by Paul Howard
‘“People in London thought he was mad . . .”’ Author interview with Nicholas Gormanston, London, 2010.
‘“The plan was to start at the bottom . . .”’ Author interview with Nicki Browne, by telephone, 2011.
‘ . . . Roman Polanski . . . was another regular caller.’ Dudley Edwards remembered one such occasion. He told the author: ‘Tara was very excited. He said, “Polanski’s coming around.” And then not long afterwards he arrived. He shoved his head around the door, said, “Looks like a conspiracy to me!” then shut the door and went off again.’
‘“The house was always strewn with bodies . . .”’ Author interview with Nicki Browne, by telephone, 2011.
‘“Her intention . . . was to keep an eye on things . . .”’ Author interview with Garech Browne, Wicklow, 2015.
10: FULL SWING
‘“Someone told us that you could induce labour . . .”’ Author interview with Nicki Browne, by telephone, 2010.
‘He told her that his name was Rock Brynner . . .’ Rock Brynner was Yul’s son from his first marriage, to the actress Virginia Gilmore. They divorced in 1960 when Rock was fourteen.
‘“Nicki was from – I think – an Irish farming background . . .”’ Author interview with Rock Brynner, by telephone, 2009.
‘“We came from different social backgrounds . . .”’ Ibid.
‘She was described as “indisposed” . . .’ Daily Mail, 29 March 1965.
‘“Everyone in London wondered . . .”’ Author interview with Nicholas Gormsanton, London, 2010.
‘“I know people will hate me for this . . .”’ David Bailey quoted in Ready, Steady, Go! by Shawn Levy (Fourth Estate, 2002), p. 176.
‘“They wanted their cars turned into getaway cars . . .”’ Author interview with Nicki Browne, by telephone, 2010.
‘“We will piss anywhere, man!”’ Contemporary newspaper reports of the subsequent court case.
‘“Just because you have reached an exalted height in your profession . . .”’ Ibid.
‘“At Shea Stadium . . . I saw the top of the mountain . . .”’ John Lennon reportedly said this to Sidney Bernstein, the producer of the show.
‘“There will be a growth in album sales . . .”’ Interestingly, Goddard Lieberson was once a visitor to Luggala. His connection to Oonagh Guinness may have been John Huston. He apparently loved the Luggala morning ritual of Bloody Marys for breakfast. For many years after his visit, he would send a crate of V8 tomato juice to Oonagh each Christmas with his best wishes.
‘“. . . a rhythm and blues Angus Steakhouse”’. As quoted in Ready, Steady, Go! by Shawn Levy (Fourth Estate, 2002), p. 244.
‘“He made me laugh . . .”’ Author interview with Gerard Campbell, by telephone, 2010.
‘“You could see it was going wrong . . .”’ Author interview with Martin Wilkinson, Newport, 2011.
‘“He wasn’t a Dartford lad or whatnot . . .”’ Author interview with Anita Pallenberg, London, 2015.
‘“The first night I was with him . . .”’ Ibid.
‘“Anita was this sophisticated, exotic, international creature . . .”’ Author interview with Prince Stanislaus Klossowski de Rola, aka Stash de Rola, by telephone, 2009.
11: LONDON TAKES A TRIP
‘. . . described by Richard Nixon as “the most dangerous man in America”.’ Obituary, New York Times, 1 June 1996.
‘. . . At the climax of the evening, Leary would be introduced to the crowd as the High Priest of the psychedelic movement.’ From The Man Who Turned on the World by Michael Hollingshead (Abelard-Schuman Ltd, 1973), pp. 144–5.
‘“Hollingshead was the only source of LSD in London at the time . . .”’ Author interview with Martin Wilkinson, Newport, 2011.
‘. . . as “intelligent” and “profound”.’ The Man Who Turned on the World by Michael Hollingshead (Abelard-Schuman Ltd, 1973), p. 158.
‘“It was a period when people paid attention . . .”’ The Man Who Turned on the World by Michael Hollingshead (Abelard-Schuman Ltd, 1973).
‘“One evening, I was with Martin Wilkinson and Tara had managed to get his hands on some LSD . . .”’ Interview with Gerard Campbell, by telephone, 2010.
‘“You took acid and you actually thought you were very close to God . . .”’ Author interview with Jane Ormsby-Gore, London, 2010.
‘“This rather strange, cosmic explosion . . .”’ Author interview with Christopher Gibbs, London, 2010.
‘It belonged to Joseph Bonnano, the boss of one of the New York Mafia’s Five Families . . .’ Author interview with Nicholas Gormanston, London, 2015.
‘“She was living right on top of us . . .”’ Author interview with Nicki Browne, by telephone, 2011.
‘“She had already made up her mind what she was going to do . . .”’ Ibid.
‘“She led an absolute campaign against Nicki . . .”’ Author interview with Rock Brynner, by telephone, 2009.
‘“By then, I was sick of London . . .”’ Author interview with Nicki Browne, by telephone, 2011.
‘“When we got there . . . it was cold and wet . . .”’ Interview with Gerard Campbell, by telephone, 2010.
‘“Anyway, while we were there . . .”’ Ibid.
‘“I was jealous . . .”’ Author interview with Nicki Browne, by telephone, 2010.
‘She was photographed leaving court . . .’ Daily Express, 30 June 1965.
‘“I think she was French-Vietnamese . . .”’ Author interview with Nicki Browne, by telephone, 2010.
‘“Dali and I built the Amanda Lear persona” . . .’ Interview by Christa D’Souza, Daily Telegraph, 23 January 2001.
‘In her book, April Ashley’s Odyssey, she claimed that Amanda was originally a man . . .’ April Ashley’s Odyssey by Duncan Fallowell and April Ashley (Jonathan Cape, 1982), pp. 69–70, pp. 178–180.
‘“People don’t want normality. They want people from Mars . . .”’ Interview by Christa D’Souza, Daily Telegraph, 23 January 2001.
‘. . . the kind of people who, according to the writer Jonathan Meades, “once shared a line with someone who shared a line with a Rolling Stone”.’ Quoted by Andrew Anthony in the Observer, Sunday, 24 December 2000.
‘“She caught me staring at her . . .”’ Author interview with Nicki Browne, by telephone, 2010.
‘“One evening . . . I was in the Marbella Club . . .”’ Author interview with Amanda Lear, by telephone, 2010.
‘“I said to Tara that I should leave . . .”’ Ibid.
‘A day or two after Tara left, an article appeared in the Daily Express . . .’ Daily Express, 18 November 1965.
‘. . . as he watches over Julian and Dorian in their playpen.’ Daily Express, 22 November 1965.
‘“Tara said to me, ‘You have to have a go of it, Michael . . . ’ ” ’ Author interview with Mike McCartney, Liverpool, 2008.
‘In December, Tara wrote to him, offering him a full-time job . . .’ Gore Taylor died in August 2003 and his papers were subsequently destroyed. However, he showed his letters from Tara to several people who were interviewed by the author.
‘“He would have had to modify his lifestyle . . .”’ Author interview with Glen Kidston, by telephone, 2015.
‘“As an alliance between two people . . .”’ Author interview with Christopher Gibbs, London, 2010.
‘“There was a lot of yahoo, yobbo kind of catcalls . . .”’ Author interview with Nigel Waymouth, London, 2010.
‘“They were piling up everywhere . . .”’ Ibid.
‘“We were really making it up as we went along . . .”’ Ibid.
‘“Then we started designing our own stuff . . .”’ Ibid.
‘“Tara had an extraordinary visual sense . . .”’ Author interview with Martin Wilkinson, Newport, 2011.
‘“I had no background in the rag trade . . .”’ Author interview with Michael Rainey, by telephone, 2011.
‘The shop had something of a wild reputation . . .’ The Look: Adventures in
Rock and Pop Fashion by Paul Gorman (Adelita Limited, 2006), p. 83.
‘“I suppose it had an energy about it . . .”’ Author interview with Michael Rainey, by telephone, 2011.
‘ . . . John Lennon and George Harrison had first sampled . . .’ There are numerous accounts of the night that John Lennon and George Harrison had their coffee spiked with LSD, including Lennon’s own account in an interview with Jann Wenner, Rolling Stone, 21 January 1971. The identity of the dentist was first revealed in The Gospel According to The Beatles by Steve Turner (WJK Press, 2006).
‘. . . whispering, “I know what it’s like to be dead.”’ John Lennon interviewed in Rolling Stone, 21 January 1971.
‘“. . . because we were all a bit slightly cruel, sort of, ‘We’re taking it, and you’re not.’” ’ Ibid.
‘“I think he really sneered at people from Tara’s background . . .”’ Author interview with Nicki Browne, by telephone, 2009.
‘“John didn’t say much . . .”’ Author interview with Martin Wilkinson, Newport, 2011.
‘Tara was taking acid on blotting paper . . .’ Paul McCartney’s account of his first acid trip is featured in Many Years from Now by Barry Miles with Paul McCartney (Vintage, 1998), pp. 380–2.
