changed people's lives. His concerts, in America if not elsewhere, are gatherings of almost religious intensity, ...
CBGBs, Max's etc: Underground Overground
Report and Interview by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 27 November 1976
"PUNK ROCK? What's that supposed to mean? The bands that play at my club aren't punks. They might wear leather jackets, chew gum and try ...
Daryl Hall & John Oates: Hall and Oates: A Bigger Splash
Profile and Interview by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 27 November 1976
JOHN OATES: 'I find the audiences in Europe more intelligent and receptive – music in Europe and England still retains its mystique and excitement.' ...
Crazy Horse, Neil Young: Neil Young & Crazy Horse: Palladium Theatre, NYC
Live Review by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 27 November 1976
NEW YORK Only an artist with the charisma and talent of Nell Young could perform with a lacklustre band such as the current Crazy Horse ...
The Bee Gees: Nights on Broadway
Report and Interview by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 4 December 1976
BEE GEES: "The Beatles influenced us in the early days and before that Neil Sedaka. Now we let Stevie Wonder influence us." ...
The Eagles: Eagles: Where Eagles Dare…
Interview by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 11 December 1976
WHAT'S it like, I asked, being an Eagle? Glenn Frey, a perpetual talker, paused to consider the question and the silence lasted almost a minute. ...
Daryl Hall & John Oates: Hall and Oates: The Palladium, NYC
Live Review by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 18 December 1976
NEW YORK: Like it or not, Hall and Oates are currently running the distinct risk of becoming just too perfect for their own good. At ...
The Carter Family, Johnny Cash: Johnny Cash, The Carter Family: Felt Forum, New York NY
Live Review by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 15 January 1977
VIEW YORK: Johnny Cash is the John Wayne of American music, a gigantic figure who towers above his country contemporaries when it comes down to ...
The Bay City Rollers: Palladium, New York NY
Live Review by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 15 January 1977
Rollers: it's a riot ...
George Benson: Breezin' with Benson
Interview by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 5 February 1977
"HE (MILES Davis) was one of the first smart guys in this industry. I love him a lot and every time I speak to him ...
Boston: More Than a Sensation...
Profile and Interview by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 19 February 1977
...more like a fairy tale come true, as the band who came from nowhere take off in unprecedented fashion. Chris Charlesworth reports from New Jersey ...
Robert Palmer's Breakthrough Year
Profile and Interview by Chris Charlesworth, Circus, 11 May 1978
His Gentlemanly Double Fun Has a Sultry Roll ...
Keith Moon: Anyway, Anyhow, Anywhere
Obituary by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 16 September 1978
SOMETIME IN 1972, when my admiration for the Who was at its most passionate peak, I spent an afternoon at Keith Moon's house in Chertsey. ...
Retrospective by Chris Charlesworth, Smash Hits, 19 March 1981
IT'S A MIGHTY LONG WAY DOWN ROCK AND ROLL AND RITCHIE BLACKMORE HAS GOT THE SCARS TO PROVE IT. CHRIS CHARLESWORTH TRACES THE TWENTY YEAR ...
Cat Stevens: The Making of Cat Stevens
Book Excerpt by Chris Charlesworth, Proteus Books, 1984
An extract from Cat Stevens by Chris Charlesworth, originally published by Proteus Books in 1984 but now out of print. ...
Ray Coleman: The Man Behind the Maker
Obituary by Chris Charlesworth, Daily Telegraph, September 1996
RAY COLEMAN, who has died from cancer aged 59, played a leading role in the growth of the British music press in the Sixties and ...
Paul Simon: Graceland; Warner Bros 925447-2, Released September 1986
Review by Chris Charlesworth, unpublished, 1997
IN THE SUMMER of 1984, as he faced the problem of furthering a critically successful but commercially waning career, Paul Simon received a gift from ...
The Who: A Bargain... The Best You Ever Had: Thoughts On Compiling The Who's 30 Years of Maximum R&B
Essay by Chris Charlesworth, Crawdaddy!, 1998
THREE YEARS AGO I met Paul Williams for the first time at the Frankfurt Book Fair. This resulted in Omnibus Press, of which I am ...
