Charlie Gillett 1942-2010 R.I.P.

Massively influential journalist and author operated on the frontlines of the music industry.

By Fred Mills

Charlie Gillett, British journalist, archivist, artist manager, label operator and author of seminal rock tome The Sound of the City: The Rise of Rock and Roll, passed away Wednesday, March 17, from a series of health complications. (He apparently had been diagnosed with Churg-Strauss syndrome a few years ago.) Gillett was 68; he is survived by his wife Buffy plus children Suzy, Jody and Ivan.

Commenting on Gillett's passing, noted UK music critic Barney Hoskyns noted, "Charlie's contributions to music are too numerous to be listed here. Briefly, he was the author of TSOTC (1970); he was the host of the wonderful "Honky Tonk" show on Radio London; he co-managed Ian Dury's Kilburn & the High Roads; and founded Oval Records, enjoying a No. 1 hit with Paul Hardcastle's '19'; and he played a massive role in introducing world music to the UK, on both radio and record."

During the ‘70s both English and American music fans were aware of Gillett's sparkling writing style, as he contributed regularly to both the NME over there and Rolling Stone on these shores. His influence spread even further when, as the host of the "Honky Tonk" show on Radio London, he helped break the likes of Dire Straits, Graham Parker and Elvis Costello.  He remained active in various capacities throughout the decades, most recently broadcasting his "Charlie Gillett's World of Music" on the BBC. A good overview of Gillett's backstory can be viewed at his Wikipedia page.

On a personal note: by 1970-72 I was a music-obsessed teenager steadily moving away from the AM radio mainstream but, as I was living in a small Southern textile town at the time, with limited avenues for discovering musical alternatives. Copies of Rolling Stone, Crawdaddy, Phonograph Record Magazine and even the very occasional Melody Maker and NME would find their way in to my hands like gifts from heaven. Among the greatest gift, however, was a battered copy of The Sound Of The City, which an older hippie friend bequeathed to me with the kind of conspiratorial wink generally reserved for drug transactions: "This will open your eyes, brother," he said.

And indeed it did - my ears, too, as I made it my mission to track down music by as many artists mentioned in the book as possible. Gillett brought to life a primal strand of rock ‘n' roll I'd only heard in passing or never even knew existed, and he helped set me down the road of discovery just as surely as any of the aforementioned music magazines all those years ago.

May he rest in peace.

Check out Charlie Gillett's personal website.

[Photo Credit: Philip Ryalls]