JUST BACKDATED – The Top Thirty

The first week of the year seems like a good time to review the performance of my Just Backdated blog, and bring the Posts Chart up to date. In doing so yesterday I discovered that the number of hits in the Top 20 listed in statistics automatically conveyed to me by my Blogspot host differs considerably from the number of hits recorded when I look at each of the 1,041 posts individually, specifically that there are far more hits registered in the individual listings. Computer science baffles me and this discovery of mine surely indicates that it isn’t an exact discipline even though those behind it would like to think it is. Accordingly, I have revised the chart considerably and opted to list the Top 30 this time around, with the result that although posts about The Who still dominate, there are many newcomers. 

        Nevertheless, aside from one remarkable instance, there isn’t that much in the way of changes from the top 10 I wrote about in March 2022, when I last did a survey like this, this one to commemorate notching up 1,250,000 hits. That figure has now risen to 1,810,987, so the two million mark looms, perhaps later this year or early next. Either way, the number of hits Just Backdated gets every month is increasing all the time, probably the result of more readers becoming aware of it. 

        The big surprise is that my synopsis for the abandoned book with Mandy de Wolf, Keith Moon’s daughter, has now clocked up 45,100 hits, still in second place but closing in rapidly on the number one post, my review of The Who’s Live at Fillmore East 1968 CD which has remained pretty much static all year. In 2022, The Fillmore CD had 47.7k hits, with Mandy on 20.3k, so its acceleration is quite remarkable. Barely a week goes by when it doesn’t get between 2-300 hits, and I keep wondering where they all come from. These two posts are streets ahead of all the rest. 

        Many of the 25 comments on the post about this proposed book – which I provisionally titled Moon Girl: My Life in the Shadow of Rock’s Wildest Star – suggest it should be published but for personal reasons Mandy has told me she’s no longer interested in writing the book, with me or anyone else as a ghost writer. Naturally I respect her wishes. 

        As before the chart contains far more Who posts, with 14 of the top 30 all related to the group or its individual members. Posts about Keith and John seem to win out over posts about Pete or Roger, though the last post I wrote – about those dodgy Daltrey books – has racked up over 800 hits in a few days, which is not bad going. Led Zep come second with five. Slade have just one post in the top 30 – my obituary of their much-loved tour manager Graham ‘Swin’ Swinnerton – but lots of posts about the group have clocked up between 1,500 and 2,00 hits. One day, if I could be bothered, I might tot up the number of hits each act has received across all my posts about them, and I’m pretty sure Slade would be third. 

        Non-Who post that have somewhat expectedly racked up well over 2,000 hits include my review of Look Away, the Sky documentary about the exploitation of girls/women in the music industry, my review of the Melody Maker movie largely devoted to our ace photographer Barrie Wentzell, my obituary of Pete Overend Watts of Mott The Hoople, a post about my friend Adrian Boot’s punk photo exhibition review, an obituary of Robert Stigwood, my Steely Dan interview, two close encounters with the odious Jimmy Savile, seeing CSN&Y in Denver in 1974, and my adventures with Lynyrd Skynyrd. 

Here’s the Top 30, with the number of hits and the 2022 placing in brackets

1) The Who Live at Fillmore East CD,  50.7k hits (1)

2) Moon Girl, 45.6k (2)

3) Jimmy Page – Boleskine House, Tower House & More, 18.9k (3)

4) John, Paul & Keith, Santa Monica, 1974, 16.6k (4)

5) Jimi Hendrix at the Isle of Wight, 12.41k (newcomer to chart)

6) Jimmy Page – The Day Jimmy Met Robert, 9.1k (5)

7) Keith Moon’s Living Arrangements, 8.6k (13)

8) Palazzo Dario – The Palace that Tommy Bought, 7.68k (6)

9) Deep Purple – Trouble in Jakarta, 6.99k (11)

10) The North of England Beer Drinking Championship, 6.4k (15)

11) Marianne Faithfull, 1980, Book Extract 6.2k (new)

12) Keith Moon & The Pythons, 6.13k (8)

13) Pete Rudge, Who/Stones tour manager, Interview from MM 1973, 5.3k (new)

14) The Who UK tour 2014 announcement, 5.1k (7)

15) The Who in Hyde Park, London, June 26, 2015, 4.78k (12)

16) Dennis Wilson MM interview, 4.45k, (new)

17) Abba Live At Wembley Arena CD review, 4.4k (new)

18) The Who Live in Ottawa review, 4.4k (new)

19) The Who – My Hidden Gems album, 4.28k (10)

20) Led Zeppelin in Chicago, 1975, 4.21 (new)

21) Launching Dear Boy, 4.15k (9)

22) Eric Clapton On The Road 1974, 4.03 (new) 

23) Jimmy Page Biography review, 4.02 (new)

24) Johnny Ramone’s Mosrite, book extract, 4.0k, (new) 

25) My 70th Birthday Playlist 3.9k, (new)

26) Graham Swinnerton, Slade tour manager obituary, 3.8 (new)

27) My Introduction to Debbie Harry, 3.5k (new)

28) John Entwistle (1944-2002), obituary, 3.4k (14)

29) The Who in Birmingham, December 2014, 3.3k (new)

30) David Cassidy obituary, 3.1 k (new)

An honorary listing ought perhaps to go to my reports of The Who at New Bingley Hall, Staff, 1975, which was in three parts whose combined hits total is 6997. 

Finally, my thanks to all who visit Just Backdated. The number of hits I get makes it all worthwhile and encourages me to keep going.