Status Quo front man Francis Rossi recounts his time on Top of The Pops and his encounters with the then host Jimmy Savile. www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b04nd36l
As a naive young fan absolutely obsessed with status quo I met them, was alone in a room with Rick and Francis. I asked for their autograph and they were completely professional. I was totally safe with them, nothing whatsoever untoward. Great guys
John Lydon had the guts to shine a light on Saville many, many years before this interview. And good old Aunty Beeb effectively cancelled him. This was well known at the BBC at the highest level, so they can hardly be so bloody sanctimonious now!
@@Nuron666 John Lydon does not strike me of being that much of a hypocrite ( not that I know the guy) .I don't think underage girls was his scene or his thing.....his Missus is about 15 years older than him and they've been together years....?
@@kevinmassey7675 what about in his younger days when he became a big punk rock star. What about all the band members. How much do we really know about the stuff they got up to. Every single band had a bunch of female groupie following these bands around.
@@Nuron666 you're right. We know very little about the guy away from the public eye so no point speculating.....(no smoke, no fire).....refer back to the original comment from David Hull , what the BBC and Savile actually did are the relevant points
@@kevinmassey7675 I dont think we can blame the BBC. Back in those days, child abuse was not really big news like it is now. Sexual abuse went on, girls got their bums pinched by older men and no one made much fuss about it. Take for example Jerry Lee Lewis, he married his 13 year old cousin. His not been banned. He is still admired in the music industry even now.
Elvis was the same,although Priscilla said Elvis refused to have sex with her until they were married. Maybe it was the same with Bill Wyman? Who knows?
Not just the BBC, the royal family protected him, do you think with all the queens intelligence services she has she never knew Jimmy Savile was a paedophile? My arse she fucking gave him a knighthood and he went to Prince Charles for Christmas every year and plus it's a bit funny that her son Prince Andrew has been caught in America haven sex with a girl who's underage ....Aye Right Wee Lizzy Knew!
There is a culture of non-accountability at the BBC...starting with no market pressure on their output, beyond internal liberal dogma, that is! Their programming agenda is a joke, while the money just keeps on rolling in as standards fall. My favourite was always Prof. Brian Cox & his production team having a 5 star world tour to explain some science...& why not?! "Those pleb mugs will acquiesce & pay for it, after all."
Why do you imagine thats what they were doing? They jsut asked him questions, its more about getting dirt on Saville. I concede the BBC turned a blind eye, but so did every media outlet , they all knew.
@@thewkovacs316 I don't think he was popular. No personality, all he did was his catch phrases ' How's about that' The BBC always gave him airtime and presented pop concerts. Always gave you the creeps. Obviously he was useful for BBC and the elites
Nobody directly accused him as it was only rumours. BBC culpable in not reporting him to police. Police negligent in ignoring accusations. Celebs …spineless in coming out years later and claiming they outed him. .. Saville hid behind the charity facade and nobody had the guts to directly accuse him. All scum
I work on the railway, I have since 1984, my career starting with a YTS scheme at Leeds. One Thursday afternoon we held a Leeds to London King’s Cross service for a late running Savile who came bounding through the barriers with two packed ‘Head’ bags. He shouted for me to open the carriage door for him, which I duly did. He threw his bags onto the train and jumped on board. I shut the door and he opened the window and said, “Thanks pal!” and he gave me a £5 note (which was a good tip back in ‘84). As he pulled up the window he said, “I usually expect more for a fiver” and he gave me that creepy Savile grin and wiggled his eyes. I knew right there and then that the rumours were true. I told my boss and basically he said, “Oh that’s just Jimmy, don’t take him seriously.” I was 16. It still creeps me out. Evil bastard. I hope he’s rotting in Hell.
Hell, is clearly made-up nonsense. Even if there is a creator of the universe he didn't make a magical torture chamber. The Bible also thinks the Earth is 6000 years old the first man was made from clay and the first woman from a rib and didn't know there was life before people. It doesn't understand what disease is either. So the hell thing is clearly a well-meaning (ish) threat to try and get people to behave better when alive. Considering the wars religions cause we need to stop pretending these beliefs are still helpful to humanity. The only ones suffering over Saville are his innocent victims and the retired couple who bought his cottage as people keep smashing it up. The fact that everything all came out when he was dead is very telling. He could name a lot of names in my opinion. The fact no one faced any justice an this BBC guy is acting as if other people knew but not his own organisation is fcking infuriating.
honeybeebadger a BBC employee trying to suggest Mr Rossi should have done something about Savile😂😂😂 I’d have thought that was the BBC’s job which they failed do. The question is how pedophiles were/are there in the BBC?
It was refreshing to hear someone clarify that people outside show business don’t realize that all the glamour and glitz is just a facade and behind the scenes isn’t like that.
