Rock'N'Roll Row

Famed music entrepreneur Simon Napier-Bell (pictured left) was in Sydney last month and Whispers popped along to the Newtown music club Leadbelly to hear him give a talk on the music industry.  Napier-Bell discovered such legends as Marc Bolan & T-Rex, Dusty Springfield and the late George Michael and Wham. He has managed numerous stars and steered their careers including The Yardbyrds in the 1960s up to Sinead O'Connor last year.

One of Napier-Bell's themes is the influence of gay managers on the emerging music business in Britain that included not just himself but Brian Epstein and The Beatles, Kit Lambert and The Who, Australian Robert Stigwood and The Bee Gees and Larry Parnes. Parnes discovered and launched numerous stars in the 1960s including Billy Fury and Marty Wilde. One tale told by the late Kit Lambert is that Robert Stigwood rang Parnes and said " I've just driven past your office and there is a blond Adonis working on the roadworks, look out your window". Parnes looked, spotted the handsome blond and the career of Tommy Steele was born. Napier-Bell reckons gay managers had a unique feel for what teenage girls wanted and acted upon it.

Top: Epstein & The Beatles* Jann Werner Bottom: Stigwood & the Bee Gees. Kit Lambert & The Who

Parnes & Tommy Steele

The New York Times just last week featured this theme (after speaking to Napier-Bell) in a feature written by journalist Jim Farber on the occasion of the pending launch of a biography of the famous Jann Werner who launched the music bible Rolling Stone magazine. Werner, now 70 only just came out the closet recently. But an almighty row is now brewing between Werner and his biographer which you can read all about. What fun!

The articles:

The Gay Architects of Rock

Who created that gorgeous 20th-century creature, the rock star? Consider

the gay image makers of the day, like Brian Epstein and Jann Wenner.

Rolling Stone founder falls out with biographer over candid life story

Tidbits

The Hairstyle of The Month award in September goes to New York businessman Richard Feldman who was spotted at the annual Quest 400 party in NYC.

 Perhaps he shares a hairdresser with our favorite ex-Prime Minister Bob Hawke. The two could be long lost cousins!

Spotted on the Blue Carpet for the premier in London of the new Beatles film Eight Days A Week last Thursday, music personality Simon Napier Bell who these days spends his time touring the world and lecturing on music as seen in our snap taken in India.
Simon wrote a song we all love :"You Don't Have to say You Love Me" made famous by Dusty Springfield and Elvis Presley. Napier-Bell attended the film along with Yoko Ono, Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr.

Not long ago Simon hosted a BBC series on rock'n'roll managers and he is currently filming a documentary on British gay life (in our snap he is interviewing actor Simon Callow) . OK we are a bit prejudiced here- Simon who is half Australian is also a business partner of Whispers in a film project among other things. But you really should read some of his books including the fascinating "I'm Coming to Take You To Lunch" of how he managed to get the pop duo Wham to be the first pop act to appear in Communist China ( Whispers was there!)


Coming shortly : all the news on the 80th Anniversary of the Black & White Ball at the Sydney Town Hall.

















Here is Dusty singing Simon Napier Bell's You Don't Have To Say You Love Me.

Parky Declares A Republic is Needed !

One aspect of Sir Michael Parkinson's Australia Day speech last night at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music was the inevitable subject of whether Australia should become a republic after the failed republican campaign led by Malcolm Turnbull in 2000 was defeated in a referendum before the Australian people.

Parky leans to the left of politics- born in working class Yorkshire and the son of a miner- he once told the Shuttle in 1998 over dinner in response to the question of what he thought of former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher :

"she was a perfect example of total power corrupting. I'm with the Queen on this-she couldn't stand Maggie !"

Sir Michael reckons that Australia, where he is spending more and more time in retirement , should become a republic but not until after the death of his favourite Royal, HRH Queen Elizabeth 11.

And the reason ?. "Just think" said Parky, "and you should put this jingle to the tune of The Beatles 
"We all Live in A Yellow Submarine":

"your -next -Queen- is- Camilla- Parker- Bowles, -Camilla -Parker -Bowles ".

If you have forgotten the tune-here is the original:

Exclusive : Rock legend Jimi Hendrix was a pedophile !

Well that's possibly the headline a tabloid like Britain's The Sun would run today.

A new autobiography just released by former pop singer and music business identity Jonathan King who had a string of hit records in the 1960's through to the 80's relates the story of how the late rocker Jimi Hendrix had sex with a 14 year old fan and caught a venereal disease from her.

In his book Jonathan King, 65 My Life So Far King says he used to "nag Hendrix to scale down the drugs and have sex with a 'better class of girl' ". He writes "At least 3 times in private Hendrix whipped out his reasonably substantial dick to reveal to me a vast amount of discharge oozing from his infected organ."

" Did I think he had VD again?" he'd ask King innocently. And once swore, when I confirmed it, 'Christ she can't have been more than 14 years old! " said Hendrix referring to the young female fan he had just had sex with.

Jonathan King is his pop star days

King's book contains a host of bawdy revelations and tales of sexual romps involving some of the biggest names of the rock world from the 60's to the 90's and includes revelations about bi-sexual orgies he attended with former Beatle John Lennon (see story below).

Others stories including King's own claim he slept with 12 girls in a row after his number 1 hit " Everyone's Gone to the Moon" written and released when he was still a university student can be found on the Madame Arcati blog.

King holds back nothing in his book and goes into great depth about his 2001 conviction on sex charges for which he spent nearly 4 years in jail for. During his incarceration he spent his time assisting other prisoners prepare appeals against their convictions. On his release he made a highly amusing movie about his ordeal which can be viewed on-line at Vile Pervert

And here is King's 1965 first big hit record which sold 4 million copies:

exclusive : Beatle John Lennon's bi-sexual orgies !

The British blogger Madame Arcati says a new book reveals that former Beatle John Lennon indulged in bi-sexual orgies. Former pop king Jonathan King who has sold over 40 million records in his time reveals the tale in his just released autobiography 65 My Life So Far.
                 There have been persistent rumours about Lennon's sexuality over the years especially concerning his manager and the discoverer of  The Beatles, Brian Epstein.
               Lennon's first wife Cynthia, who John married in 1968 but also had been living with since their art school days and possibly knew the Beatle better than anyone including Yoko Ono, details in her 2004 book John the complicated relationship between Lennon and Epstein.

          Although she denies it was sexual she does concede it was an extremely complex relationship with Lennon at times being excessively cruel to Epstein whist at the same time expressing his deep admiration for the man.
                   When Brian Epstein committed suicide in 1967 it was said that he was upset at the possibility of losing  management of The Beatles whilst close friends claimed that Epstein was distraught at losing his influence with Lennon who they said he was obsessed with. Cynthia says Lennon, assassinated in New York in 1980 was devastated at the news of Epstein's death.              
                    A contemporary of Epsteins, the music identity Simon Napier-Bell relates the tale of receiving a long rambling phone message about Lennon from Epstein on his answering machine the night the Beatles manager killed himself.
                  Jonathan King had his first massive hit record in 1965 with his song "Everyones Gone To The Moon" whilst he was still a university undergraduate and went onto have a string of pop hits over the years as well as producing records for top bands like 10CC and Genesis, worked with bands like Iron Maiden, Def Leppard and Whitesnake, ran his own record company, stood for Parliament, hosted TV shows and wrote for newspapers and produced the Eurovision Song Contest.
             He also did a stint in jail and currently has an appeal over that court case before the European Court of Human Rights.

King says in his book that "two or three times" in the 60s, Lennon stayed over at his flat with with several young ladies and was perfectly happy to indulge in a multi-gender session of stimulation."


65 My Life So Far can be obtained at Amazon.
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## tSS has had to sack one staff member after a kind reader pointed out that dreadful spelling mistakes have been rampant throughout posts. The office moggie Mildred Pierce who doubled as a sub-editor has been banished from the office and only fear of the RSPCA who have already pounced upon 2 cast members of "I'm A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here"over the demise of a rat prevents us from removing the feline from the building..

It's also recommended that one should always double check one's work if using one of those new mini laptops if your sight is not up to par.