Don’t get fooled again by guitarist’s mad lifestyle

FIVE life-size fibreglass fish that were among dozens that filled a pub created by rock legend John Entwistle at his Cotswold mansion are going up for sale.

The Who bassist, known as ‘The Ox’ for the way his constitution seemed able to take any amount of sex, drugs and rock’n’roll he could throw at it, had a quiet, softer side that involved going fishing.

And now, almost 20 years after his untimely death following a cocainefuelled night with a stripper in Las Vegas, some of Entwistle’s weird and wonderful collection of realistic fibreglass fish are being sold in a weird and wonderful auction.

The guitarist moved out of London and bought the 20-bedroom mansion Quarwood, near Stow-on-the-Wold in Gloucestershire in 1977.

He spent the next two decades turning it into a home fit for an eccentric rock star.

He had one of the largest guitar collections in the world, and in the grounds he built himself a pub, which he named the Barracuda Inne.

And he filled that pub with fish. For when the bassist was not touring the world raising hell with drugs and groupies, he loved nothing more than fishing, and would travel the world seeking out the big game of the monster fish world.

Every time he caught a whopper, be it a shark, tuna, marlin or sailfish, he would commission an artist to create a life-size replica model made of fibreglass and have it shipped in from Florida to Gloucestershire.

The pub soon filled up, so he filled the billiard room, bathroom and bedrooms of Quarwood, turning it into something resembling an aquarium.

Entwistle died in 2002, on the eve of The Who’s American tour.

And now, almost 20 years later, five of those fish are up for auction.

They form five of the lots in a twoday online sale entitled ‘Out of the Ordinary’ by auction house Sworders, which has sold pretty much everything there is to sell since 1782.

Among the 700-odd lots are everything you don’t want to think about – mummified cats from the 17th century, Victorian ventriloquist’s dummies and all manner of the macabre and bizarre.

In fact, Entwistle’s five fish are among the most normal looking things in the sale, which takes place next week.

The longest and biggest of Entwistle’s five fish is a blue shark, which is 113cm long, and there’s also a bluefin tuna, a rare Mahi Mahi, or dolphin fish, and a King Mackerel, but perhaps the most colourful is the smallest – a 68cm long two-tone brown grouper fish.

The biggest one – the shark – has a guide price of between £450 and £550, while the grouper’s price tag is £250£350.

> John Entwistle and one of his bizarre fibreglass fish