I must be missing something here. Did Francis Rossi employ Jimmy Savile and was he in charge of the various teenage kids in the TOTP audience? Did Francis Rossi elevate Savile's status as a celebrity? Did Francis Rossi provide Jimmy Savile with his own TV shows which put him in direct contact with kids? When BBC staff were sexually assaulted by Savile, did Francis Rossi cover it up? Strumbolli is right - this is a disgrace. Mikey Hall you need to wise up. The BBC in the first instance is entirely responsible for that disgusting man getting away with it. We are now used to seeing these various personalities interviewed about how much they knew regarding Savile. Where are the faceless BBC executives and programmers who were responsible for employing Savile in the first place, for paying his wages, keeping him in a high profile job and for keeping an eye on his behaviour?
John Wicks but him and many many others continued a long career ! Knowing full well what was going on ! & did nothing ! Becoming rich & famous by keeping quiet !!!! Makes them as bad as him ! Infact worse !
Yes very true. The fact is, me, along with the other members of the cover band I was in at that time, told lots of people, but no one would believe us. We also told them about other horrendous perversions JS apparently had. I won't go into the sordid details here, it's far too disgusting for words. Anyway, it appeared, from the responses of the folks we told, that they considered the stories way too far-fetched, so there couldn't possibly be any truth to it. Perhaps because we were a relatively unknown cover band - making a living, but far from being rich and famous - our story didn't have credence.
auroraborememalice You are right. Things were very different in 70’s and in the 80’s. No one asked about your age, everything was allowed. I really don’t see the point of blaming anyone for something that happened all these years ago. What about the Rolling Stones for that matter, they were the worst of the worst. Groupies were very young. I saw a lot of things myself at a Sweet concert. That’s just the way things were..
@@wanderer299a Indeed and even many rock star autobiographies written a few decades ago will mention them having schoolgirl girlfriends, back then it was less of a concern, thats why the likes of Bill Wyman didn't even hide it from the public.
That is absolute nonsense. This is a BBC journalist with no known connections to the abuse, it is his role to challenge interviewees. This is like an organisation's compliance and risk team that has had corrupt rogue traders previously screening incoming traders on their previous activities. Rossi is squirming and that tells you all you need to know regarding this, he clearly knew what was happening but decided it was not his problem. Lydon is even worse and is a first-class piece of &%$*
The bbc institution protected saville and his deviant behaviour for years right up to the point of being caught within the bbc there are more of his ilk and blackmail could have been the reason for his protection there was more than just him he was not alone they just haven’t been caught yet.
@@martin.baldock9719 Lyndon came out and plainly said his piece and no one would listen and was vilified for it at least he had the guts to come forward not like the rest of them who basically harboured his peado behaviour .
The BBC is not a person and the bosses are people and do you really think the same people who controlled the BBC in the 1970s are still there now as "his bosses" today?
@@seanscanlon9067 they don't need to be there, he can go to their house. Also you can't say they're not people and then they are people?? U sound like a Jimmy Saville sympathiser
@@MaskedMono-oi7bg Neither of your first two comments even begin to make sense and bear no correlation to anything that I have previously said. The C in BBC stands for corporation and therefore the BBC is not a person, the BBC do employ people though but I will go out on a limb here and suggest that they no longer have the same people in charge today that they had in the 1970s, so blaming the BBC of today or more accurately the people of the BBC today for anything that occurred in the 1970s seems fairly pointless. As for your moronic final comment, if you had said that I sound like a BBC sympathiser then that at least might have made some kind of sense but instead you just made yourself look like a total idiot.
I look forward to seeing the BBC do a hard-hitting interview with their own senior managers about what they knew and why they said nothing. They could start with the ones who spiked the original Newsnight report.
It reminds me of the comments John Lydon made about Jimmy Saville. He had the nerve to say what everybody else was thinking and became blacklisted as a result. In recent years some interviewers asked him "Well why didn't you do something about it?". Like a young Punk rocker could actually do anything to prevent something.... He spoke up and got censored for it. I don't think that the interviewer here understands the music business. Status Quo were a rock band, growing in popularity at the time. Saville was a part of the older establishment. Those untouchables who called all the shots. The ones to blame are Saville himself and those who continued to employ him.
The Nolan Sisters didn't speak up at the time though they have done more recently. They saw Jimmy Saville coming onto the youngest Nolan when she was only 14 and had just joined the group but they were standing by ready to punch him in the face if he went further. They were mostly teenagers themselves.
No Lydon showed no nerve at all, at the time he had a big platform to expose this and did nothing about it. So he could have done plenty but did nothing for his own selfish reasons. To put some perspective on this other Punk musicians achieved plenty at battling injustices with a fraction of Lydon's influence, they were more concerned about helping others than protecting their celebrity status. Lydon was more concerned at taking care of his ridiculous ego. As for censorship the band he was in deliberately tried to get censored because it would create publicity for themselves. When it came to doing the right thing Lydon had no moral compass
It's spelt Savile and the far right, Trump-loving royalist Lydon categorically did not shine a light on Savile and was never banned by the BBC. It annoys me that those myths still get believed by the gullible.
