Winning the Strat Award means a lot…

“The best thing about it is that Music Week honoured a PR, I feel really proud about that. I don’t think PRs or radio and TV pluggers get enough credit, I think we’re taken for granted a bit. I was a journalist and I feel the same way about journalists.” 

Keith Richards oozed rock star quality from the get-go…

“When I first interviewed him, I wrote what is still a really great line, ‘When Keith Richards walks in a room, rock’n’roll walks in after him.’ That’s exactly the impression he made. He’s a living persona of the Stones’ music. Writing about him as a journalist was great, and then I wrote an authorised biography [1979’s Keith Richards: Life As A Rolling Stone] which was an amazing experience. Visiting him in his dressing room before a Stones show is always a treat, the vibe is always 100% Keith, music, candles, his laugh... Once, when the Stones were playing Wembley, Ronnie Wood and [keyboard player] Chuck Leavell came in to run through a couple of songs from Exile On Main St, my favourite album ever. It was like having a private concert – just surreal.”

A career in journalism was great prep for working in PR…

“It’s the other side of the coin. Because you wrote the stories, you can suggest the angle or what’s so interesting about it, even little things like knowing that a writer wouldn’t want to sit with four people from the same band doing an interview because when you transcribe the tape, you wouldn’t know whose voice was whose because they talk over each other. Writing my memoir reminded me how much I love writing. In lockdown, everybody was thinking about their life so it was really good to do something proactive like that.”

For her first UK show, Madonna played a 20-minute set at Camden Palace... the next time she played London, she headlined Wembley Stadium! That will never, ever happen again

Barbara Charone

I’m grateful we still have a music press, but…

“Our national papers probably offer the greatest choice for press. In America, options for press are really slim. But there’s a vacuum in the UK with the monthlies because there’s no Q. The [remaining] monthlies are slightly similar in terms of covering legacy acts, but it’s tough for bands. It’s sad that nothing has replaced Q, and nothing has actually replaced Smash Hits either. There should be new versions of both. The NME still carries weight, but I miss that being in print as well.” 

You need to have a thick skin in this game…

“Once, someone described me as the ‘Alastair Campbell of the music business.’ I took it as a compliment! The Mirror used to have a go at me, because The Sun and the Mirror were at war and I used to give more stuff to The Sun.” 

Madonna is exactly the same now as when we first met in the early ’80s…

“She’s smart, independent, funny, ambitious, she knows what she wants – all those incredibly impressive things. She’s what you think she’d be like. I’ve worked with Madonna since she was unknown, I took her on her first press day and I still don’t think she gets enough credit for her legacy. Being able to see her live is one of the highlights of my career, every gig is better than the one before. For her first UK show, she played a 20-minute set at what was then the Camden Palace and is now Koko, and the next time she played London, she headlined Wembley Stadium! That will never, ever happen again.”

Right now, I feel positive about the music industry…

“I don’t think there’s any point being negative. For all the doom and gloom about lack of sales and everything else, suddenly somebody comes along out of the blue and sells lots and lots of records. There are always new artists around the corner.”