Page 39 - Ritz Issue 50

Peter (Percy Boy) Blake at the Royal Academy photo Litchfield
Mike Shea at the William Hickey party photo Richard Young
TAKI
THE GREEKBOY
New York- BERTOLD BRECHT was one of the phoniest and worst of playwrights; he smelt bad, lied, cheated, was an ardent Marxist while keeping a secret bank account in Zurich and although anti-Hitler he condoned Stalin's purges as necessary for socialism. I remember when he died I remarked that the only thing that
I regretted was that I couldn't go and have a good shit in his grave. A man who heard me took exception and, although he admitted that BRECHT was a horror, told me not to speak ill of the dead. I told him· that he (the man) was speaking ill of the dead by defending scumbag Brecht. He got the message and left - luckily for him because I was ready to apply instant sedation.
LENNON had the same talent as Brecht, a kind of solipsistic, uneven gift that was real, but nothing like the groupies that found an·opportunity to once again go on an ego trip by acting as if Jesus Christ had been crucified, gave him credit for. But don't get me wrong. BRECHT was a shit, a total misanthrope, a man who I regret a CHAPMAN of his day did not cut down before he polluted my culture with his scurrilous plays. LENNON was just_an ego- maniac who was the dupe of quacks like the MAHARISHI and YOKO ONO. He was also extremely unpleasant, megalomaniac who wanted to cut corners· and find happiness through the old trick of
David Hockney at The Royal Academy phoro Richard Young.
transcedental meditation, vegetarianism, and other such elixirs. Having said that, I must make sure no one thinks that I am condoning his untimely and unfair murder. Far from it, but the assasin, after all, was a LENNON fan. Peace baby and all that, but when we don't like the fact that our idol spent only thirty seconds signing an autograph, let's cut him down. In a way the double standard of CHAPMAN was the LENNON trade mark. An anti-capitalist who was worth in excess of one hundred and fifty million quid; a peace-nik who spent hours lying in bed for peace, but failed to raise a finger when three million Khmers were being slaughtered in the name of socialism by POL POT; the same double standard prevailed after the Americans left Vietnam, not a word for the boat people and those poor slobs being "re- educated", again in the name of socialism.
I was once in a studio where he was taping an interview. He spent the time glamorising LSD, and the moral and mental drop outs that were ,allaround him thought that was cool. He then proceeded to speak in double-talk and the moderator, a half-wit, pretended to understand. When I said that it was all bullshit, some of the thugs with him tried to get heavy. The only thing they were not wearing was a brown shirt, otherwise they reminded me of old movies when Nazi thugs beat up people that disagreed with them.
The extraordinary thing about LENNON's death, however, is the way YOKO ONO has managed to call the shots. We all know that America is one big sales room. Sales of a product come first, last, and always. These sales come about because of advertising, a legal way of lying as far as I am concerned, but nevertheless a fact of life in America. Billboard, the Bible of the music business, has been refused a six figure sum by advertisers because they
Peter Tory, Diana Dors and Nigel Dempster at the William Hickey party photo Richard Young
/Alan Lake, Diana Dors and Lord Longford at The William Hickey party photo Richard Young
This did not prevent DA YID HOCKEY, looking unusual, from shabby posing in front of a portrait of himself by ANDY WARHOL and then rushing on to hold court in front of his own huge canvasses. He was joined by ANNA FORD and MARK BOXER who I noticed had not been impressed by LUCIEN FREUD's painting of a nude man and rat. These two put up with a lot and I diverge for a moment to recount a little incident at Langans a few days ·later.
Ford and Boxer had chosen the place to have a quiet dinner and were having a thoroughly intimate evening when PAUL CALLAN of the Daily Mirror walked in with his editor MICHAEL MOLLOY. For no apparent reason Callan asked RICHARD YOUNG to take a photograph of the couple which he did. After smilling to the camera they fled to the loo to avoid Callan. They returned to find him quietly sitting in Ms Ford's place. The miserable pair blew at the same time likening Callan's cheerful visage to that of a frog. They were
Anna Ford and Mark Boxer at The Royal Academy photo Richard Young •
then joined by PETER LANGAN who it must be said does not always behave with the greatest discretion _inhis own restaurant who promptly banned Young from the premises. Three different versions of the story appeared in the following day's press and one of them rightly pointed out that Langans was not the best place for a furtive tete a tete.
Anyway, back to the party at the Royal Academy which at any other time of the year would be unexceptional but in January was easily the best party. It attracted such notables as BERNARD LEVIN, HENRIETTA ROUS, ELAINE PAGE and WAYNESLEEP who has occasionally been the subject of some sensitive drawings by Hockney. There was a host of German ar.d French dealers who were all at some time or other during the evening talked at by the determined gallery owner KA THY LEWTS.
FRANK JOHNSON the right wing columnist for Now magazine seems to have recovered from a particularly savage attack by TINA BROWN in the Taller and is now much in demand from elder women who value his wit and erudition. For Frank's 38th birthday BRIDGET HEATHCOAT AMORY threw a relatively starry wingding at her .flat in Addison Gardens. Lately she has acted as social secretary to the
ubiquitous bachelor and has been advising him on the sort of shirts and ties he ought to be buying now that he is such a
, phenomenoal success.
Among those patting each other on the
back were SIR ROBIN DAY who was first to arrive and last to leave, LADY FALKENDER who I last saw gazing into the thin blu!! eyes of SIR JAMES. GOLDSMITH, CHRISTOPHER
HITCH INS, ALAN WATKINS, Johnson's old mentor, BELINDA HARLEY and CAMILLA HORN. By far the most alluring person in this crowd of media folk was LADY DEBORAH DIBLING who has escorted Johnson to a number of right- wing political seminars in the country,
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