CHAPTER: 15



GOODBYE Mr PETROVIC, IT SURE WAS FUN WHILE IT LASTED.

As the summer of ’94 was coming to a close I was spending less and less time at home with Wendy and the kids, it was very much eat, sleep and out. Wendy, as usual, was playing the mum and dad role getting the boys ready for school ,preparing meals, shopping etc. In between she was still in demand to model at various charity fashion shows(See photo).


Meanwhile my work load was beginning to affect my performances at Rudy's and on radio, so I decided it was time that something had to give. Jimmy and myself were rowing over the Marbella Auctions working policies and I was coming very disillusioned with the whole business, so given the choice out of my radio and TV shows, Rudy’s or the auction rooms, it was a no contest, it was time to hang up my gavel, a decision I hoped I wouldn't regret later.



Whilst we are covering this period in Marbella I couldn’t leave out one of Marbella’s most controversial characters of all time, and believe me we’ve had a few over the year, the mayor Jesus Gil who swept into power in 1991 and stayed in office until 2002. Gil also presided for a 16-year tenure as president of the Spanish football club Atlético Madrid. Gil made most of his money in the construction business. He was arrested and spent time in jail in 1967 when one of his buildings in Los Ángeles de San Rafael collapsed, killing 58 people. He was eventually released by order of the dictator Francisco Franco! He turned Marbella into his own private town seemingly doing what and when he liked. Most of Marbella's local police were recruited indirectly by Gil among legionnaires and members of other elite military forces throughout southern Spain and Northern Africa during the 1980s/90s, and some of these officers comprised Gil's own private garde de corps. At first he was welcomed into the office as mayor by the wealthy residents of the town, they saw him as that man who could turn a tired Marbella around knowing it had been going downhill for years. He very quickly and with what seemed like a bottomless pit of cash gave Marbella a sparkling new facelift.

(Photo: Meeting Jesus Gil in his private offices in Marbella)

He painted the town in his party colours blue and what and oversaw two huge arches with the name Marbella embedded into them constructed on either side of the town’s main entrances (See photo below). No one seemed to know where the money was coming from but the town was booming, property prices soaring. Jesus continued to run the town almost like his own private party and was so popular that he was voted back into power four times bring his time of mayor to an abrupt end in 2002 when he was finally arrest alongside many of his town hall colleagues for embezzling billions out of the town hall funds. Although Gil died aged 71 a few years ago of a brain haemorrhage many of his ex councillors etc are still serving time in prison including his chief town planner Juan Antonio Roca, the alleged "Mr Big" who ran Marbella from his

from his offices for more than a decade, faces fines of some €800m and 35 years in prison sentences. Also included in Roca’s hall of goods were a private jet and a helicopter, an art collection worth multi of millions, houses all over the world, the list goes on and we’ll probably never know the full extent of his crime. This is extraordinary when you consider the size of this tiny town that saw multi of billions embezzled in front of everybody's eyes and yet no one seemed the question Gil or Roca at the time, perhaps they were all to scared..
Gil saw Petrovic as very much his type of man and it wasn’t long before he embraced him as a very good friend.



Signe were beginning to show in Petrovic's camp that not all was going well, rumours started to spread that he hadn’t actually paid the $4 million for the Marbella Football Club or paid his players salaries. It was also noticeable that Bob was spending very little time on board the Blue Crystal, spending long hours at home incommunicado, his club Long Legs was also suffering from his absence with word that his staff at the club hadn't been paid for weeks. The big question around marbella was; 'Was Petrovc going broke?' One of the sad things I remember about that time was those who hung out with Bob when he was picking up the bills etc now seemed to be turning their backs on him. I could tell by Petrovic demure he was a worried man, he was drinking a lot. I also was beginning to worry as it was coming up to the end of August and the Scandinavians would be returning to the radio leaving me without a time slot for my show. I mentioned this a few times to Bob stressing the importance of him going into to see Pepe if he still wanted the Long Legs radio show, all he would say was; "okay, okay I'll go to see him when I get a moment!" I knew by his tone my persistence was beginning to annoy him. If I was being honest with myself I knew in my heart of hearts this wasn't going to happen and I needed to act fast if I wanted to continue on radio.