@@NeverKnowinglyUndersouled So WHAT exactly was Lydon supposed to do at the time he said this about Savile? With ZERO proof and only hearsay and a hunch to go on? He said what he and others thought at the time about Savile, risking possible legal repercussions. He might not have been "banned" from the BBC, but he was blacklisted by the higher ups.
@@martin.baldock9719 What could he have done with ZERO actual proof and only hearsay and a hunch to go on? He was 22 years old and only said what others may have felt, but feared legal repercussions. It's like somebody in the 90's accusing Prince Andrew of sexually grooming a minor. Without proof, one faces possible charges of slander.
@@Wally-H No he was neither insightful or honest. HIs body language clearly showed he was not telling the truth his avoidance in answering questions directly and even refusing to answer a question speaks volumes.
first time I've seen this, very interesting. Back in the 80s, I was a cameraman and often worked on TOTP and other pop shows, I also did a lot of Freelance work, privately, for big name DJs at their corporate gigs and events. Saville wasn't liked. By anyone! However, we (that is, crews) merely thought he was a secret gay who was into rent boys...just like his friend Jonathan King (whom went to prison!). The facts about his abuse of young children, was genuinely shocking. Rossi made a fair point about the young girls: I saw this with my own eyes, especially around the big-name DJs. Firstly, you could never tell how old they were because of the make-up, but some were definitely young in the crowd and usually, they were the most outrageous and rudest. Many girls only wanted sex or something.....all were desperate for ...Something...I don't know what but the desire to Escape, perhaps, from their drab existence? And yes, sometimes, these DJs (whom remember, were DJs NOT PRIESTS) DId take a girl or two into their beds for the night....colour me shocked, rock and roll eh? Same thing with footballers and sports stars: young rich often good-looking guys...I mean, what do you expect?! Even an ugly sod like me, had to be careful with the females in the audience, a mere humble cameraman, because I kid you not, girls would offer sex...No, I never accepted, I was too worried about what I might catch and besides, I preferred grown women with brains, not faceless teen girls who didn't know what they wanted! I'm pleased to say, most of the famous guys I worked for, had the same attitude as me and were decent blokes. Sometimes they succumbed, but only if the lady in question was clearly in her late 20s, a model or some such, whom knew what she was doing! But what Saville was up to...that bastard really did keep it under wraps and I'm not aware of anyone who had an inkling that he hurt very young kids. Weirdo, yes, but we didn't know he was a nonce. I too...wonder how far up the chain the secret went.....were they covering for the bastard...?
Nobody wants ro talk about this kind of thing,it's opening a can of worms. At school a 14 year old was living with a 30-yr old record producer who dropped her off at school in her uniform each day. Who raised a fuss? No-one. What were her parents thinking? I know...they said we can't stop her. What was she herself thinking?
Savilr was power mad and seemingly had some very dodgy people around him who could have you beaten up or even killed for a large sum. I did read in the Sunday Mirror 10 years ago that some young producer told Savile he knew what he was doing in his dressing room and would report him, and was told by Savile he could have him killed for 5 grand. Also Savile had the full protection of the Establishment.
I grew up in the 70s and people were incredibly naive. Yes, people knew that he was creepy or "a bit of a perv". The problem is that girls were brought up with a lot of emphases on being "nice", whatever that means, and "sensible", whatever that means. So, I'd be interested in knowing why the women working at the BBC turned a blind eye. Because I went to a fairly nice girls' school and our heads were filled with all kinds of rubbish about what happened to girls who weren't nice or sensible. I'm pretty sure if the women at the BBC identified with parents who were a bit middle-class, they would have warned them not to leave their children alone with Saville, or Rolf Harris. Other kids would have been left to fend for themselves
@@CC-hx5fz well, for the most part, Saville kept the real sordid stuff very much under wraps. As I said in my earlier post, the revelations after he died, were beyond shocking. A few women DID suspect he was worse than just a nonce, Esther Rantzen for one, had serious issues with Saville. As for the other ladies, well, there were few women of any real power at the BBC at this time, it was very much an 'Old Boys Network' and I can testify, there was serious misogyny amongst high management, as well as often quite nasty racism (I was from South Wales originally, in my early 20s and I had never experienced real, nasty racism until I went to work in London!). The women who worked at the BBC were pretty awesome for the most part: educated, kind and very professional for the most part. The female producers of children's shows did their utmost to protect any children on the show and kids were always carefully escorted around the studios (mostly because, like a lot of TV studios, strange as this may sound, but there is a LOT of nudity and naked girls floating around!).
They were children, so even if they were 'desperate' or 'only wanted sex,' they didn't know what it meant. It's up to the grown-ups to look after them, but what you describe is male predators taking advantage of childish naivete. Disgusting
@@Black.Sabbath well 2022 concert my brother went to, he said oh a lot of you with bald heads out there , people gone to see / hear this talentless bloke to be insulted
Mandy Smith was with Bill Wyman from the stones and no one seemed to care! It was right there for all to see! People forget about that. He was with her from 13 years old!
