Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
I saw it all as a Top Of The Pops dancer.. even sex parties
Ex-ulster model reveals all in book
A FORMER Top Of The Pops dancer has revealed how she saw some of the biggest celebrities of the 70s and 80s take part in drug-fuelled sex orgies.
Patience Bradley has launched her new book Where Do You Go To My Lovely, an honest and frank memoir of her time as a model and dancer. In the late 70s – then known as Patti Lawrence – 14-year-old Patience arrived in London from Northern Ireland to work for Vogue magazine. By her late teens she was rubbing shoulders and partying with the biggest names in showbiz. Patience said: “Looking back I can see how people’s attitudes were different in the 70s and 80s. “Women were beginning to feel the benefits of Women’s Liberation and throwing off the moral restrictions about sex, with the knowledge that by just taking a little tablet every morning they could enjoy themselves just as the men had been doing for decades. We were told we had as much right to have sex with as many people as we wanted, without feeling cheap or dirty. The emphasis of course is on the element of consent.” While everyone around her was drinking to excess, taking drugs and playing fast and loose with their sex lives, Patience was teetotal and watched it all from the sidelines. The star, who lives with her husband Ivor and their family of Chihuahuas in Holywood, Co Down, revealed: “Many of the parties I attended, along with people who were then household names, were little more than drug and drinkfuelled orgies. “While I didn’t participate and remained stone cold sober, I didn’t see anyone appearing to be forced into behaviour that they might later regret. “Some of the women I encountered at these parties saw it as almost a badge of honour to have slept with so many ‘celebrities’. “Anyone who appeared on TV on a regular basis attracted a number of groupies. I had a number of groupies myself, who would appear everywhere I was.” Where Do You Go To My Lovely is out now.