Melody Maker - 1970s

1970s

Critics such as Richard Williams, Michael Watts, Chris Welch and Steve Lake were among the first British journalists to write seriously about popular music, shedding an intellectual light on such artists as Steely Dan, Cat Stevens, Led Zeppelin and Henry Cow.

Melody Maker supported glam rock and progressive rock in the 1970s.

In 1978, Richard Williams returned again as editor attempting to take MM in a new direction influenced by what Paul Morley and Ian Penman were doing at NME and with Jon Savage, Chris Bohn and Mary Harron providing arty coverage of post-punk and New Wave while Vivien Goldman who was previously at NME and Sounds, gave the paper much improved coverage of reggae and soul music, an area in which it had fallen short of its competitors.

Internal tension came to light, principally between Williams and Ray Coleman, by this time editor-in-chief, who wanted the paper to stick to the more "conservative rock" music it had continued to support during the punk era. Coleman had been insistent that the paper should "look like The Daily Telegraph" (renowned for its old-fashioned design), but Williams wanted the paper to look more contemporary. He commissioned an updated design, but this was rejected by Coleman.

It was during this period that Melody Maker was described as "the musos' journal," and that Michael "Mick" Watts emerged as a prominent writer for the paper. In January 1972, in a defining moment for rock journalism, Watts interviewed David Bowie on the German film set of Just A Gigolo for Melody Maker. It was during this interview that Bowie claimed, "I'm gay, and always have been, even when I was David Jones." "OH YOU PRETTY THING" ran the headline, and swiftly became part of pop mythology. Bowie later attributed his success to this interview, stating that, "Yeah, it was Melody Maker that made me. It was that piece by Mick Watts." During his tenure at the paper, Watts also toured with and interviewed artists including Syd Barrett, Waylon Jennings, Pink Floyd, Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen.