We don’t do too many book reviews, but they do add an extra something to the mix! So being sent “Backstage Chronicles” was too tempting to ignore! There are a few contributors to the book who should get a mention: ACM Andy Cowan-Martin, Music impresario and manager; AG Alvin Gibbs, Bass player, UK Subs, Iggy Pop; CK Charles Kennedy, Musician, record label; CM Carl Miller Road manager, Cat Stevens; IH Ian Hill, Bass player, Judas Priest; JM Jock McClain, Road manager, Carole King, Nigel Ross-Scott, Bass player, Re-Flex; RR Rob Reynolds, Singer-songwriter, SC Sam Card, Roadie, Primal Scream and others…
Carl Miller was Cat Stevens‘ road manager and worked in various roles with a who’s-who of other big names from Iron Maiden to the Kirov Ballet. He sat down to compile stories narrated by his contemporaries from the world of rock n roll — and got more than he bargained for.
I have read a few of these types of books, memories of tours in the seventies and eighties tend to be tales of debauchery and drugs in memoirs that can make very uncomfortable reading (for example, “The Beast” by Paul Di’Anno – his last album review by me here, I still can’t understand how a book that covers GBH on fans, misogyny toward women and wife beating can get five star reviews on Amazon). Sometimes the time frame is everything. Carl has a chapter on Bill Wyman noting how the Rolling Stones bass player and rock legend was dating a 13-year-old schoolgirl called Mandy Smith (of course Elvis met his soon to be wife when she was under 16). Could that happen now without public outrage? Wyman, at 52, married her when she was 18, madness….and Spike Milligan presented Wyman with ……(read the chapter!) at the wedding.
Nevertheless, I am pleased to say this book never goes too far, it is an account, in short bite chapters that cover moments in rock history – Gene Simmons sitting in a plane and chatting about the Kiss Kasket idea (coffins and drink coolers) or George Harrison happily signing an autograph for a waitress who thought he was someone else!
I found the tales often amusing as they are all relatable and personable, delivered with a smile. The opening chapter, for example, features The Foundations (“Build Me Up Buttercup”) getting through East German customs in a car where they are all stoned, pot wafting out of windows and armed guards ready to pounce – then Carl bribes the guards with some banned western porn and Marlboro cigarettes. It’s very much of its time and the little collection of tales are delivered more in the style of swapping anecdotes, a brief chat with a friend in the pub who has been there and met so many of the greats and always has a memory to share, it is one of those moments.
It is personal and Carl Miller will stop and pause to think – “The Foundations have busted up…know anything going?” reflecting how the business was transitory. Where one artist (Cat Stevens) finds Islam and decides to leave music, weed, drinking and parties behind, another band self implodes, but Carl is outside that and moves within his business telling us how we may be interested “how he came to work with…” We are led through the parties, booze and drugs, he notes they were there but he doesn’t descend into the debauchery or want to tell us how big he is (aka Peter Criss’ autobiography)- and can I just say that as a female reviewer/reader how much I appreciate that!
What we have instead are vanishing Rolls Royce’s and (incredibly) a brush past with Grand Admiral Doenitz (Hitler’s successor) in a Bremen hotel. All manner of life and people are in this little book!
I think I will close on two items, one was the tale of getting fired by the Sex Pistols for buying the wrong chocolate (!) and the other was the chapter on Britney Spears. I do love Britney Spears, I love her fallibility and her sense of goodness within. Recently I read her autobiography and came away with the perspective of feeling saddened by it all, her song “Everytime” has been noted in this magazine as a favourite of all of us here. Her book tells of the time when she shaved all her hair off, quite a statement that one, but Carl, who found she behaved often like her character in “Baby One More Time” tells of the time mid-tour when she decided to dye her hair as red as a pillar box, causing panic for her manager and minders alike. I read this chapter and saw the other side of things, the frustration those around her felt when they were basically trying to look after her. Read on!
In summary, as Sabrina (that most bouncy of singers of aka “Boys, Boys, Boys” fame) said of Carl Miller, ““Ah yes, he’s such a darling. He’s a grumpy fucker, but he loves me really!” I think Carl may have been grumpy but looking after all these artists from Bad Manners to the Sex Pistols would not always bring the best out of anyone, but it makes for wonderful tales. In the end, Backstage Chronicles is like rifling through a slightly chaotic shoebox of music history gold — full of charm, humour, and just enough chaos to make it fun without the grime. It’s not a book of brags or breakdowns, but of real backstage grit: the missing catering, the impossible egos, the “please don’t dye your hair mid-tour” moments.
This isn’t another rock bio with a tragic arc and a Netflix deal in its sights. It’s a fireside jam of stories from someone who was there, with a roll-up in one hand and a clipboard in the other. Carl Miller, the “grumpy darling,” gives us the stories that never made the press releases — and that’s exactly why they hit the right note.
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- Publisher : Astral Horizon Press
- Publication date : 1 May 2025
- Language : English
- Print length : 200 pages
ISBN-10 : 1739663020
UK readers can order the book from here
By Stevie Ritson