Gary Glitter can't catch a break

[Dex Sawash]

. It's hard to see any course in prison capable of breaking that cycle.

Animal husbandry?

[Oosp]

This is the one thing he did want to happen

[Brundle-Fly]

Not that I'm in any hurry to listen to Glitter's records, but this is true, he was just a talentless berk who fronted some decent records written and produced by Mike Leander. Gadd may have contributed some lyrics, but the best thing about those songs are Leander's production and the music of The Glitter Band.

True, but his showmanship can never be denied. Same with Savile and to a lesser extent Rolf Harris. They were larger than life characters and were entertaining on the most part for a lot of people over the years. I find myself a bit doubtful with people over 45y saying they were always utterly immune to their charms. Really???

[Oosp]

gotta hand it to them

[Eggy Mess]

Last Train to Noncentral

[buzby]

Not that I'm in any hurry to listen to Glitter's records, but this is true, he was just a talentless berk who fronted some decent records written and produced by Mike Leander. Gadd may have contributed some lyrics, but the best thing about those songs are Leander's production and the music of The Glitter Band.

Gadd wrote the lyrics. Leander wrote the music. Sometimes they worked with Leander's writing partner Eddie Seago, who ran their RAM (Rock Artists Management) music publishing company. On the early singles Leander played the instruments too (apart from the brass parts). If anyone but Gadd had come up with the lyrics to A Little Boogie Woogie I'd be looking at them in the same light.

Leander and Gadd's songwriting partnership started in the mid sixties, after Gadd (as Paul Raven) had been dropped by Parlophone. Leander had set up his own showband in 1963 to back artists he was producing. the band included John Rossall, a trombone and sax player who had been in a number of Irish showbands and acted as musical director. By 1965 the band were backing Paul Raven.

Leander disbanded the band in 1966 as he was getting into film soundtrack work so Rossall then formed his own band, The Boston Showband, and called Gadd up to be an additional vocalist when they got a contract for a month's residency at the Kaiser Saal in Hamburg. They ended up spending 6 years touring clubs in the UK and Germany, largely playing covers. Rossall said that this period is where Gadd learned how to be a frontman and build a rapport with audiences.

At the end of 1971 they returned to the UK. Gadd had remained in contact with Leander, recording a number of flop singles during his time touring with Rossall's band including a vocal version of Keith Mansfield's Soul Thing/Funky Fanfare instrumental for which Gadd wrote the lyrics, and as the priest on the Jesus Christ Superstar album in 1970, which Leander produced.

In December of 1971 Leander was working on a David Essex session (presumably for the Godspell cast recording album, which Leander produced and would be released in February 1972) and when he phoned in sick, he used the studio time to work on a track of his own, creating a drum loop in the style of John Kongos and Osibisa and then adding the bass and guitar. He called up Rossall and the other Boston sax player Harvey Ellison to add brass parts to it, and then called up Gadd to improvise some vocals. The 15-minute jam was edited down into Rock & Roll Parts 1 & 2, and Leander and Gadd created the character Gary Glitter to front it.

The single was promoed in to radio stations in May and was getting a lot of airplay. A band was needed to back Gadd up on TOTP and live performances, so Leander called up Rossall again and asked if he could sort it out. Rossall accepted (the band would be largely the ex-Boston Showband members), but only on the condition that they got an option to release their own records, which was taken up in 1974 under the Glitter Band name (with songs mostly written by the band's guitarist Gerry Shephard or co-written by him and Rossall). Rossall then left in 1975 launch a (unsuccessful) solo career.

[Jerzy Bondov]

I'm willing to give him the benefit of the doubt on this one but he's skating on extremely thin ice with me I'm afraid.

[George White]

Mad to think that he survived that execution.

Garry Bushell must have been devastated. Remember how delighted he was.

[Ballad of Ballard Berkley]

Gadd wrote the lyrics. Leander wrote the music. Sometimes they worked with Leander's writing partner Eddie Seago, who ran their RAM (Rock Artists Management) music publishing company. On the early singles Leander played the instruments too (apart from the brass parts). If anyone but Gadd had come up with the lyrics to A Little Boogie Woogie I'd be looking at them in the same light.

Leander and Gadd's songwriting partnership started in the mid sixties, after Gadd (as Paul Raven) had been dropped by Parlophone. Leander had set up his own showband in 1963 to back artists he was producing. the band included John Rossall, a trombone and sax player who had been in a number of Irish showbands and acted as musical director. By 1965 the band were backing Paul Raven.

Leander disbanded the band in 1966 and Rossall then formed his own band, The Boston Showband, and called Gadd up to be an additional vocalist when they got a contract for a month's residency at the Kaiser Saal in Hamburg. They ended up spending 6 years touring clubs in the UK and Germany, largely playing covers. Rossall said that this period is where Gadd learned how to be a frontman and build a rapport with audiences.