Exactly. It is infuriating that he works for the men who protected and therefore promoted the abuse at the BBC. If you want to see how much power they still have over Britain look at how they stopped anyone naming Huw Edwards. If that had been a rock star their name would have been everywhere but they could shut down his name being published or spoken anywhere. That is some Orwellian type of power that we don't need in a democracy.
Rossi is right, a different time and a different way of thinking. Back in 1968 I had a real crush on the most beautiful girl in the school and because we lived not far from each other, I often walked with her to school. I can remember I bought her a present when she turned 15 and asked her out, but she said she already had a boyfriend who had a car and was 27. Later I found out he would pick her up at her home, go in and say "Hello" to the parents and he would take her to his house and they would have sex. The estate we lived on was quite middle class and both her parents had good jobs. I asked her once if her parents knew, she smiled and said "They never ask me but I expect they knew" At my secondary school when in the 3rd year, our music teacher had a small room at the side of his black board and I can recall three times he asked a very pretty girl to go into the room, shut the door and come out 20 mins later, amazingly none of us pupils said anything at all about it. Many years later visiting my home town I met the girl now married with children and I asked her what was going on in there, and she quite bluntly said they were having sex. It just so happen I was a teacher from industry then and was really taken aback by this, as it was common practise in my time (1980/90s) to always ensure the classroom door was left open if ever a male teacher was in a classroom with a female pupil alone. Quite stunned at hearing this I said "Did other teachers know", her answer just totally amazed and she said "Yes of course" and told me two other teachers who were also having a sexual relationship with girls at one of the teacher's house where they took turns with them. Maybe she was lying but she said it, so matter of fact, I honestly believed her. This all happened in a leafy middle class country town and certainly not a working class sink estate. I have often wondered was such sexual misconduct with underage girls common in other areas of England in the 1960/70s. When you think how long Jimmy Saville got away with so much around the country it does make you think why he did and as Rossi states it was a different time and place then. Possibly it still goes on, when he said mothers would drop their 13 year old daughters backstage at the X-Factor auditions.
What would you say is underage? What would you say is overage? Why is fifteen year old sex right or wrong? At what age is right or wrong? Should men be prosecuted for sex if they are older than you think they should be? What about women? Is it wrong for women to have sex if they are under the age you think they should be or over the age you think they should be? If the law says this or that, does it mean that the law is right, and your own morals have no say any more? Homosexuality was not only condemned until the swinging sixties, it was illegal and you were treated like a paedophile is today. Why has the situation reversed nowadays? Who are we to admonish and ultimately erase thousands of years of human values with heritage with our own morals, not guided by God, but scientists and lawyers and psychologists?
I was a child in the 70,s unless you were to you have no idea what life and attitudes were like then. Children trusted ALL adults and wouldn't dream of questioning them in any way.
Exactly. I was a child in the 80s and it was the same. It was well known for young (sometimes underage) girls, to do whatever it took with a “celebrity” if they thought they were going to get their 15 minutes of fame. If it didn’t happen, you get all the stories coming out in this now PC world. I love Adam Ant. He used to date Amanda Donahoe and she was younger than 16 when she lost her virginity to him. He cheated on her with his female dancer in his puss in boots video. He was very open about it in his autobiography. Amanda Donahoe hasn’t now come out saying he raped her. It was a relationship between two consenting people. Times and attitudes were so different and, I agree, not always for the better. However, you cannot put todays values onto yesterdays events. We’d all be guilty of something. I had this conversation with friends who are 15/20 years younger than me and they couldn’t believe what I was saying. They thought I was out of order. They never heard of the “casting couch”.
And not to forget that Prince Philip was a great friend of Jimmy Saville, and stood on the board of charities with him whilst regularly visiting children's hospitals also together...
i thought it was prince charles that was best mates with the scumbag!it makes sense the proprioter and executioner of kids for the system!dark as fuck!
Not sure that Philip was a great 'friend' of Saville - Charles certainly was. The Royals admired the eye-watering sums of money he raised for charity and as such, they would meet him quite often at fund-raisers, opening ceremonies and committees but that's not the same as being a 'friend.' Charles used to meet up with Saville in Scotland for mountain hikes etc. Saville's eccentric personality seemed to amuse Charles - I highly doubt the latter knew what Jimmy was up to, as others have suggested. I bet he cringes at the thought of the kindness he showed the old perv, when he thinks about it now.
Stephen Sackur hides behind his questions, with his bias and smugness, yet in reality, the organisation he works for still have people working there today who knew and helped covered up the abuse.
A naked B.B.C. would be a greater shock!! No wonder they annoy and bore the public, to having no interest in their dirty trade! Hide behind a convenient pandemic pushing Brexit, to suit E.R.G. and Tory 1922 Committee!!
@@robertgalloway3771 The BBC is only popular as ITV and Channel Five is even worse. I was watching a cookery programme on ITV today and left it on when the news was on and felt like I was losing a few brain cells. That's what GMTV does to you first thing in the morning so I gave up watching it.
@@robertgalloway3771 what have u been smoking? Pushing brexit? They demonized it and still do. Hiding the nationwide child rape gangs. Scum, the lot of them
Saville was an evil beast! Sadly no one seems to recall the mothers that pushed their young daughters towards the man just to get on the TV show! Saville just loved that!
Years ago friends of mine went on the top of the pops they won tickets to get on there and wanted to go to be seen dancing and see their favourite pip groups..it was exciting to them..so not all mothers pushed them.i would have loved to have gone on there too but we didn't know what was going on behind the scenes.a friend of mine used to be a camera man at the BBC and he occasionally worked on top of the pops.i asked him if he had ever heard anything..he said it was mad back then.the years could do what they likes and had all sorts of friends back in their dressing rooms..but something happened..he did not know what but then no youngsters were allowed to go to the dressing rooms...so the BBC knew something had gone on...what he did not know.
Jimmysavilleis a foul human being. Because he's a famous celebrity he hid his secret until a year after his death. It was an itv documentary which exposed his shocking behaviour. He abused famous girls in groups then turned his attention to patients in hospital who were there because they're I'll. Ì felt really sorry for his victims. The emotional scars never heal but they can be assured that the perpetrator can't harm them any more.
He was given keys to prisons, access to hospitals. Dj's back then were considered stars by teenagers so it's obvious he would have taken advantage of everything. A very creeps slimy man!!
It's obvious he would have taken advantage of everything. What a horrible view on humanity. How do you manage to get down to the shops for a packet of crisps in the evening?
This is not a particularly recent interview, but it remains here to be viewed. I’d like to think that the interviewer, Stephen Sackur, dies a little inside every time he thinks about it. As Rossi says he himself was a mid teenager when he met Saville on TOTP, why on earth should he have known what was going on? Sackur would regain some credibility by interviewing a few senior and middle management BBC figures from that time who did, undoubtedly, know Saville was a predator. Poor journalism.
@@stephenreeds3632 Just like Michael Jacksons or Roman Polanski's victims, & many young fashion models. It's got to be said, some mothers are f-upped & live vicariously through their children. Truth is, it's a trend that goes right back in history to when marrying your children off to the most powerful males was the manner in which to assure your own financial & life security.
Saville spent several Christmases with the Thatchers , he had ,KSSG, OBE and a Knighthood. Yes, Sir Jimmy Saville certainly had friends in high places.........
so if savile was proved to be a Liar .....and had an image as a nice guy ...Why would you trust anything that comes out of Francis Rossi' mouth? . . .To me this guy is seriously questionable !!! Looks and acts like a predator . . . . . . .
Rossi was a good looking guy. I'm sure he had enough legal age options outside of the TOTP filming.....Besides, Coke was higher up the priority list than girls!!
@@Daxman360 Think about being extremely wealthy when you are 18 19 20. Look at behaviour when you are that age.Girls 14 15 years old saying the are older and getting into nightclubs or bars is a given as well as a 17 18 year olds not being remotely bothered about going with a 15 year old girl. I can recall girls age 14 15 at my school in the late 80s going out with 17 18 year olds and parents not batting an eyelid.
I was shocked to see this,francis's body language,removal of shades,bumbeling words shows he could very well b hiding something,wot & he was a friend of savilles?
Stright talker? He was avoiding questions and giving vague answer. He even refused to answer one of the most important questions. A straight-talker does not squirm like an abused puppy when scolded when being asked challenging questions
Some how I can easily believe it when Francis Rossi says behind the scenes it's grim. When ever I used to get impressed or even just interested in things like that , once you get past the face of it , you find it's nothing special at all. Which is why I'm not star struck by anyone very much anymore and if I do meet a famous face , I'll just treat them like anyone, and with that same level of respect because I imagine they must get sick to death of fans gushing all over them , so they want to be treated like a human being for once.
I was a steward at music festivals. I was allowed backstage at WOMAD as I was stewarding the main stage and it's nothing special apart from better toilets which are flush toilets. I ate in their cafe there and realised the food was better in the arena. There were runners employed backstage who would fetch food on order from the arena to bring backstage. A lot of the hangers on and media people are extremely vacuous. Baring arms late in the evening when it's gone quite cold. If the festival was in the off peak season they would still bare arms. The performers and technical staff not so vacuous. There had been a lot of rain that summer and bad organisation and design of the layout meant it had become a mudbath so standing in wellies in that mud made you feel cold.
They didnt ask him why he didnt do anything. Why did you pretend they did? If it was about coverig it up they would have tried to avoid discussing Saville. Not saying they dont share responsibility with Saville for trying hard not to see what he was doing, for never investigating.
Brian. See in last 2 days see boris hasnt changed the law... So be careful might get a knock on the door... Incidentally i'm with you stopped mine 3 yrs ago...
I grew up in Leeds in the 70s and we didn't believe the 'rumours' about Savile because he was endorsed by the conservative establishment. The police, the military, (the Royal Marines were his pallbearers), royalty and civic dignitaries all supported him. He also did a lot of 'charity' work that gave him immunity from suspicion.
