This episode of Music Made Me Do It unpacks a profession in the music industry that I actually know something about.

When you’re a music journalist your strongest contacts are artist PRs, otherwise known as Press Officers or Publicists. They’re the people who set up interviews and photoshoots for us, send us pre-release records and get us into gigs.

At Loud And Quiet we owe a lot to these people, and in the world of music PR no name is more revered than Barbara Charone: co-founder of MBC PR, life-long publicist of Madonna and others including Keith Richards, Rod Stewart, Mark Ronson, REM, Foo Fighters and Metallica.

One successful music career wasn’t enough for BC though, who began as rock journalist in the 1970s, writing for NME, Rolling Stone, Cream and her hometown newspaper, the Chicago Sun-Times.

So two stories for one this week, with Barbara Charone sharing her career in music, unpacking what makes a good PR, right after explaining how she became a renowned rock critic straight out of school.

Listen below or on your favourite podcast app.