The Who: Shepherd's Bush Empire, London
Live Review by Chris Charlesworth, Record Collector, December 1999
THE END of the millennium brought a welcome rush of unexpected activity from The Who, most of it inspired by the group's charitable leanings. ...
John Lennon: Memories Of John Lennon
Memoir by Chris Charlesworth, Rock's Backpages, 2001
THE FIRST TIME I heard John Lennon’s voice was in mid-January 1963 in my father’s white Triumph Vitesse car, travelling from Skipton to York, going ...
Lynyrd Skynyrd: Memories Of Lynyrd Skynyrd and Peter Rudge
Retrospective by Chris Charlesworth, Rock's Backpages, 2001
LYNYRD SKYNYRD WAS MANAGED BY my friend Peter Rudge from late 1973. Rudge’s main pre-occupation at this time was The Who, for whom he’d worked ...
Memoir by Chris Charlesworth, Rock's Backpages, December 2001
It is a year since IPC shut down Melody Maker, the oldest of all popular music magazines. In this affectionate memoir, former MM staffer and ...
The Who: How The Who’s My Generation LP Finally Came Out On CD in the UK
Retrospective by Chris Charlesworth, Record Collector, 2002
STRANGE THOUGH it might seem, it took an ad on eBay offering the master tapes for sale to anyone with half a million dollars to ...
Average White Band, Sweet: Unmasked: "Mick Tucker" and Other Rock Impostors
Report by Chris Charlesworth, Rock's Backpages, March 2002
I NEVER knew Mick Tucker, Sweet’s drummer, who died last week, but I once met a man who impersonated him, or at least pretended he ...
John Entwistle, The Who: John Entwistle, 1944-2002
Obituary by Chris Charlesworth, Bass Guitar, July 2002
IT IS A CLICHÉ THAT CELEBRITIES tend to be shorter in real life than they appear on stage. John Entwistle, who often wore brightly-coloured Cuban-heeled ...
Obituary by Chris Charlesworth, The Guardian, July 2002
IN HIS POLKA-DOT bow tie, cream chinos and white buckskin shoes, Timothy White, who has died aged 50, cut a stylish figure in a profession ...
Memoir by Chris Charlesworth, Rock's Backpages, November 2002
BACK IN AUGUST 1973, Melody Maker sent me to Los Angeles to become their US correspondent, the third in line after Roy Hollingworth and Michael ...
Retrospective by Chris Charlesworth, Q, Spring 2003
NOTE: Like almost everyone else who encountered Led Zeppelin in their pomp in the ‘70s, including many in their employ, I was intimidated by them. ...
Retrospective by Chris Charlesworth, Rock's Backpages, 2004
A WHIFF OF hedonism lingered amid the dense fog of cigarette smoke inside the top floor suite of Detroit's luxurious Ponchartrain hotel. David Bowie sighed, ...
Pink Floyd: No One Knew What They Looked Like: Pink Floyd and the Press
Retrospective by Chris Charlesworth, Q, 2004
THE BOX ARRIVED in Melody Maker’s offices in December 1970, just in time for Christmas, addressed to Michael Watts. It was a sturdily constructed hardwood ...
The Who: The Who Sell Out from The Complete Guide to the Music of the Who
Book Excerpt by Chris Charlesworth, Omnibus Press, 2004
Original UK issue: Track 612 002 (mono) & Track 613 002 (stereo), released December 1967; UK CD: Polydor 835 727-24, remixed Polydor 527 759-2, 1995. ...
The Who: Kit Lambert: A Profile
Retrospective by Chris Charlesworth, Q, Spring 2004
"GET HIM OUT of here." "What?" "Get him out. He’s making things worse." "But Pete, he’s... he’s Kit, their manager." ...
Sleeve notes by Chris Charlesworth, Polydor Records, 2005
IT IS JULY 1971 and I'm with Slade in Amsterdam's Vondelpark where they are shortly to perform on a bandstand in the centre of a ...
Debbie Harry: Encounter with a Stiletto: Debbie Harry in 1974
Memoir by Chris Charlesworth, Rock's Backpages, February 2005
EVERY TIME Bob Gruen called me he’d open the conversation with "What’s happening, man?" Of course it was me who should have been posing the ...