By the 1980s, a rule was brought in that anyone appearing on Top Of The Pops in any capacity - audience members, individual singers or groups featuring kids - had to be at least 16 years old - I can remember seeing kids on the show in the 70s (the bits I was allowed to see) - but, by the early 80s, kids under 16 were not allowed to appear on the show itself - I think St Winifred’s School Choir were the last lot of underage children to perform their number one hit single, There’s No-One Quite Like Grandma, in the studio - by the time Musical Youth took Pass The Dutchie to the top of the charts, they did a video - the explanation for them not being able to perform it in the studio was that “they’re too young to appear in a TV studio at that time of night” - half of them were only 12 and the other half 15 - other groups that were kids, they just played a promo video!
"Surely, you must have known..." Stephen Sackur started with the BBC in 1986. Did he not know anything? I wonder how he would hold up sitting on the other side of those questions.
A black cab driver who worked at the bbc as an occasional chauffeur, (this was like 1993/1994, ) took me home when I was working in London, and the company I worked for laid on cabs for employees who worked late at night, this cab driver took me home to Brentford, and he told me, that he had later that day, driven Bob Geldoff, and he was mighty pissed off because he was in a battle with Paula Yates over taking there kids to Australia, to visit Michael Hutchins but at the time, he had Gary Glitter staying with him, and Gary was best friends with Jimmy Saville, and Bob Geldoff was very cross and angry, because Paula took his kids to Australia without checking with him first…. That’s the god honest truth, and I’ll never forget it… So yeah, they all knew basically!
Imagine the power the BBC and the media had over young pop stars back then and even now. A young band just making it to the dream, in what world would they rock the boat and have their career destroyed? The true guilt lies with the people who knew about it and covered it up and maybe even enabled the likes of Savile and Glitter to feed their sick way of life.
They were young and naive themselves...they may have had a creepy feeling about savile like all of us, but we can't blame them for not picking up on exactly what was going on. He was protected for years after this by people who knew full well what he was doing...
I'm from Leeds and remember the phrase 'Leeds Mafia' being attached to Savile as a kid in the 70's. It was well known that the guy was an absolute bastard with very, very heavy handed and high up connections.....
How big is that Leeds mafia? I know in the 60's he had a Club in Manchester where the bouncers and him used to get pretty rough with people who caused trouble
Typical BBC interviewer - he has an agenda and wants to pin something on Rossi and make him look responsible. Maybe he should look at his employers. They are so arrogant - this is why I won't pay them a penny anymore - as for Rossi - just had him on...amazing band.
How times have changed. I remember watching TOTP back in the 70s and I never picked up on any of the classic traits which everyone talks about. Back in the 70s people were not looking for them. Fast forward to now and here we have the interviewer challenging the bands who played. What about the BBC who employed JS. They owe it to jo public who pay there wages and JS at the time to explain how this went on for so long instead of hiding and deflecting. Shame on you BBC.😥
Saville was a classic psychopath. He was totally detached from his crimes. Many psychopaths escape justice, at least for a while, because they don’t feel or show guilt.
Having watched the Louix Theroux programme a couple of times, it would certainly appear the only person Saville ever really cared about was his mother, with whom he had a rather sinister relationship (was it sexual? Possibly). Keeping her flat as it always was, with the old clothes in it, was very telling.
Those in power knew and protected what the Savile beast was doing for decades. Start each conversation there with those that knew and worked with the monster.
A sad tale to tell but my sister and brother met Jimmy saville in 1973 at the BBC when they were invited there by one of my dad's friends who was a producer there . MR saville took a really ,shall we say " unhealthy" interest in my sister. But of course him being who he was back then , and her being young she was happy with the attention.she unfortunately committed suicide. Francis Rossi, should not feel guilty with anything that took place, yes he was only young but he knew it wasn't right.
Francis alludes to the fact that Saville was protected, the interveiwer does not follow that up , he pushes onto culture, given Saviles had the UKs highest security clearance, Buckingham Palace and multiple Christmases at Chequers with Thatcher, his association with Moutbatten and the Kincora boys home, it seems most likely that Saville was an MI5 Intelligence asset, go do the research
I think poor old Frank is stuck between a rock and a hard place with this stuff! Shut up & have a successful career, open your mouth and you're back to sweeping streets! That Saville was a total monster!
Francis is correct. Situations when you are in your youth look different to when you are much older. The different worlds are the phases of life where we, in our developing years, are still learning what is acceptable from some adults who are not behaving properly. I don't think times will have changed very much and there will still be older creeps who are predators on the younger generation. At the time when Status Quo were first famous they would still be trying to comprehend at 16 and 17 years old, what the management in show business were capable of doing. Look how many young rock bands have been ripped off by their management as another example. It still goes on.
