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| Fall from grace | |
It seems that Australians are not the only Westerners who can't stay out of
trouble in south east Asia. Some of us habitually toast the pleasures of Asian
girls, but it seems that former pop-star Gary Glitter may have taken the 'girl'
part of it a bit too literally and he has now begin what may be a rather long
stay enjoying the hospitality of one of Ho Chi Min's Hotels (ie rotting in a
Vietnamese prison) on child sex charges. Conflicting reports put the age of consent in Vietnam at either 16 or 18, but
Glitter is being investigated for having sex with a 12 and 15 year old. It
seems that Vietnamese authorities were willing to turn a blind eye (and
possibly an outstretched palm) to his antics until the British press started
reporting them, and then felt obliged to take action. Glitter was arrested
trying to flee to Thailand. Glitter's fall from grace has come in several stages. The first was the
standard has-been crisis which seems to affect so many pop stars who are
dismayed to discover that when you are at the top, the only way to go is
down. In 1976 Glitter, no longer at the top of the charts, and already a
has-been, suffered his first fall - into alcoholism and depression. The second was in 1997 when he took his computer to the repair shop.
Everyone who works in a computer repair shop says the same thing about the job:
the pay is lousy, but you build up an excellent porn collection, because you
copy the pornos off every computer that comes in for repair. But in Glitter's
case, they sent a copy to the police instead, and Glitter was arrested on
kiddie porn charges. Then, since being on the sex-offender's register in England makes it a bit
hard to explore one's .. er .. 'unconventional' side, he spent the last few
years trolling through busted-arsed pseudo-communist countries where a wink, a
nudge and a little spare change will get you considerably more than it will in
England. And he seems to have suffered his third fall - this time into a Vietnamese
cell, and no-one seems to care. Maybe people would judge Glitter a little more sympathetically if it were
not for the lyrics of one of his most memorable songs, aimed presumably at
naive pre-pubescent girls.
Do you wanna touch? - Yeah!
Do you wanna touch? - Yeah!
Do you wanna touch me there?
Where? There! Yeah! Oh!
Yeah! Oh yeah! Oh yeah! Mymymymymy!
Yeah! Oh yeah! Oh yeah!
Some of us former-fans will never be able to listen to that song in quite
the same way again.
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