We all have our ideas about who may be next in
line to get their collar felt by Operation Yewtree, perhaps even having
workplace sweepstakes on it. Fred Talbot is yet another one of the
disappointing cases, as it is someone that held a great deal of public
affection which he might be about to lose. Rolf Harris was in the same
situation that nobody really wanted him to be found guilty simply because of whom
he was; we could have stood the loss of Jim Davidson or Freddie Starr but the
removal of the wobble board from the world of music was actually quite sad.
Nobody has been brave enough to introduce it into their act yet and probably
never will, as Harris has been airbrushed out of pop culture history as happens
when public disgrace occurs.
The issue of removing all evidence after a
conviction of this nature is a strange and delicate one as we don’t seem able
to separate the artist from the art. For example, the song ‘Two Little Boys’ is
an old Music Hall standard written about the American Civil War and
originally made famous by Harry Lauder,
and of course there are punk versions by Splodgenessabounds and John Otway to
enjoy, but as the song is heavily associated with Rolf Harris you don’t hear it
any more. One of the most obvious cases of this came to my attention while
watching The Full Monty a couple of weeks ago; the soundtrack features two
songs, albeit only snippets but enough for the viewer to recognise them, by
Gary Glitter – ‘Rock and Roll, Part 2’ and ‘I’m The Leader Of The Gang (I Am)’.
Watching the film makes no difference to Glitter’s finances, especially as we
bought the DVD second hand. The film was made before his initial arrest for
possession of indecent images and therefore at the time the music was still
popular, yet it felt a little bit uncomfortable listening to it in a mainstream
film (although perhaps less uncomfortable given that it was a grownup film,
imagine if Spiceworld had been released and made loads of money before Glitter’s arrest). Gary Glitter was indeed still a fairly
big draw and he took advantage of this with a lucrative annual tour, usually around
Christmas. Now we know that his box office wasn’t the only thing he took
advantage of, if you know what I mean, his songs are rarely heard, if at all,
and rightly so. BBC4 drew complaints for not editing Glitter from an episode of
Top of the Pops (the ‘real time’ broadcast of which has been blighted by the need
to keep scrapping episodes featuring sex offenders), the same episode was
presented by Jimmy Savile who had just died and was still in the
tributes-to-a-legend stage. I tweeted at the time speculating on what might
have taken place in the dressing rooms and was replied to by over one hundred
people telling me to show some respect for the dead. A charitable saint in the
public eye in life and a vile sex case in death, it’s as if he managed to do a ‘reverse
Jacko’. The only other time you’ll hear Gary Glitter is on those increasingly
rare occasions when a pub or shop hasn’t bothered buying a new Christmas CD for
ages; I heard ‘Another Rock and Roll Christmas’ a few years ago in the now
defunct (although I’m not saying that’s the reason) toy shop Hawkins Bazaar a
few years back.
Gary Glitter (or rather, Paul Gadd), is
currently on trial for alleged sexual assaults dating back to his pop star
heyday of the 1970s, having pleaded not guilty to the charges put before him. We
the public are not the jury in this case (apart from twelve of us the public
but they won’t be allowed to read this) and I’m not sure how I would be able to
conduct myself if I was. The fact that Gadd is in the dock could prejudice the
jury seeing as they know his form. Juries are not told of previous convictions
and are ordered to judge the case based purely on the evidence they hear in the
courtroom, and are also told not to conduct any independent research by
checking the defendant on Facebook for example or Googling them. This is a
difficult thing to ask of a jury when the defendant is on trial for one of the
worst things to be accused of and you already know what he is capable of. The
CPS will no doubt want another notch on their belt to add to the tally so far;
Stuart Hall, Rolf Harris, and Max Clifford, and are paranoid now because the
public know that Jimmy Savile’s friends in the police, Government and Royal
Family kept him out of trouble and don’t want to be seen to let another one
through the net.
On the other hand, Gadd must be aware of
public opinion. He knows that we know he is a notorious paedophile and that
this could possibly go against him in a trial by jury. Pleading not guilty in
this case might, and I emphasise the word might, actually mean that he isn’t
guilty. After all, he isn’t pleading not guilty to being a sexual predator, he
is pleading not guilty to ten charges relating to three girls. If he adamantly
didn’t want to plead guilty, forcing the case to go to trial, he must have a
fucking good alibi for his movements when his turn comes to take his place in
the witness box.
Either that or he is playing a very brave
double bluff which could land him in prison.
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This week’s edition of The Sunday Alternative
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