A crooked UK police detective, whose targeting of rock stars saw him lampooned by John Lennon to Monty Python, after the jump ….
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In the mid-1960’s, after the British Invasion made Britain the new rock music capital … the inevitable association with drugs led some of the Fleet Street tabloids to weigh-in. Seeing young, long-haired rock stars being able to afford English country estates (rather than the “real” hard-working citizens), they waged a campaign against rock stars, lashing out at them for the moral ''decadence'' associated to the explosive mix of sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll that these publications attributed to them.
And someone who decided to help-out was a detective from the Metropolitan Police of London, Norman (Nobby) Pilcher— who transferred from the robbery department to the drug squad and saw an opportunity for further advancement.
He seemed to relish the attention and decided to cut corners …. allegedly planting drugs on musicians and even paying-off informers …. with seized drugs. At his disposal were his unit’s two police dogs named … Yogi and Boo-Boo(!). And all along, those he busted suspected Pilcher tipped-off the paparazzi photographers, so they could be there to photograph those arrested.
Norman Pilcher began his campaign in late July of 1966 with the arrest of the Scottish singer Donovan Leitch— of “Mellow Yellow” and “Sunshine Superman” fame — paying a fine along with his road manager ‘Gypsy’ Dave Mills. Donovan had to have a criminal conviction on his passport records, yet he still occasionally performs (with a short 50th anniversary US tour last year).
Donovan Leitch (born 1946)In February, 1967 … it was the Rolling Stones in the dock …. with Pilcher and his crew of eighteen officers allegedly receiving a tip of a party at Keith Richards’ house (with Marianne Faithful among the attendees) from the News of the World scandal sheet. (This paper was later bought by Rupert Murdoch, and closed in 2011 after the phone-hacking scandal blew-up).
Their trial took place in late June, with Mick Jagger and Keith Richards spending one night in jail before being freed on bail pending their appeal.
The Times of London editor William Rees-Mogg wrote a landmark editorial called “Who Breaks A Butterfly On A Wheel?" (citing a passage from Alexander Pope) with this money quote:
It should be the particular quality of British justice to ensure that Mr. Jagger is treated exactly the same as anyone else, no better and no worse. There must remain a suspicion in this case that Mr. Jagger received a more severe sentence than would have been thought proper for any purely anonymous young man.
The Who rush-recorded two Stones songs (“The Last Time” and “Under My Thumb”) in financial (and other) support of their friends … whose convictions were overturned one month later on appeal.
Mick & Keef — busted 1967Lest you think that only hippies were targeted: in the summer of 1968, jazz tenor saxophonist Tubby Hayes was raided and booked for having a heroin tablet. Hayes was considered perhaps the UK’s best jazzman, but his drug problems led to his death just five years after his arrest … at the age of only thirty-eight.
Edward ‘Tubby” Hayes (1935-1973)All of which seemed to be merely a prelude to the big prize: an October, 1968 raid on the Montague Square, London home of John Lennon— newly-estranged from his wife and now involved with Yoko Ono (a foreigner, no less). Here, Pilcher’s boastful ways … actually hampered his investigations.
A reporter from the Daily Mirror (Don Shorter) had accompanied the Beatles and Stones on some of their tours and he frequented the pubs around Fleet Street … where off-duty policemen often went (as well as journalists). Don Shorter came to overhear of plans for a raid and passed this along to Lennon … who arranged for a thorough housecleaning (as Jimi Hendrix had been the previous tenant).
The raid took place on October 18th, with a Daily Express cameraman outside on the street. The initial search turned-up nothing, and Yogi & Boo-Boo were called-in next. Pilcher claimed to have found some cannabis resin and also charged John and Yoko with obstruction. The death of the Beatles manager Brian Epstein the previous year deprived Lennon of his noted protector … and after arriving at the police station, Pilcher asked John for a gift for his children: having John sign a few Beatles albums (plus John’s solo album Two Virgins — with he and Yoko nude).
Lennon was fined the equivalent of $300 (for a crime he claimed that Pilcher framed him for) but the criminal convictions affected him the rest of his life (including his battle against being deported from the US later) and Yoko Ono cited this as part of the reason she lost custody of her daughter Kyoko.
