Barbara Charone: Meet the Chelsea director who helped break Madonna
Barbara Charone: Meet the Chelsea director who helped break Madonna
Image source, Barbara Charone
As she headed backstage to interview The Who at New York's Madison Square Garden at early 1970s, Barbara Charone got mistaken for a groupie.
Jobs for women in the music industry at that time were "few and spaced out," the PR guru and new Chelsea FC manager told BBC News, and so the bouncer believed she should only be there "for one reason".
"I walked up and said, 'I'm on the guest list,' and the guy just said, 'Yeah, sure you are!' recalls Charone, who wrote for magazines such as Sounds and Rolling Stone. "So condescending and completely because I was a woman."
The Chicagoan moved to London, the hometown of The Who, several years later, in 1974, and discovered that it was a similar situation. story. "When I first came to England and started freelancing for the NME, the only other women on the paper were a photographer from New York, who was freelancing, and the sub-editor and there was another British photographer, Pennie Smith," she explains. "So there were hardly any women.
"And [it was] the same with record labels and [women] were always really relegated to certain types of jobs like liaison with the artists, where they booked restaurants, hotels and trips." Charone eventually moved from music journalist to public relations and media relations. /p>
"There weren't really many female general managers or people in high positions, so [things] changed completely," says- she.
As she headed backstage to interview The Who at New York's Madison Square Garden at early 1970s, Barbara Charone got mistaken for a groupie.
Jobs for women in the music industry at that time were "few and spaced out," the PR guru and new Chelsea FC manager told BBC News, and so the bouncer believed she should only be there "for one reason".
"I walked up and said, 'I'm on the guest list,' and the guy just said, 'Yeah, sure you are!' recalls Charone, who wrote for magazines such as Sounds and Rolling Stone. "So condescending and completely because I was a woman."
The Chicagoan moved to London, the hometown of The Who, several years later, in 1974, and discovered that it was a similar situation. story. "When I first came to England and started freelancing for the NME, the only other women on the paper were a photographer from New York, who was freelancing, and the sub-editor and there was another British photographer, Pennie Smith," she explains. "So there were hardly any women.
"And [it was] the same with record labels and [women] were always really relegated to certain types of jobs like liaison with the artists, where they booked restaurants, hotels and trips." Charone eventually moved from music journalist to public relations and media relations. /p>
"There weren't really many female general managers or people in high positions, so [things] changed completely," says- she.
Image source, Barbara Charone 
Image source, Barbara Charone