‘“Because it was Paul’s first time . . .”’ Interview with Nicki Browne, by telephone, 2009.
‘Paul stayed up all night . . .’ Many Years from Now by Barry Miles with Paul McCartney (Vintage, 1998), pp. 380–2.
‘John later said he thought Paul regretted taking it . . .’ John Lennon interviewed in Rolling Stone, 21 January 1971
‘. . . he would always have mixed feelings about what happened in Tara’s house that night.’ Many Years from Now by Barry Miles with Paul McCartney (Vintage, 1998), pp. 380–2.
‘“I’d spent some of my allowance . . .”’Author interview with Nicki Browne, by telephone, 2009.
‘“He looked like he’d been in a boxing match . . .”’Author interview with Mike McCartney, Liverpool, 2008.
‘Paul recounted what really happened in The Beatles Anthology . . .’ The Beatles Anthology by The Beatles (Cassell & Co, 2000), p. 236.
‘“His stepmother took it . . .”’ Author interview with Nicki Browne, by telephone, 2009.
12: A DAY FOR A DAYDREAM
‘“We had this crazy apartment . . .”’ Author interview with Anita Pallenberg, London, 2015.
‘“Brian loved model trains when he was a boy . . .”’ Ibid.
‘“We had loads of affinity together . . .”’ Ibid.
‘“We’d get in our cars . . .”’ Ibid.
‘Shortly after that, Dawn Malloy . . .’ From several biographies of Brian Jones, especially Brian Jones: The Making of a Rolling Stone by Paul Trynka (Viking, 2014); Brian Jones: The Untold Life and Mysterious Death of a Rock Legend by Laura Jackson (Smith Gryphon, 1992); and Who Killed Christopher Robin?: The Murder of a Rolling Stone by Terry Rawlings (Helter Skelter Publishing, 1994).
‘“Brian was a tortured soul . . .”’ Author interview with Anita Pallenberg, London, 2015.
‘. . . Mick, whose three-year relationship with Chrissie Shrimpton was known to be on the skids.’ Chrissie Shrimpton is often cited by music historians as the inspiration for some of Mick Jagger’s bitterest compositions, including ‘Stupid Girl’ and ‘19th Nervous Breakdown’.
‘“That’s when I met Tara for the first time . . .”’ Author interview with Marianne Faithfull, by telephone, 2011.
‘“He’d married a village girl . . .”’ Ibid.
‘“All of a sudden, it was a very, very non-talking environment . . .”’ Author interview with Melissa North, London, 2011.
‘In March, London Life magazine had blown the whistle . . .’ London Life, March 1966.
‘“The cops were pretty corrupt . . .”’ Author interview with Martin Wilkinson, Newport, 2011.
‘“Being busted is like going bald . . .”’ The Man Who Turned on the World by Michael Hollingshead (Abelard-Schuman Ltd, 1973), pp. 169–170.
‘“It seems silly now . . .”’ Author interview with Michael Rainey, by telephone, 2011.
‘. . . when America’s Time magazine made “the Swinging City” the subject of an era-defining cover story.’ Time, 15 April 1966.
‘“I always did it for him . . .”’ Author interview with Anita Pallenberg, London, 2015.
‘“We laughed our way through the whole thing . . .”’ Author interview with Nicki Browne, by telephone, 2009.
‘“All sorts of people got off that plane . . .”’ Author interview with Christopher Gibbs, London, 2010.
‘“We told the driver to stop . . .”’ Author interview with Anita Pallenberg, London, 2015.
‘At the time, he had developed an obsession with the legend of Pan . . .’ An interesting account of Brian Jones’ fascination with Pan is featured in Brian Jones: The Making of a Rolling Stone by Paul Trynka (Viking, 2014), pp. 160–1, pp. 284–5.
‘“We got hysterical looking at this dead goat . . .”’ Author interview with Anita Pallenberg, London, 2015.
‘“We saw the cottages on the property . . .”’ Author interview with Joe Butler, by telephone, 2011.
‘“When we arrived, I think I was probably thinking the same . . .”’ Author interview with John Sebastian, by telephone, 2011.
‘“He looked magnificent . . .”’ Author interview with Mike McCartney, Liverpool, 2008.
‘“There were a lot of prominent people there . . .”’ Interview with Joe Butler, by telephone, 2011.
‘At one point, according to the following day’s Sunday Press . . .’ Sunday Press, 24 April 1966.
‘“Anita and I got it into our heads . . .”’ Author interview with Nicki Browne, by telephone, 2009.