@@thursoberwick1948 Thanks for your reply. I saw a documentary many years ago, where Les Mckeown went and asked where his money had gone. He was polite at all times but during the period up to the meeting; he was so mad. Who can blame him. Tam was most apologetic but Les said openly he didn't believe his excuses. I'm no brexiteer by the way. I'm from Kensington and Chelsea in London. Dad from Berlin and mother from France. I left after brexit, a stupid little englander decision. However I'm grateful for my British education. I don't live in UK 🇬🇧 anymore I'm in a better climate. I play 🎾 with my friends from Western Europe and Scandinavia. Sit outside cafes with them, discussing politics, sport bla de bla. They all speak English, most do in that part of the world; for decades. I cycle everywhere, on a fantastic boulevard, beachfrontage infrastructure. I was a British English language consultant in Kyiv one year; and Odessa three. In Ukraine. I left ten months before vladolf putler invaded (a hunch) My mother was from Britanny by the way 😂 🇫🇷 My dad from Berlin....me...I'm from Kensington and Chelsea in London originally; but no English in my ancestry; as I researched it 😂 Live in Alanya region 🇹🇷, of the beautiful Med Sea climate nowadays. 320 sunny days a year; and heavenly for an 'Englishman' 😂 Dec averaged 22c and Jan 21c. About 4 days ☔ each month. Feb/Mar not cold either....a little more in fact 23c. Again 4 days ☔ collectively. April was 25c plus and 4 days ☔ May a little hotter at 29c 1 day rain...Coronation 👑 day. ☺ June no rain and averaged 34c. Today is July 19th 2023 and it's 46c ☀ 🔥 no rain this month. (Aircon controlled means I sleep soundly). Media in 🇬🇧 say 23c is 😂 a "scorcher" I live here because of Brexit. (Another hunch 😂 ) Prices very low for us....cigarettes £1.25 single pack of 20. (I don't smoke, it's a good gauge for prices though) My monthly rent overlooking the Med Sea is 350 euros. My electric and water bill last month, combined was £14.11p. That's like late 1960s UK prices. 🤔 (Gas heating unnecessary) You can work out the cost of everything else; just based on what I've written. But it's about two thirds less, of what I'd pay in UK; and Europe. British tourists recently told me that. Fresh produce is the norm, at incredibly low prices, at farmers bazaars. I'm 5 mins walk from here 👍 All year round it's pretty much the same. This video about Nov 2022. My dad worked on the Ford Ghia all models. A German engineer. We lived in Tampa Bay for three years, when I was a junior, before being transferred back to London. Best wishes 👍 ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-4V-cGAl6bxM.html
Other celebs and staff of the time refer to a group of them. Saville was only 1, but nobody seems to want to mention the others. There's no way this was a one man show. It takes a group to cover each others back and levy power in order to stop the truth being published. There's reports of the BBC threatening legal action on newspapers if they ran saville pedo articles. You'll even find TV hosts cracking saville pedo jokes in the 80s & 90s.
Keith Richards was asked about this. He tells the story of one occasion when two 15 year old girls turned up at his hotel door one night. He let them in, gave them a cup of tea and called a taxi to send them home. As he said - he had plenty of girlfriends of appropriate age at the time and wasn't interested in children.
The main problem, back then, was that there was only ever an inkling, (call it, 'gossip',), of what was going on, and, 'guests', on shows like Top Of The Pops, were discouraged from questioning anything they saw, as it was seen as being very unseemly to even make the merest suggestion, through fear of what might happen to them, not only on a professional level, but also a personal level, if they were to be seen to have made any allusion toward things of that nature, especially against the hosts of such shows. It was all very hush-hush, behind closed doors, best not go there, territory. An unwritten rule that you never questioned who was seen to be your, 'betters.' Savile, at the time, was the BBC's, 'golden boy', of the airwaves, so they conveniently looked the other way and pretended none of it was going on. Something Savile used to his advantage.
Rossi (as it says) is the front man for Status Quo... just because he appeared on a tv programme that Savile hosted occasionally does not make Rossi responsible for any of Savile's actions on or off screen.... The BBC elite were the enabler (s) for Savile.. end of.. I had the displeasure of meeting Savile when he visited my local hospital when I was on a ward, late 90s.. He only looked at me and said "hello professor" but he made my skin crawl... but I do have an acute working and very accurate 6th sense.. We all have this and we can choose to get in touch with it or not but it doesn't happen overnight, to get it working well.
yes.. my friend's father, back years ago, frequented leeds nightlife when he was a young man. he said Saville made his skin crawl then and he would have nothing to do with him. He was a teenager, my friend's dad and he knew he was a sleaze around young girls way back then as did a lot of his mates.. they warned girls off being alone with Saville.
I worked in the Wimpy bar in Scarborough when I was a teenager and he used to come in often with groups of very young girls, I could never work him out and always thought there was something very strange about him.
Being an American, I didn't know anything about Jimmy Saville. The first time I saw him, I thought he looked creepy. His hairstyle was the first thing. My spidey senses went haywire.
