Was Midge Pistols’ No 1?
QUESTION Was Midge Ure the first choice as lead singer of the Sex Pistols?
The Sex Pistols were a manufactured band created by manager Malcolm McLaren to promote his London boutique SeX. They became the anarchic figureheads of the punk movement. .
Choosing the lead singer was more about looks than ability, and McLaren’s first choice was the hip young Midge (real name James) Ure. The singer declined because he was already in a band.
SeX was run by McLaren and his s then partner, fashion designer Vivienne Westwood, at 430 King’s Road, London, in the mid-1970s. McLaren ‘thought the fashion was much h more important than the music’ but t recognised ‘punk was the sound of f that fashion’. he wanted a band who o were far removed from the floppyhaired, ye bell-bottomed youth of the day.
In Glasgow, on a clothes-buying g trip, McLaren was offloading broken n music hardware at McCormack’s ’s musical store with future Clash manager ned Bernie Rhodes when he spotted a young man with a James Dean haircut. aircut This was Midge Ure, later vocalist with Ultravox, who would have a big hit with Vienna. he was in the group Slik, who had a No 1 hit with the Bay City Rollerslike tune Forever And ever.
Rhodes introduced him to McLaren. Midge said: ‘I spoke to this strange-looking character, Malcolm. he talked to me about . . . putting this band together. Lo and behold, it was the Pistols. They were selling knocked-off equipment. I turned down the Pistols, but I bought an amp.’
he found it strange that he was asked to join because of how he looked rather than ‘what I could have brought to the band’. McLaren returned to London and recruited the Sex Pistols from the edgy customers at SeX, striking gold with the snarling, nihilistic Johnny Rotten.
Kevin Fields, London E11.
QUESTION Does anyone recall a pre-war comic novel that had a plot similar to the 1998 movie Shakespeare In Love, starring Gwyneth Paltrow?
The 1941 comic novel No Bed For Bacon, by Caryl Brahms and S. J. Simon, tells the story of aristocratic Viola, who disguises herself as a boy actor, Master Pyk, and falls in love with Shakespeare. Unable to reveal her true identity, she reads her love into her lines. This plot is similar to the film, though it’s claimed the development team was not aware of the book.
Author Ned Sherrin, who wrote an introduction to the novel, claims he loaned it to Tom Stoppard while he was refining the screenplay of Shakespeare In Love. The book’s high farce, reminiscent of the second series of Blackadder, is different from the film.
The title refers to courtier Francis Bacon, whose chief desire is to be awarded one of elizabeth I’s beds from her annual tour of the country, so he can pass it down to his heirs.
It features cameos from a host of notable elizabethan characters. Sir
Walter Raleigh plans for the greatest day of his life, the ceremonial tasting of the first potato from the New World.
Then there’s Dame Quickly, the mistress of the actors’ boarding house; Polonius Bounce, Master of the Revels; poet and courtier Sir Philip Sidney; impresarios Philip henslowe and Richard Burbage; and political figures Walsingham and Drake. A similar plot is found in Alexandre Duval’s Shakespeare Amoureux Ou La Piece A l’Etude of 1804, with the Bard falling in love with an actress playing Richard III.
It’s hard to escape some strong similarities between the film and No Bed For Bacon. In the opening scene of the film, we find Shakespeare practising his signature, complete with different spellings.
On page 13 of the book, we have: ‘In a cold, dark, little room over against the back of the Theatre, Sir Francis Bacon was talking eloquently. Opposite him a melancholy figure sat tracing its signature on a pad: Shakesper; Shakspere; Shekspar. ‘he always practised tracing his signature when he was bored. he was always hoping that one of these days he would come to a firm decision upon which of them he liked the best.’
The authors were air-raid wardens when they wrote their elizabethan farce. They collaborated on novels including Don’t, Mr Disraeli!, A Bullet The Ballet and Six Curtains For Stroganova.
Martina Whitelaw, Whitby, N. Yorks.
QUESTION Q Did a botched helium balloon release in the 1980s cause a series of fatal accidents?
IN 1986, Cleveland, Ohio, was suffering from a shrinking population, polluted waterways and businesses closing.
In an attempt to raise funds for new development projects and to create a positive image for itself, the city organised a world record-breaking launch of nearly 1.5 million balloons.
Thousands of volunteers worked for two days in a tent in the city centre, filling balloons with helium and restraining them under enormous netting until the moment of release.
Media coverage ensured that a big crowd gathered for the event.
Unfortunately, things did not go according to plan. As soon as the balloons were launched on September 27, transforming the Cleveland sky into a confetti-like sea of colour, a storm moved in from the Great Lakes.
Gusts of wind blew the balloons back down to street level, causing multiple road accidents, and the airport had to be closed. Animals in nearby fields were frightened and sustained injuries. The farmer sued the city for $100,000.
A coastguard search- and- rescue mission for two fishermen missing on Lake erie was disastrously hindered by floating balloons. Both men died and one of the widows sued for $3.2 million.
In Canada, beaches were clogged and animals choked by deflating balloons.
The cost of cleaning up the chaos and paying damages in lawsuits far outweighed any positive gains. To add insult to injury, Guinness World Records refused to acknowledge the record attempt because of its negative impact.