ELECTION TO SERVE UP FLEETING FAME
As the 2020 Queensland state election hots up, it’s time to channel the Beatles and give candidates a reality check.
THIS 1964 photo of Jimmy Nicol at Melbourne’s old Essendon Airport must be one of the most gut-wrenching rock and roll photos of all time.
Jimmy who, you ask.
It’s probably not surprising if the name doesn’t ring any bells.
But he was once – albeit for a handful of days – a member of the biggest pop band in the history of the world.
The Beatles.
To explain…
When Ringo Starr contracted tonsillitis on the eve of the Beatles’ 1964 Australasian tour, the band’s sharp-suited manager Brian Epstein and their famous producer George Martin bravely chose to dispatch a stand-in drummer to the colonies rather than cancel the opening leg.
Martin suggested Jimmy as he had recently used him on a recording session and he already knew the songs and their arrangements.
And so it was that within a few days, after short stints in the Netherlands and Hong Kong, Jimmy was descending the stairs of the Fab Four’s BOAC plane in Adelaide with the three “official” Beatles to a fanatical reception from a reported 300,000 who crushed against the airport chain mesh fencing and lined the route into the city.
Can you imagine what that must have been like for the 24year-old Jimmy, who was to spend the next few days hitting the skins as hard as he could to be barely heard above the screaming, chaos and general bedlam going on in the audience while wearing Ringo’s suit with the pant legs far too short?
He also had the every-manwould-kill-for responsibility of “accommodating” as many of Paul, John and George’s castoff groupies as humanly possible back at the hotel. Imagine.
And can you then imagine what it must have been like when a recovered Ringo turned up to join the tour in Melbourne?
You don’t have to.
The photo says it all. With barely time to pack his sticks and while his fellow Beatles were sleeping, Jimmy was driven to the airport by Epstein, slipped a fancy wristwatch and a few pounds for his troubles and left to wait alone in utter bewilderment at what just happened for a flight home, whenever one might come along.
And in an even sadder postscript, just nine months later the once-was-Beatle would declare bankruptcy.
Complaining he could no longer cope with the “mediocrity of life”, a bruised Jimmy walked out of his London council flat and disappeared for the next five and a half decades.
Today, there is no certainty whether this real life nowhere man is even alive.
Fame is indeed a fickle mistress, but Jimmy’s story reminds us of every single person who has known and enjoyed the highest of highs — possibly a high never to be surpassed in their lifetime — before a massive, often unplanned return to Earth.
A rooster one day and a feather duster the next.
In fact, Jimmy’s story should be the background anthem for everyone even half considering running for public office.
As Queensland gets ready to head to the polls in a few weeks, there are plenty of new faces putting up their hands for their own 15 minutes of Jimmy Nicol fame.
But sadly, most will also get their own trip to Essendon Airport – a loss on the day meaning far-fewer-thanexpected supporters at the local RSL that night to taste and toast the bitter reality of politics.
And it’s no better for those who were in office but are suddenly no longer – victims of their own or parties’ inability to deliver the goods during the term just gone or the vagaries of loyalty-deficient electorates these days constantly on the lookout for a rock star.
Suddenly, on that fateful Saturday night former minister or member so and so will leave the RSL not smelling
of as much champagne as they thought they might to sit in a sticky seat in a cab driven by Larry from Labrador who thinks he knows the face but already can’t remember from where.
Which is all little inspiration for those with the courage and fortitude to run for public office, but in these crazy times, more than ever, this state needs good people who don’t mind a few highs and a few lows in their lives, but have the wherewithal to stand up to their principles, their ideals and detractors in equal measure.
So, as the candidates and their teams put the finishing touches to their campaigns and wear out the last of their shoe leather and energy to madly wave at us at traffic lights, let’s wish them well and look to Jimmy for another quick postscript.
During his brief time with the Beatles Paul would often ask him how he felt he was coping, to which his reply would usually be “It’s getting
let’s wish them well and look to Jimmy for a postscript
better”. Years later those words would be immortalised with the song Getting Better on the pivotal Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band album.
You or I or Larry from Labrador will never know what it’s like to be a Beatle, but it’s good to know that legacies are possible and at least a bit of Jimmy, who you may have never heard of before, lives on.
Game Plan Communications director Wayne Hickson has been involved in the media operations of several local and State election campaigns.