At the end of 1971 they returned to the UK. Gadd had remained in contact with Leander, recording a number of flop singles during his time touring with Rossall's band including a vocal version of Keith Mansfield's Soul Thing/Funky Fanfare instrumental for which Gadd wrote the lyrics, and as the priest on the Jesus Christ Superstar album in 1970, which Leander produced).

In December of 1971 year Leander was working on a David Essex session (presumably for the Godspell cast recording album, which Leander produced and would be released in February 1972) and when he phoned in sick, he used the studio time to work on a track of his own, creating a drum loop in the style of Johnny Congos and Osibisa and then adding the bass and guitar. He called up Rossall and the other Boston sax player Harvey Ellison to add brass parts to it, and then called up Gadd to improvise some vocals. The 15-minute jam was edited down into Rock & Roll Parts 1 & 2, and Leander and Gadd created the character Gary Glitter to front it.

The single was promoed in to radio stations in May and was getting a lot of airplay. A band was needed to back Gadd up on TOTP and live performances, so Leander called up Rossall again and asked if he could sort it out. Rossall agreed (the band would be largely the ex-Boston Showband members), but only on the condition that they got an option to release their own records, which was taken up in 1974 under the Glitter Band name (with songs mostly written by the band's guitarist Gerry Shephard or co-written by him and Rossall). Rossall then left in 1975 launch a unsuccessful solo career.

Interesting, ta B.

[SpiderChrist]

True, but his showmanship can never be denied. Same with Savile and to a lesser extent Rolf Harris. They were larger than life characters and were entertaining on the most part for a lot of people over the years. I find myself a bit doubtful with people over 45y saying they were always utterly immune to their charms. Really???

I loved Glitter (one of the first albums I bought with my own money was the execrable live album 'Remember Me This Way')*. Also loved Rolf Harris as a kid. Savile? Nah. Annoying Northern twat.


*28, etc.

[Ballad of Ballard Berkley]

True, but his showmanship can never be denied.

I agree, before we knew what we know he always came across as a big daft ham, a harmlessly kitschy showman who was (at least partly) in on the joke. He wasn't at all sinister, he was basically a cartoon character.

[Maurice Yeatman]

Leander did the string arrangement for She's Leaving Home, didn't he? Might be a version of that with Glitter shouting Hey! after each line.

[idunnosomename]

Rolf Harris was a superior musician, and a lesser nonce. No contest really.

Ian Watkins however does the unthinkable and absolutely obliterates the competition on noncery.

[Goldentony]

Rock n' Roll Part 2 is the biggest 'Gotta Hand It To 'Em' in all of music surely. Kim Fowley? get fucked, Entertainment USA theme song? leave the hall

[buzby]

Leander did the string arrangement for She's Leaving Home, didn't he?

Yes. George Martin was unavailable, and McCartney was in a rush to get it recorded so requested Leander.

The other thing I remember is that George Martin was offended that I used another arranger. He was busy and I was itching to get on with it; I was inspired. I think George had a lot of difficulty forgiving me for that. It hurt him; I didn't mean to.

Martin conducted the string section for the recording and produced the track.

[Oosp]

Rock n' Roll Part 2 is the biggest 'Gotta Hand It To 'Em' in all of music surely. Kim Fowley? get fucked, Entertainment USA theme song? leave the hall

Everyone's Gone to the Moon?

[Huxleys Babkins]

True, but his showmanship can never be denied. Same with Savile and to a lesser extent Rolf Harris. They were larger than life characters and were entertaining on the most part for a lot of people over the years. I find myself a bit doubtful with people over 45y saying they were always utterly immune to their charms. Really???

I suspect their longevity is part of the reason why nobody 45+ admits to ever liking them. They weren't like most stars who pop up, have a few years at the top and then fade away, popping up again down the road for a nostalgia run. If you were a kid who grew up watching Savile and Rolf in the 60s, by the end of the 70's, as a teenager/young adult, you'd find them embarrassing and shit. Yet they were still at it well into the 90's. You'd have multiple generations of kids growing up and then growing out of their act.

I think that's why there was quite a lot of millennial good will for Rolf and Jim'll, pre-revelations. They faded out at just the right time for the kids who watched latter day Jim'll Fix It and Rolf's Cartoon Club to want to see them again in the 00s.

Everyone's Gone to the Moon?

Get it into a Batman movie and we're talking.

[George White]

I agree, before we knew what we know he always came across as a big daft ham, a harmlessly kitschy showman who was (at least partly) in on the joke. He wasn't at all sinister, he was basically a cartoon character.