It's interesting that BBC also had 'Thats Life' on back in the day and that programme was very instrumental in launching 'Childs Line' They were all working for the BBC , surely someone on that programme must have had an inkling about Savile ?
Robert John Redrupp , Totally agree with you, Listen to the story pedaling from the "holier than thou" Dragons mouth herself, deflecting questions at her by blaming everyone else ( Including the VIEWERS !! ). Spewing out her Mantra Instead, Loathsome creature. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-MT5z3C8U0gY.html
@@geordie114 Esther Rancid was on a TV show once where they were discussing whether it was appropriate for ballet teachers to touch students. They had a male ballet instructor on to show how they put a student into the ballet poses. Straight away Rancid said "Well, I wouldn't trust _him_ around children." She'd only just met the man and knew nothing about him. Yet she was happy to make a comment like that about him while knowing all about Savile. It's all gone quiet about what she knew. Maybe she's protected by the same low life's that he associated with and who "encouraged" others to keep quiet.
@@gilgameshofuruk4060 ester rancid is a professional outrage at everything that can be misinterpreted. She would probably throw a wobbly if you put the milk in her tea the wrong (to her) order. She would see wrong everywhere and made a big thing about it on her shows, even if it was completely innocent. Or am i just thinking of someone doing a spoof of her on something like spitting image?
My first meeting with Mike ( as he was then ) Rossi was seeing his 1-year-old son in a cubicle in the Gents Loo on the floor at The Croydon Greyhound music venue circa 1971/72. We were looking for the Father ! That same boy went onto to have a First Class Private Education....Rock 'N Roll !
True Story Krishnan and we saw them there 5 times in 1972 "paying their dues" after their teenybop years. On one occasion they did 5 encores, the last of which was a 7 song medley,. Good value for £1,......:)
I don't like how the BBC has completely removed him from everything as if he and what he did never happened. As a public broadcaster his and their covering up should be kept alive as an education to young men and women. His and the BBC's actions should serve as a reminder how not to be and not brushed under the carpet.
yes i agree ...some of the Best TV shows have been lost as a result of this . . .and look at the garbage They try and replace it with ... the bbc is a dreadful corrupt organisation and it should be completely annihilated in every regard !!!!
Some of the commenters here miss Rossi's point. Show business has ALWAYS been full of predators whether it be financial, sexual or about power, just search Monroe's comment when she got the 20th Century Fox deal in 1955. To expect a young band to lead a moral crusade in the late 60s/ 70s against what was rumour is highly unrealistic: they'd lose their careers in an instant. This was the norm back then and right through to the Me Too movement recently and saying it shouldn't have happened is pointless because of course it shouldn't. But it is also unfair to point at other subjects of the system and say 'They knew and did nothing' because they heard a few rumours.
Why shouldn't it have happened? Women are far too protected in society. Male bodies are exploited in every way imaginable. But it's now taboo for female bodies to be likewise.
He said once your in the system... we knew but you couldn’t talk about it. It’s most likely still going on. Respect to him fat telling us a little part of the hush society famous people are held to by their owners.
But it won't change unless someone says something. In this case, they waited until he died. Abusers have ways of punishing you if you do speak up. That's how they hot to the top in the first place.
+John Smith You're such a moron you throw unsubstantiated allegations around. You're assuming one of two things (1) RU-vid anonymity will protect you or (2) these people have better things to do than sue prats like you. (1) is definitely false. You better hope that (2) is true because you could find yourself in a hell of a lot of trouble. You wouldn't be the first to be sued for Internet comments. By the way, calling you a "moron" isn't actionable. It's self-evidently true.
I didn't realise the current style of BBC interviewing was in play in 2014, just look at the body language of the interviewer with the hand 'steepling', it's shocking.
The interviewer has a cheek grilling Francis Rossi about jimmy Seville,s foul behaviour. They are so out of touch. The BBC should hang their heads in shame employing him in the first place. The blame lies with the BBC and Seville.
If you knew somebody you worked with was abusing children at the workplace would you raise the matter with the police? If not you are worse than the BBC. Rossi clearly knew what was going on at the BBC and did nothing. So he is as much to blame as the BBC
Totally agree. I remember not understanding the story about Wilfred Brambell and public toilets and my mum had to awkwardly explain about homosexuality - I was about 13/14 and was amazed!
Gone to the media and they would have been far ore famous. Did not have the morals to do that. If he was that obsessed about fame and fortune he could have done it anonymously. THat being said, expose child abuse and their popularity would have been higher.
There are lots of people who play their part in ignoring paedophillia. Individuals, Institutions, the criminal justice system and on occasions the families themselves. For years this crime against children has sadly been ignored, don't forget Savile was a monster but not typical, most paedophiles are fathers, uncles or family friends . This lack of acknowledgment can only further compound the impact that the abuse has on the child.
It was a different time. As a young woman working in offices in the late 70s / early 80s, I can assure you that fending off pats on the bum and suggestive comments was all part of a normal working day. I was lucky enough to possess the grit to tell a bloke to F off, not all girls were as confident.