In 2005, Britain’s Freedom of Information Act uncovered the Scotland Yard file on the arrest — and it was revealed that Pilcher was taken-to-task by then Home Secretary (and future prime minister) James Callaghan: asking why it took seven police officers and two dogs to carry out such a raid … and how the press managed to arrive shortly after the raid commenced?
John & Yoko - arrested 1968Eric Clapton narrowly escaped arrest (during the time he was in the band Cream) while he was living at The Pheasantry (an old Georgian building on Kings Road, originally used to raise pheasants for the royal household). Norman Pilcher buzzed the intercom with “Postman, special delivery!” and then burst in … however, Clapton had already darted out the back entrance.
The Pheasantry buildingAfter the fall-out from the Lennon raid, Pilcher hoped to avoid an in-person bust … and chose March 12, 1969 — the date of Paul McCartney’s not-so-secret wedding to Linda — to raid the home of George Harrison. It turns out that George’s then-wife Pattie was present when the raid took place and she refused: (1) a request to make tea for one of the more than twelve officers, and also (2) to tell another officer if she knew of any new Beatles music forthcoming?
George finally arrived, to have Pilcher charge him of keeping hashish in one of his shoes (which Harrison was certain Pilcher brought with him) ... and Harrison said:
I'm a tidy man. I keep my socks in the sock drawer and stash in the stash box. It's not mine.
Both George and Pattie were fined the equivalent of $500 apiece, and they also had to have a criminal record for drugs affecting their overseas travel.
George Harrison (1943-2001)The fall of Norman Pilcher began sometime later, as the negative publicity (and other work) took him off high-profile cases. A drug smuggler named Basil Sands— who had actually been caught with a large supply — was convicted despite the assertions of Pilcher that Sands was simply an informant. Pilcher was indicted for perjury and before his case came to trial: he resigned his post and fled to Australia.
Detained as a fugitive-from justice: he was extradited back to the UK and convicted in November, 1973 … receiving a four-year prison sentence. He spent more time in jail than all of his high-profile musician busts combined, and following his eight-week trial at the Old Bailey, Justice Melford Stevenson said:
You poisoned the wells of criminal justice and set about it deliberately… What you have done is to provide material for the crooks, cranks and do-gooders who united to blacken the police whenever the opportunity offers.
After his release, Norman Pilcher simply faded into obscurity, leading a private life. Yet he is memorialized in several ways:
1) The 1970 Monty Python sketch The Piranha Brothers featured a hedgehog named Spiny Norman— widely believed to be a reference to Pilcher.
2) In 1978, Monty Python’s Eric Idle used his creation The Rutles to highlight law enforcement agent Brian Plant…. not too subtle.
3) And in 2003, the US band Primus wrote a much more direct satire entitled Pilcher’s Squad— as its lyrics clearly indicate.
One rock star who was not targeted once noted what an anomaly Pilcher was in the law enforcement community in Britain back then. Eric Burdon— the lead singer of The Animals (of “House of the Rising Sun” fame) — thought there actually should be a statue of Pilcher, yet added:
Back then, most were good ol’ boys. A race apart of course, but if you didn’t get too far out of line: they got on with the job of protecting the public and did their policing without firearms. Also, most of them had a sense of humour. I was no angel, but I never had trouble with the law in the UK.
Finally: is Norman Pilcher still alive? One website reports, “Pilcher passed away peacefully in Eastbourne Hospital, East Sussex, UK, on June 13, 2011 after a short illness” — at (circa) age seventy-six — but I cannot find any other source confirming it. Perhaps his whereabouts are as shrouded in mystery ..… as his life.
Norman C. Pilcher (1935—?)As many of you know: unless they are official VIMEO uploads, Beatles videos tend to be taken down rather quickly — they have the staff to do this with. One video that is not a good recording … but is a necessary ending to this story … is the John Lennon-written I Am the Walrus— with a not-so-veiled reference to the detective.
Mr. City policeman sitting Pretty little policemen in a row See how they fly like Lucy in the sky See how they run I'm crying
Semolina Pilchard Climbing up the Eiffel tower Elementary penguin singing Hare Krishna Man, you should have seen them kicking Edgar Allen Poe
I am the egg man They are the egg men I am the walrus
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