My mother always said she never liked him, though.
Then again, she never liked Barrymore.
She liked Jim'll, and Rolf, and got upset whenever I brought up David Jason and the gliding club.

[curiousoranges]

This cunt brown bread yet?

[Huxleys Babkins]

All I'm saying is, if you leave a power vacuum at the top of the gang, don't be surprised if some unsavoury character comes in and sets themselves up as leader.

Glitter might be a wrong'un, but he's a proper wrong'un. Our wrong'un.

[Paul Calf]

True, but his showmanship can never be denied. Same with Savile and to a lesser extent Rolf Harris. They were larger than life characters and were entertaining on the most part for a lot of people over the years. I find myself a bit doubtful with people over 45y saying they were always utterly immune to their charms. Really???

I was genuinely upset about Rolf Harris. Two Little Boys was a much-loved childhood memory. I always felt guilty for thinking that Savile was a vile weirdo but obviously that's not a problem now.

I've always hated glam rock and only just forgave Bowie for Ziggy Stardust so Glitter always seemed like a chunky, grimy, decomposing ex-teddy boy. I miss the Christmas song though.

[George White]

I had a bit of a moral crisis when it turned out Rolf was a nonce.
Like I genuinely feel to this day, that if Rolf is a nonce, then there's little point to being a good person.

[Alberon]

Savile was obvious in retrospect, he'd long passed into the realm of the very weird anyway. Harris was more of a gutblow as he was a more treasured memory of childhood TV. Glitter was never a central figure in my telly childhood and the last I'd thought of him before his arrest was his adverts for a Young Persons Railcard taking the micky out of himself a decade or so earlier.

If someone like Johnny Ball was ever accused of this sort of thing I'd be absolutely gutted. Met him a couple of months ago and he actually was surprisingly down to earth, and very funny.

[monkfromhavana]

I still think he's self sabotaging. If you were a 79 year old 'most famous living celebrity paedophile in the UK'

Prince Andrew's never going to be king and now you're even taking this away from him.

[jobotic]

not that I approve of any violence between people in custody, but how has this cunt not been killed in prison yet

Won't he be on the nonce wing? Who's going to kill him? Another nonce?

These men have committed horrific crimes but they were never charged with hypocrisy.

[Huxleys Babkins]

Prince Andrew's never going to be king and now you're even taking this away from him.

We can still get Glitter out of prison with this compelling new evidence of his innocence:

[Billy]

The absolute nuts thing is that I have an Early Learning Centre 'All About Me' book, written when I was about five, and who have I written in the 'My favourite pop star' section? Bloody Greta Garbo Gary Glitter.

Does anyone know how the fuck I knew who he was, let alone scrawl his name in my book, in circa 1993-1994?! Did he have a revival or a high profile telly appearance around then? I remember one of his songs advertising Felix cat food but that was later on in the decade, possibly even after his arrest as there were a good few years where they still played his songs a bit before they completely stopped sometime around the proper nasty stuff was revealed in the mid-00s.

The cast of Blue Peter singing 'Another Rock and Roll Christmas' on the show as late as 2001 is about as lost media as you can get.

[Oosp]

Won't he be on the nonce wing? Who's going to kill him? Another nonce?

These men have committed horrific crimes but they were never charged with hypocrisy.

Nonce Wing's a laugh, mate. Just lads painting and singing around the piano and reading history books and taking politely to the chaplain. Mostly, though, just sitting in the dark by that window with the blinds closed, talking with your voice all different. That's the best bit. Everyone does that in Nonce Wing, sitting in the dark with your voice all different by the window. In the little armchair, telling about what you did. Whoever's there in the room, doesn't matter, they can listen or they can leave the room and go down the telly room and play bridge, doesn't matter. Could be nobody in the room even. You'd stillbe happy just to sit there talking in your different voice, not your usual one, with the blinds closed, nobody can see who it is. They all know who it is, obviously, they're your mates. They know what you did, they've heard you tell it before. Just feels good to sit there. Few minutes of peace. His turn next, fuck off out of the seat. Off you go to choir practice. Fucking laugh, mate, Nonce Wing. Nobody getting stabbed there I can tell you. Stab you with what? The conductor's baton? A rolled-up print of Ganymede in the fields?

[shiftwork2]

You know what - I bet he wishes he hadn't taken his laptop into PC World that day!!!

[idunnosomename]

You know what - I bet he wishes he hadn't taken his laptop into PC World that day!!!

huh it was a laptop! I always assumed it was a desktop. in 1997 it must have been a very chunky thinkpad, with room for not much else after 54 indecent photographs of children under 16 on its HDD (which cant have been more than 1 GB capacity)