‘“The way my moral compass was . . .”’ Author interview with Joe Butler, by telephone, 2011.
13: HERE TODAY
‘“We travelled up to Liverpool in the back of a limo . . .”’ Author interview with Nicholas Gormanston, London, 2010.
‘“We were drinking in this old-fashioned pub . . .”’ Author interview with Mike McCartney, Liverpool, 2008.
‘“He came off the motorway at sixty miles per hour . . .”’ Author interview with Nicki Browne, by telephone, 2009.
‘In court, Tara was represented by Max Mosley . . .’ Desmond Guinness and Max Mosley were both sons of Diana Mitford: Desmond from her first marriage to Bryan Guinness; and Max from her second marriage to Sir Oswald Mosley.
‘“I used to have to drive him around . . .”’ Author interview with Glen Kidston, by telephone, 2015.
‘“He turned to me . . . and he said, ‘I’m going to do that to the Cobra.’ ” ’ Ibid.
‘“I wasn’t that close to him in college . . .”’ Author interview with Dudley Edwards, Harrogate, 2009.
‘“Psychedelic art wasn’t around when we started off . . .”’ Ibid.
‘“We thought if we maybe left a piece of painted furniture on his doorstep . . .”’ Ibid.
‘In January 1966, House Beautiful magazine ran a feature on their work . . .’ House Beautiful, January edition, 1966.
‘David Vaughan . . . told the London Evening Standard that they’d been asked to paint the dome of the recently cleaned St Paul’s Cathedral canary yellow . . .’ Author interview with Dudley Edwards, Harrogate, 2009.
‘“He said, ‘I mentioned you to him. I think he’ll love you and what you’re doing . . . ’ ” ’ Author interview with Dudley Edwards, Harrogate, 2009.
‘“The Beach Boys were the reason he bought the Cobra . . .”’ Ibid.
‘“I was madly in love with him . . .”’ Author interview with Amanda Lear, by telephone, 2010.
‘“John was the archetypal Australian rogue . . .”’ Author interview with Alan Holsten, London, 2010.
‘“The kind of charm that people like Jimi Hendrix . . .”’ Author interview with Michael Rainey, by telephone, 2011.
‘“John’s girlfriend at the time manag
ed to earn a wage modelling . . .”’ Ibid.
‘“Tara wanted to be a backer of enterprises . . .”’ Author interview with Martin Wilkinson, Newport, 2011.
‘“We worked out of this tiny little mews garage . . .”’ Author interview with Alan Holsten, London, 2010.
‘“The interesting thing for me . . .”’ Author interview with Paul Gorman, London, 2009.
‘“Snowdon . . . was halfway up a ladder . . .”’ Daily Express, 30 September 1966.
‘“It was like something out of an Ealing Comedy . . .”’ Author interview with Dudley Edwards, Harrogate, 2009.
‘. . . Even Pathé News wanted to film the moment for posterity.’ The film is available to view at www.britishpathe.com/video/art-on-wheels.
‘“He said the window was part of the deal . . .”’ Author interview with Dudley Edwards, Harrogate, 2009.
‘“So Doug and I are standing there . . .”’ Ibid.
‘“It is the world that the Thirties promised . . .”’ Tara quoted in several newspaper reports on 7 September 1966.
‘The seven-minute, black-and-white film was entitled Une Journée Avec L’Honorable Tara Browne . . .’ Seen by the author.
‘“That was actually me at the wheel . . .”’ Author interview with Glen Kidston, by telephone, 2015.
‘In September 1966, the New York-based men’s fashion magazine Gentleman’s Quarterly . . .’ Gentlemen’s Quarterly, September 1966.
‘ “ ‘. . . all of the establishment, past and contemporary.’ ” ’ Ibid.
‘“The way she behaved with me was amazing . . .”’ Author interview with Amanda Lear, by telephone, 2010.
‘“I was doing a show for Paco Rabane . . .”’ Ibid.
‘“Tara and Brian were dressed in these lace and velvet suits . . .”’ Ibid. A fuller account of this story is featured in My Life with Dali by Amanda Lear (Virgin Books, 1985), pp. 9–18.
‘“I was very skinny . . .”’ Ibid.
‘“I stopped off in Paris on the way home . . .”’ Author interview with Nicki Browne, by telephone, 2010.
‘“The way that it was explained to me . . .”’ Author interview with Garech Browne, Wicklow, 2010.
‘“I realized that his music system was gone . . .”’ Author interview with Nicki Browne, by telephone, 2010.