The Beatles: Two Encounters With Neil Aspinall
Memoir by Chris Charlesworth, Rock's Backpages, March 2008
RBP REGULARS will doubtless have read last week's obituaries for Neil Aspinall, who worked for the Beatles from 1961 until shortly before he died. He ...
Essay by Chris Charlesworth, Rock's Backpages, October 2008
FOR MANY years now I have been a closet Abba fan. This was not always the case. ...
Led Zeppelin: How Could They Fail? An Overview
Retrospective by Chris Charlesworth, unpublished, 2009
NOTE: The first time I encountered Led Zeppelin was interviewing Jimmy Page by phone when I was a reporter on the Bradford Telegraph & Argus, ...
Aerosmith: Unexpected Encounters With Rock Stars
Retrospective by Chris Charlesworth, Rock's Backpages, April 2009
THIS doesn't happen often, though I've actually bumped into Paul Weller once or twice unexpectedly (in Holland Park and also in the Surrey village of ...
Keith Moon: Moonie On The Pull
Retrospective by Chris Charlesworth, Rock's Backpages, May 2009
IT IS THE prerogative of rock stars to enjoy the attentions of beautiful women to a greater degree than most other men, and among those ...
Quintessence: The Manager of Quintessence
Memoir by Chris Charlesworth, Rock's Backpages, 15 May 2009
IT'S NOT OFTEN I come across the name Quintessence these days but the give-away CD on the most recent MOJO is an Island folk compilation ...
Live Review by Chris Charlesworth, Rock's Backpages, 14 November 2011
THE ACHING melancholia of Gillian Welch's songs about struggle is only partially balanced by the sprightly, lyrical playing of her immensely skilled guitarist and partner ...
The Beatles: On Air – Live At The BBC Volume 2
Review by Chris Charlesworth, Just Backdated, 7 September 2014
WHAT DO Gwendolyn Hopkins of Nottingham, Diane and Jenny of Bedford, Jill, Janet, Mary, Brenda and Lynn from Wakefield, Carolyn Hill and Jane Richards from ...
Led Zeppelin, Jimmy Page: Jimmy Page: A Life In Music
Report by Chris Charlesworth, Rock's Backpages, October 2014
TO CADOGAN HALL in Sloaney Knightsbridge where Jimmy Page has agreed to submit to a public interrogation by Guardian Music Editor Michael Hann, the exercise ...
Review by Chris Charlesworth, Just Backdated, November 2014
ABBA NEVER REALLY wanted to bother with performing live at all. They would have preferred to be a studio band, a bit like Steely Dan, ...
David Bowie, Dylan Howe: Dylan Howe: Subterranean – New Designs on Bowie's Berlin
Review by Chris Charlesworth, Just Backdated, November 2014
IT IS NOT DIFFICULT to imagine the look of dismay on the faces of executives at RCA Records when David Bowie delivered the tapes for ...
Ray Davies, The Kinks: Ray Davies: A Complicated Life by Johnny Rogan
Book Review by Chris Charlesworth, Rock's Backpages, February 2015
WELL RESPECTED certainly but hardly a flower to be looked at and most unlikely to laze around in the afternoon, sunny or otherwise. The life ...
Film/DVD/TV Review by Chris Charlesworth, Just Backdated, 3 February 2015
AN OTHERWISE ENJOYABLE documentary on Kraftwerk broadcast on BBC4 last Friday, which I recorded but only got around to watching last night, was marred by ...
Obituary by Chris Charlesworth, Just Backdated, 15 April 2015
WE MOVED OUR family from Shepherds Bush in West London to Gomshall in Surrey on a stressful Thursday in the summer of 2006 and the ...
The Kinks: Sunny Afternoon: Harold Pinter Theatre, London
Live Review by Chris Charlesworth, Just Backdated, 16 May 2015
A FEW WEEKS AGO Ray Davies was in the building that houses Omnibus Press to attend the launch of a book entitled 100 Years Of British ...
Live Review by Chris Charlesworth, Just Backdated, 31 July 2015
FITTING THOUGH IT WAS that David Bowie's life and music should be honoured at the Proms, I remain unconvinced that rock music played by classically ...
Elvis Costello: Unfaithful Music & Disappearing Ink
Book Review by Chris Charlesworth, Just Backdated, November 2015
LIKE A HANDFUL of rock stars I have encountered along the way – among them Townshend, Bowie and Zappa – Elvis Costello would have made ...
Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band: The Agora, Cleveland 1978
Review by Chris Charlesworth, Just Backdated, 12 December 2015
BRUCE WAS LEADING a leaner, meaner E Street Band in 1978, road trained to the nth degree from playing night after night throughout '76 and ...
Book Excerpt by Chris Charlesworth, 'The Little Black Songbook' (Wise Publications), February 2016
"I pour out what has already been fed in. I merely reflect what is going on around me." (David Bowie, July 1973) ...
Paul McCartney: Philip Norman: Paul McCartney – The Biography
Book Review by Chris Charlesworth, Just Backdated, June 2016
WHAT MUST IT be like to be Paul McCartney? Deluged by gargantuan levels of fame since the age of 21, he has remained squarely in ...
Comment by Chris Charlesworth, Just Backdated, 13 July 2016
REGULAR VISITORS TO Just Backdated will have noticed that I no longer write iPod "Shuffle" posts. ...
Paul Simon: Stranger To Stranger
Review by Chris Charlesworth, Just Backdated, 16 July 2016
ON HIS RECENTLY released album Stranger To Stranger Paul Simon addresses the problem of inequality in a wonderful new song called 'Wristband'. ...
Bruce Springsteen: Born To Run (Simon & Schuster)
Book Review by Chris Charlesworth, Just Backdated, October 2016
TWO OF THE best Bruce Springsteen shows I ever saw were at Wembley Stadium in July of 1985. ...
Gillian Welch: Boots No. 1 - The Official Revival Bootleg
Review by Chris Charlesworth, Just Backdated, 28 November 2016
THE ARRIVAL OF A new record from Gillian Welch and her partner Dave Rawlings is an eagerly anticipated event at Just Backdated. ...
David Hepworth: 1971 – Never A Dull Moment, Rock's Golden Year
Book Review by Chris Charlesworth, Just Backdated, December 2016
THERE CAN'T BE many amongst us who haven't at one time or another wished we could turn the clock back to a period in time ...
Paul Simon: Peter Ames Carlin: Homeward Bound – The Life Of Paul Simon
Book Review by Chris Charlesworth, Just Backdated, December 2016
IF EVER A career in music was pre-ordained, it is that of Paul Simon, the ambitious, gifted and ever-so-scrupulous first son of a professional double-bass ...
The Beatles: Steve Turner: Beatles '66 – The Revolutionary Year
Book Review by Chris Charlesworth, Just Backdated, February 2017
"ED SHEERAN," screams the cover of this months GQ magazine. "How he became the biggest pop star on the planet." Not while Paul McCartney walks ...
Wilson Pickett: Tony Fletcher: In The Midnight Hour – The Life & Soul Of Wilson Pickett
Book Review by Chris Charlesworth, Just Backdated, February 2017
ABUSE RUNS in the family, or so they say. Those ill-treated as children go on to ill-treat as adults and it's near impossible to break ...
Andrew Czezowski and Susan Carrington: The Roxy, 14 December 1976 – 23 April 1977, Our Story
Book Review by Chris Charlesworth, Just Backdated, March 2017
ON DECEMBER 14, 1976, after a brief stint as the first in an endless stream of optimists who tried to manage the Damned, Andrew Czezowski, ...
Obituary by Chris Charlesworth, Rock's Backpages, March 2017
THANKS TO HIS duck walk, the way he swung the neck of his guitar around and those nifty little bent-note licks that opened his songs, ...
The Stone Roses: Wembley Stadium, London
Live Review by Chris Charlesworth, Just Backdated, June 2017
TO WEMBLEY STADIUM for the sell-out Stone Roses show, my first visit to the "new" Wembley, which towers up far higher than the old one ...
Pink Floyd: Their Mortal Remains: Pink Floyd at the Victoria & Albert Museum
Review by Chris Charlesworth, Just Backdated, July 2017
AT THE START of the V&A's Pink Floyd exhibition there is a photograph of the first ever van that transported the four-man group and their ...
Elvis Presley: Caught in a Trap: The Kidnapping of Elvis – Two Excerpts
Book Excerpt by Chris Charlesworth, (Red Planet Books), August 2017
The first extract from Caught in a Trap features Elvis in hospital (which is true) accepting a phone call from Richard Nixon (which probably isn't). ...
