JUST BACKDATED HITS THE 2,000,000 MARK

Sometime in the last 24 hours my Just Backdated music blog notched up its two millionth hit. It reached one million in October, 2020, taking seven years to do so, as I launched Just Backdated at the end of 2013. That it’s taken under five years to clock up the second million indicates growth, the be-all-and-end-all of our capitalist society, though I’ve never been convinced that more and more and bigger and bigger is the best way for humanity to survive. 

But I digress. At this rate it’ll hit the three millionth mark towards the end of 2027, assuming I’m still around to keep it going, but lately I’ve been toying with the idea of somehow monetising it. In 12 years of posting on Just Backdated, I’ve given away 1,069 articles on music, the vast majority newly written by me simply because I enjoy writing. A few, probably less than 5%, are extracts from books or reproductions of pieces I wrote previously, mostly for Melody Maker. A tiny handful feature the work of others. I don’t adhere to a fixed quota; sometimes a week or two might go by without a post from me, other weeks I might write two or three. It all depends on what I’ve read, or what I’ve heard, or what I’ve seen, or if there’s something in the air that I feel like writing about. (The next post will probably be about the guitarist Albert Lee, whose concert in Godalming I’m attending this coming Saturday.) Increasingly, I find myself writing about musicians that have passed on whom I knew or whose music I admire. 

I long ago realised that becoming a writer, be it about music or anything else, is a lifetime’s work. Just because writers pass retirement age doesn’t mean they automatically stop writing for a living and take up gardening or bowls. Writers simply carry on because it’s what they do, and, as the years roll by, I for one have come to realise that continuing to write is the best way to keep the brain in decent shape. Freelance editing assignments, however, are becoming thin on the ground these days, an inevitable consequence of advancing years. 

Quite how I might monetise Just Backdated I haven’t a clue and it might well be beyond my technical ability. I’m making inquiries about how it could be done – I’m fortunate to have a computer-savvy daughter whose mind I’ll tap – but in the end I might still abandon the idea if it proves unworkable. Either way, it’ll be cheap. That said, I’ve realised that if each time anyone ever read something on Just Backdated, all two million of them, I was paid just one penny, I’d be £20,000 in credit now. 

But back to the posts on JB and, as before when a landmark has been reached, I’ll list those that are the most popular and comment on any changes amongst them. Firstly, there’s a new number one: my treatment for a proposed book by Mandy Moon, daughter of Keith, which I would ghost-write (but which never happened), takes over at the top (with 52.5k hits) from my review of The Who’s CD of their show at the Fillmore East in 1968 (49.7k). I thought the Fillmore piece would never be surpassed but I was wrong; however, these two posts are streets ahead of anything else. 

        Jimmy Page (17.6k) is at numbers three and seven but, as ever, The Who still dominate the list. Interestingly, posts about John and, especially, Keith, outperform posts about Pete and Roger. Nice to see Marianne Faithfull creeping in at number 20, the first female ever to make the Top 20, no doubt a result of her leaving us, and also my story about the 1968 North Of England Beer Drinking Championships, a rare non-music post, holding its own at number 16. 

MOON GIRL: My Life in the Shadow of Rock’s Wildest Star 52.5k

THE WHO Live At Fillmore East, 1968         49.7k

JIMMY PAGE: Boleskine House, Tower House & More 17.6k

JOHN, PAUL & KEITH, Santa Monica, 1974         14k

JIMI HENDRIX AT THE ISLE OF WIGHT, 1970 8.3k

DEEP PURPLE: Trouble in Jakarta         7.5k

JIMMY PAGE: The Day Jimmy Met Robert 6.71k

KEITH MOON’S LIVING ARRAGEMENTS 5.61k

PALAZZO DARIO” The Palace That Tommy Bought         5.58k

WHO UK TOUR 2014         5.16k

THE WHO: My Hidden Gems Album 4.53k

KEITH MOON & THE PYTHONS         4.29k

LAUNCHING DEAR BOY 4.15k

THE WHO: Hyde Park London, June 16, 2015 3.59k

JOHN ENTWISTLE Obituary (1944-2002) 3.44k

THE NORTH OF ENGLAND BEER DRINKING CHAMPIONSHIPS         3.08k

THE OX: The Last of The Great Rock Stars (Book Review) 2.97k

UNDERTURE: Keith’s Great Triumph         2.85k

PRETEND YOU’RE IN A WAR: Who Book Review 2.84k

MARIANNE FAITHFULL: Saturday Night Live, 1980 2.8k