Joe Matera has been a musician and a music writer for years, and based in Melbourne at the centre of the Australian music scene he’s been part of it all for a number of decades. Being a musician and a writer offers him an interesting take on the business of music and he’s collected it all here in his first book ‘Backstage Pass’ which takes a look at the behind the scenes of touring, the grind of publicity and a glimpse to life on the road. It’s an interesting read and not at all plain sailing…
If I’m honest this one nearly lost me early on, not because of Joe’s style or any lack of charm, because Mr. Matera’s book ‘Backstage Pass’ is both warm, inviting and written like a chat with an old friend. No, rather, because it begins with tales of Nickelback, a band I honestly don’t mind, (and have interviewed many times myself) but they’re not really spicy enough to open a book like this with a big enough bang! Joe does quickly put that right though – transporting you like a fly on the wall into the presence of Lemmy, a true Colossus of the Rock World.
The rollercoaster rides continues though as we then segue into a meeting with P!nk and artist I have zero interest in at all. To be fair it is an interesting insight into what goes on behind the stage of a very large scale show and is, as anecdotes go, rather intriguing; but I guess the balancing act Matera was faced with – ‘who to include’ was always going to be a difficult one and I’m sure there are plenty of readers out there who love some P!nk.
Rather than go for themes or subjects Joe instead takes slices of bands he’s interviewed and stacks them all up together and interspersed with stories of his own life, tours and recording as a musician, this is more than a book of anecdotes and it’s packed with insight.
With tales of Australia’s Big Day out over the years we also discover Matera to be as much a fan and a muso and Journalist. And with chapters like ‘Rockstars Behaving Badly’ with its tales of head Pumpkin Billy Corgan’s oft read storming off stage in Melbourne, and stories of Indie Rockers from The Saints to Death Cab For Cutie the net is certainly cast wide.
Acting as Steve Harley Australian Tour liaison and building a friendship we revisit later sheds more light on the writer; and covering guitar heroes like Vai and Satriani (both lovely guys I’ve interviewed over the years), through the Prog of Yes and the wonderful Rick Wakeman all the way to Metal Gods and contrasting stage and off stage personalities keeps us rolling along. Then there’s Disturbed and Sevendust, a little skirting round Metallica and a wonderful chapter on ‘hired guns’ not only for Bowie and ex-Beatles, but also Celine Dion… OK I admit I skipped a few pages there… and yes her ‘hired gun’ got fired!
But there’s more – including respect for the Emo scene and Fred Mascherino in particular (ex-Taking Back Sunday) and an intriguing section with Jeff Martin of Tea Party who I always saw (when we’ve met or spoken) as a link perhaps to the Rock Stars of old?
The smorgasbord continues with a glimpse of a few ‘Legends’ – a motley Crew of Marvin, May, Manzarek and George Martin (all the M’s) before an accolade for the Blues and Boogie merchants Status Quo and a rather unnecessary dig at Deep Purple, before a rather nice section on Joe supporting ex-Bay City Rollers main man Les McKeown who I was always charmed by and left in hysterics whenever I interviewed him. He’ll be sadly missed.
You can’t of course have a book about Rock and Roll without touching on the ‘Sex Drugs and Rock and Roll’ aspect, and whilst of course Gene Simmons and Led Zeppelin and Motley Crue are all name- checked it’s the anecdotes from the likes of Warrant’s Joey Allen that I really enjoyed reading:
“We used to have orgies going on at certain times. We were pretty racy when it came to the women and the amount of women we had and nothing was held back at all. Ever! In the early days when we were all single and having a good time, you can imagine what it was like. Anything you can imagine, I would ask you to just double it, because that was what it was like. We had this guy who would hand out passes to the girls to come back stage after the show and just party so things would go from there. Most of the time it pretty much 99% alcohol and 1% drugs whether some weed or blow. For example, during the Cherry Pie tour in 1991, we had this stage that was quite tall and we used to have, you know, ‘parties’ under the stage while there was a drum or guitar solo going on”.
And there’s more from the likes of Tracii Guns (L.A Guns) and Hinder’s lead guitarist Joe “Blower” Garvey.
It’s interesting as a writer myself reading the book because whilst nodding your head in the main there are times when your experience is at odds with Joe’s. There’s a section for example about the ‘notoriously difficult’ Primal Scream, that sounds little ‘strained’ and in which Bobby Gillespie doesn’t even make an appearance. I remember myself landing an interview with him and being told that he’d hung up on a couple of journalists (you know just to get the nerves jangling) and as it turned out we had a great chat that went way over allotted times in which we talked about vinyl for ages. Sometimes it’s about making that connection outside of the usual and Matera stresses the importance of research many time, he couldn’t be more right.
But the stories keep coming and you feel like you’d love to meet most of these guys – but people like Jesse Hughes from Eagles of Death Metal seem to stand out for Joe and along with cameos from Roxy Music, Suzi Quatro and Sweet who all seem like great people to spend time with, we also get the other side of the story in Joe’s obvious reverence for a younger John Mayer than ends tinged with sadness as fame changes Mayer and Joe is cut off as a by-product.
The book rounds out with a few legends – American in Jackson Browne and Aussie-grown in Little River Band (though most Americans I’ve met think of them as American) – they are juxtaposed against a rather awkward interview with J Mascis (Dinosaur Jr) and a Fuel interview that is dotted with glimpses of Lou Reed and Marcia Hines! But the last band in the book is Matchbox 20, a band like openers Nickelback I don’t mind, but don’t really care for either.
I imagine that putting this together was a tough one when you’ve been interviewing as long as Matera, but I like the angle – that is spelled out in the epilogue – that touring is hard and promo is tough and often non-stop – it’s not glamorous in the main but may look like that to the outside world. It’s not a tell-all book, nor a heavy hitter with Matera taking over the narrative, indeed he comes at his subjects with a lot of love and admiration. The fact that he’s an artist adds a nice added twist and I recommend you take a listen to his music yourself. If I was writing a book like this I imagine that though the subject matter might be very similar the result would be very different and that’s the beauty of this book for me. Personally as someone who has got to do a lot of what Joe has both here and in the States – it shows how different experiences can be even with the same attitude and same ethos and similar amounts of love and respect.
By the end of the book you come away feeling for those that spend their lives on the road and the pressures that come with it. Matera has done a fine top in prizing open the lid into a world that runs like clockwork and has changed so much as we’ve moved from print to online. What matters most is that his love of music is apparent and unquestionable and his eye for detail adds wonderful texture to his observations.
Buy it now:
Australia: https://www.amazon.com.au/dp/
US and Canada: https://www.amazon.
https://joematera.com/