Allan Jones: Can't Stand Up For Falling Down: Rock'n'roll War Stories
Book Review by Chris Charlesworth, Just Backdated, August 2017
THE AGE OF DEFERENCE had yet to lapse when I joined Melody Maker in 1970. Four years later, when Allan Jones joined the paper, it ...
Joe Hagan: Sticky Fingers – The Life & Times of Jann Wenner & Rolling Stone Magazine
Book Review by Chris Charlesworth, Just Backdated, 3 November 2017
THE IMAGE OF the brooding, avaricious, power-hungry newspaper proprietor was set in stone by Orson Welles in the film Citizen Kane and through the ages ...
Khruangbin: The Universe Smile Upon You and Con Todo El Mundo
Review by Chris Charlesworth, Just Backdated, 22 May 2018
FOR MY BIRTHDAY last week my daughter bought me two CDs by a Texas instrumental trio called Khruangbin, which, roughly translated, is Taiwanese for aeroplane ...
Joe Penhall: Mood Music (Old Vic, London)
Live Review by Chris Charlesworth, Just Backdated, 3 June 2018
MOOD MUSIC is a play about the music industry, specifically the abuse of power that enables an established, controlling figure to benefit from the creativity of ...
Memoir by Chris Charlesworth, Just Backdated, 5 June 2018
MY WRITER FRIEND Jerry Hopkins, who died at the weekend aged 82, was a grizzled old veteran of rock's seminal years. ...
Jimmy Page: Chris Salewicz: Jimmy Page – The Definitive Biography
Book Review by Chris Charlesworth, Just Backdated, August 2018
BACK IN 2012 I was involved in convoluted negotiations with Jimmy Page's lawyer for Omnibus Press to publish a trade edition of the photo book ...
Led Zeppelin: Mark Blake: Bring It On Home — Peter Grant, Led Zeppelin & Beyond
Book Review by Chris Charlesworth, Just Backdated, 18 October 2018
MYTHS AND LEGENDS are strange bedfellows. ...
Roger Daltrey: Thanks A Lot, Mr. Kibblewhite – My Story
Book Review by Chris Charlesworth, Just Backdated, November 2018
AMONGST THEIR many virtues, the Who were disgustingly honest. Jagger only told you what he wanted to tell you, Led Zep were taciturn, Floyd aloof ...
The Who: Live at the Fillmore East, 1968
Review by Chris Charlesworth, Just Backdated, November 2018
WELL, WELL, WELL, what have we here? Praise be, for it is nothing less than the first "new" and officially sanctioned live recording from the ...
Taylor Jenkins Reid: Daisy Jones & the Six
Book Review by Chris Charlesworth, Just Backdated, March 2019
IN DECEMBER 1972 I found myself in the US reporting for Melody Maker on a Deep Purple tour as it visited Des Moines and Indianapolis. In ...
Bill Haley Jnr & Peter Benjaminson: Crazy Man Crazy – The Bill Haley Story
Book Review by Chris Charlesworth, Just Backdated, April 2019
IT WAS MY misfortune to see Bill Haley on stage for the first and only time in November 1979, about 15 months before he died, ...
Elton John: Rocketman: Melody Maker Memories of Elton
Film/DVD/TV Review by Chris Charlesworth, Just Backdated, June 2019
MONDAYS ON Melody Maker were always a bit stressful for me. It was the day when we had to come up with a front-page lead story ...
The Beatles: Danny Boyle's Yesterday
Film/DVD/TV Review by Chris Charlesworth, Just Backdated, July 2019
A WORLD WITHOUT the Beatles is not somewhere I would want to live, but this is the unlikely scenario on which this strange, occasionally enjoyable ...
Blondie, Debbie Harry: Debbie Harry: Face It
Book Review by Chris Charlesworth, Just Backdated, October 2019
IT IS A popular misconception that – once they have tasted chart success and seen their faces in magazines – music stars like Debbie Harry ...
Elton John with Alexis Petridis: Me
Book Review by Chris Charlesworth, Just Backdated, October 2019
A POPULAR musician who has stepped on stage dressed as Donald Duck, Minnie Mouse and Amadeus Mozart, complete with elevated, powdered wig, is unlikely to ...
