Did any of the Populista catch that astonishing but quite mad little fantasy served up by C4 the other night, “The Execution of Gary Glitter”? It was presented as a news documentary set at a time when Parliament had restored the death penalty, not just for murder but also for child abuse. To stretch credibility further, kiddie fiddling overseas was also included in the new Criminal Justice Act and thus Paul Gadd was nicked, convicted and hanged. There were “interviews” with the female Home Secretary, as well as the prison chaplain and also the hangman. I guess this was a supreme black comedy.

Basically we saw the Gadd character (brilliantly played by Hilton McRae) slowly deteriorate into a grizzing wreck begging for his life only to have this denied him by the mumsie-looking Home Sec at final appeal. I’m not at all sure what the point of it all was but it was curiously compelling viewing and I would urge any of our contributors, particularly fellow old lags and lassies, to try and grab it.

(And as an aside, any legal complications of saying that I believe Jackson, Spector, et. al. to be guilty of the crimes of which they have been accused don’t exist for me. O.J. Simpson did it, too.)

As DC notes, one in a hundred Americans would be able to identify Gary Glitter as the “author” of the omnipresent R&RP2; possibly one in a thousand would have heard of his bad behavior (I hadn’t until this blog); one in a million would care. This is not to say that Americans are freer from pedophile hysteria than Britons — if he were a household name Queen’s “We Will Rock You” would get even more use than it already does.

Excellent piece with which I agree completely and thoroughly but sadly in the current wave of medieval hysteria its message is unlikely to be heard or heeded.

There was some newspaper article that asked: Are Paedophiles mad or bad? We can’t have it both ways!

And I thought, why not? Mad, for wanting, bad for actually going out and doing.

His image wasn’t much different to those Dr. Who monsters. What with the shiny catsuits, tower boots, shoulder pads, grotesque Japanese kabuki performer make-up, and a hairdo like an electrocuted mulllet.

I remember peering round the from behind the settee and seeing him shot from below by the camera, his face contorted into a pyschopathic mask of evil as he looked down into the lens with demented eyes.

Don’t tell me that’s not scary son!

- Michael Jackson’s music is obviously classic, while even before his downfall, you would never see any Gary Glitter albums in those lists of “Best albums of all time”. There might have been a “Rock’n'Roll Part 2″ showing up in some singles or tracks lists, but that’s all. He was also largely hated by critics in his time, and was even quoted back then saying that his music wasn’t any good, but that it was a nice way to make money (and get laid… Well, he didn’t say that, but go figure…..)
- Had he been caught with those images on his harddisk, and that it, it may have been different. Glitter, however, has spent the later part of his life travelling around the world to have sex with underage prostitutes. This puts him in a league of his own, really…

The other day I saw some footage of him on TV from about this time – taken from TOTP or some such thing, I don’t know…and I know if I’d seen it as a little girl I would have been frightened…

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/6979731.stm

Then again they gave the personal go-ahead for Super Furry Animals to sample them on “The Man Don’t Give A Fuck” so perhaps that was an act of recompense after they’d heard the Clubhouse one.

I’m just slightly too young for Glitter… erm, I was born during the Glitter heyday, so missed the here-and-now appeal of the records. Like a lot of glam, they just seemed like novelties when they finally slipped onto my radar. Maybe that was the point.

First I knew about Steely Dan was that Clubhouse proto-mashup with ‘Billie Jean’ in 1983. Sure they were delighted with that.

The thing I find incredible about Gary Glitter is that the sax player on at least some of his hits (after John Rostill quit) was improv/Canterbury Rock god/future Bley & Rundgren accomplice Gary Windo!

All of the LP’s they released in the 70’s are classic and represent the high water mark for musicianship and production of that era.