In the dressing room with the 20th century’s greatest musicians

British photographer David Corio remembers discovering New Music Express back in 1974 at the age of 14. ​“NME was the Bible,” he says, with a reverence that has not faded in the half century since. Corio would pick up a copy of the publication every Thursday and read it cover to cover. ​“It was a weekly newspaper with a quarter of a million copy circulation at its peak. It broke a hell of a lot of bands.”

At 16, Corio went to college, took up music photography, and decided to give it a proper go when he arrived in London in 1978. He took a few jobs in the West End near the NME offices and immediately set to work. At night, he went to gigs, made photographs, then went home to develop the film and prints in his darkroom. For six months, he dropped off prints at the NME office, but none of the images ever made it to print. 

Then one day, Corio received a call from the editor. They wanted him to photograph Joe Jackson at the Marquee Club in 1979. He hit the ground running and never looked back, amassing an unparalleled archive of music photography spanning the past 40 years.

Now, Corio revisits the intimate encounters he shared with artists behind the scenes in Backstage 1977 – 2000 (Café Royal Books). The book brings together candid portraits of Chaka Khan, Curtis Mayfield, James Brown, The Specials, The Slits, Aswad, and more for an unvarnished look at life before and after taking to the stage. 

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“NME covered a bit of everything,” Corio says. ​“They were doing run interviews and reviews of punk, reggae, and early hip hop long before it became regular to be seen and heard. Same with African music and new jazz. Looking back at it now, it’s quite groundbreaking.” 

But for all the cultural cache working for NME possessed, Corio remembers: ​“Being a member of the press didn’t really mean anything because I never had a press card or any ID. Normally, you’d get your name put on the door, so you’d get in for free. That was one of the main reasons I did it – to get into gigs.” 

Corio photographed performances, but he particularly relished the time backstage with the artists and bands, providing an alternative, less curated view of them. ​“A lot of the time, you’d just knock on the dressing room door, walk right in, and take two or three pictures at the most,” he says. ​“I try not to be noticed and try to take candid pictures that capture their personality, rather than me trying to give them an image.” 

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He even famously blagged his way into Marvin Gaye’s legendary concert at Royal Albert Hall, the only photographer standing in the pit. ​“Everyone was dressed to the nines, and there was just me, alone at the front,” he says. ​“It felt like Marvin was singing just to me.”

But such opportunities were few and far between, especially for a scrappy upstarted determined to make a way. He was determined to get inside the rooms few could go, knowing full well most times he would only get one shot. ​“Backstage,” he says, ​“you either get it or you don’t.”

Backstage: 1977 – 2000 by David Corio is published by Café Royal Books.

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