Book Review by Chris Charlesworth, Just Backdated, March 2020
IN 1990, JOHN Entwistle spent two months in the region of Connemara on the west coast of Ireland, where fierce winds coming off the Atlantic ...
Book Review by Chris Charlesworth, Just Backdated, 24 July 2020
DAVID MITCHELL is a distinguished author whose books are regularly reviewed by fellow novelists in upmarket broadsheets. His best known work, Cloud Atlas, is a dazzling ...
Eddie Floyd with Tony Fletcher: Knock! Knock! Knock! On Wood – A Life In Soul
Book Review by Chris Charlesworth, Just Backdated, 30 September 2020
EDDIE FLOYD isn't a household name like Wilson Pickett or Otis Redding, his private life was never as lively as Marvin Gaye or James Brown, ...
The Byrds, David Crosby, Johnny Marr, Van Morrison, Morrissey, The Smiths: Johnny Rogan, 1953-2021
Obituary by Chris Charlesworth, Rock's Backpages, February 2021
MY GOOD FRIEND Johnny Rogan, who died unexpectedly in January aged 67, was among the most prolific and acclaimed music biographers of his generation. Much ...
Shane MacGowan: Richard Balls: A Furious Devotion – The Authorised Story Of Shane MacGowan
Book Review by Chris Charlesworth, Just Backdated, December 2021
WITH HIS uncombed hair, rotten teeth and charity shop clothes, not to mention the obligatory bottle, Shane MacGowan presented himself to the world as a ...
Live Review by Chris Charlesworth, Just Backdated, 28 April 2022
TO BRIGHTON for a Blondie concert and the realisation that what I've missed the most during the Covid-induced famine of live gigs is the feeling ...
Elvis Presley: Elvis — The Movie (dir. Baz Luhrmann)
Film/DVD/TV Review by Chris Charlesworth, Just Backdated, July 2022
ABOUT 45 minutes into this extravagant, fast-paced, acclamatory biopic of Elvis, the camera focuses in on its hero sat on a folding chair at an ...
Live Review by Chris Charlesworth, Just Backdated, October 2022
TO THE 02 by riverboat, courtesy of my old friends Deep Purple, though only three survive from the group I covered extensively for Melody Maker between 1970 ...
Chuck Berry: RJ Smith: Chuck Berry – An American Life (Omnibus)
Book Review by Chris Charlesworth, Just Backdated, November 2022
"HE DIDN'T have personal friends," says Dick Allen, a showbiz agent who worked with Chuck Berry for years. "I travelled all the time with him. ...
Bruce Springsteen: Only the Strong Survive
Review by Chris Charlesworth, Just Backdated, 17 November 2022
I REMEMBER… I was introduced to soul music through Geno Washington & The Ram Jam Band whose 1966 album Hand Clappin' Foot Stomping' Funky-Butt… Live! retains ...
Phil Spector: Spector (Sky documentary)
Review by Chris Charlesworth, Just Backdated, January 2023
THERE WAS no more pathetic sight than the prison shots of Phil Spector, wrinkled and bald, his dignity in ruins, his vanity undone, his arrogance ...
Paul Gorman: Totally Wired – The Rise & Fall of the Music Press (Thames & Hudson)
Book Review by Chris Charlesworth, Just Backdated, January 2023
THE HOME computer and its promiscuous offspring the internet were wrecking balls, demolishing much that was worth treasuring. Amidst the debris they left behind, the ...
Live Review by Chris Charlesworth, Just Backdated, February 2023
"I CAN'T believe it," sang the Who in A Quick One. "Do my eyes deceive me?" ...
Slade: Daryl Easlea: Whatever Happened To Slade? When The Whole World Went Crazee (Omnibus)
Book Review by Chris Charlesworth, Just Backdated, November 2023
AT LAST! At last an author with insight, sympathy and commitment has written a substantial book about Slade that dissects the highs and lows of ...
The Bee Gees: Bob Stanley: The Bee Gees – Children Of The World
Book Review by Chris Charlesworth, Just Backdated, January 2024
"THE BEE GEES didn't fit in," observes Bob Stanley at the start of Children Of The World, his new biography of the Gibb brothers. He's quite ...
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