Grand Entrance

He made his grand entrance in 1972
At the newly ritzy Reg Varney Rooms (Droitwich).
He swept down the spiral stairs
With Stephanie Beacham on each arm,
His suit made from crushed velvet
And the broken dreams of local peasants.
Snazzy and jazzy, it masked a multitude of gins.
Miss West Mercia and stray ladies schtayed and schmoozed.
The sound of their sucking up was deafening.
Men of greater pulchritude wanted to be him.
He planned "horny hols" in sunny Spain
With Sancho Panza (Derek Griffiths)
But overnight the world lost its sight,
Just like in The Day of the Triffids.

What a difference a decade makes...

It's a long way down from the palais de danse
To sneaking through the alleys stealing pants.
To sitting rotting on a park bench,
A degraded heap of weeping stench.
To presenting a pitiful spectacle,
Open to ridicule and depredation.
To being the man who used to be someone,
Now being kicked around a smalltown bus station.
If he could have foreseen the form of his disgrace
He would have chucked himself down that staircase.

B.R. 04/10/2013

The Sancho Panza of the 8-track age