What was happening to this fun loving Yugoslavian was very sad. How different it all had been just a short time ago. I remember the excitement the day Petrovic took control of the Marbella Football Club he invited me to accompany him to his first game as the the new owner. When we arrived in Bob’s white convertible Rolls Royce we were given a police escorted to guide us through the enthusiastic crowds making their way into the stadium, which were all waving a cheering their new savior. I sat next to Bob in the executive box as we were greeted by the thousands of Marbella FC fans chanting Petrovic Petrovic, Petrovic. After the first game, which the club won, Bob threw a super party in one of Marbella’s top hotels, during the meal each player was handed an envelope bulging with thousands of dollars as a way of a bonus for winning. Bob promised that there was plenty more where that came from for the correct results. All the players, managers and traynors stood and cheered him. Everybody loved Petrovic.

Less than a season later the picture told a very different story. Petrovic’s arrival at games was met by boos! His players weren't been paid, he owed fortunes everywhere. To add to his misery he made a terrible mistake whist been interviewed by a major Spanish TV station, he said that the only players worth their salt in his cub were the Serbs he had bought and that the Spanish players were not good enough even to lick his boots!!! This got him terrible negative press throughout Spain. Bob’s world was beginning to implode in on him. Even Marbella's controversial Mayor Jesus Gil, who welcomed him with open arms just a few short months ago, turned on him publicly by calling him; a liar, a cheat and a fake! I felt that maybe it was time I started to put a distant between myself and Bob but I couldn't, I didn't want to join all those who were now turning their backs on him, I felt sorry for him but his behaviour was becoming irrational, I was also worried that he might stop the sponsorship of my radio show. The rent then was a whopping 600,000pts per month, in today’s money value approx 5,000€, there was no way I could afford to bankroll that amount!



The Long Legs Radio Show has been broadcast from the OCI’s studios in Marbella throughout July and August from 2 to 4pm weekdays. Petrovic had negotiated a contract for the two months of summer whilst the Scandinavian radio station, who rented that that time slot, took a summer break but now that the summer was coming to an end the station director, Pep Navajos, continued to remind me that I would have to vacate the slot shortly.

(Photo: Pepe Navaja the director of Onda Cero International. I was to become the bane of his life for the next 10 years!)

I kept assuring him that Petrovic was coming in to negotiate a new contract etc. One afternoon as I was leaving the studio to go home Pepe called me into his office to let me know that he had called Petrovic to ask him if he was interested in negotiating a new deal and time spot. Pepe said that Bob informed him that he was NOT interested as he was closing Long Legs in a few weeks. This was devastating news. I knew that Pepe, who started off very unsure of me as a broadcaster, was now warming to me and I also knew from inside info he really didn’t want me to leave the station.
Pepe kept his cards close to his chest at first and told me that perhaps he could offer the 7.15 to 9pm slot. As little as I knew about radio at this stage I knew this to be disastrous time as historically English listeners do not listen to radio in the evenings unless, that is, they were out in their cars. I then asked about the rent;"The same." He replied and without hesitation he added; "That's 6000,000 per month!". I nearly fell off my chair and started to argued that the revenue from evening advertising was considerable less than peak daytime listening so how could he justify such a huge rent? Laying both hands firmly on the table he snapped; “Take it or leave it!” With that he got up to leave.Just as he was about to close the door behind him I heard myself saying; “I’LL TAKE IT!” Those words were totally involuntarily of which I seemed to have very little control over, a knee jerk reaction I think is what it's called! The door flew back open leaving Pepe as surprised looking as I felt. We shook hands and he said that a contract would be drawn up in a day or two.

I remember driving home thinking how the hell am I going to pay that amount, what's more I knew Wendy would go crazy when I tell her what I had just agreed to. She had been going on lately about me getting a proper job as we were hardly paying the household bills and struggling to meet school fees etc By the time I arrived home Wendy had the dinner on the table; "So" she asked; "How did you get on?" She knew I was hoping to convince Petrovic to sign a new radio deal that day and most important to agree to pay me a set salary. I smiled nervously and told her that I had negotiated a new deal. “How much?” she asked excitedly. I sheepishly replied; “600,000pts.” Her eyes lit up “Wow, that's brilliant! he's agreed to pay YOU 600,000pts a month?” I knew now I was in deep trouble, I had no choice but to tell her the truth that in fact it was ME who had to pay THEM. At first Wendy thought I was joking but after convincing her it was a fact all she could say was; “Where the hell are you going to find that kind of money Boland, go back and tell them to forget it and go and get a proper job?”
I think I might have slept in the spare room that night!

Photo: Comedian and impressionist Faith Brown on stage at Rudys. Like my Tom Jones shirt?
Thankfully Rudys was still as busy as ever. Unfortunately no matter how successful those nights were they certainly weren't earning me anything like the amount of money Pepe was asking for to rent the time on radio station. We still hadn’t bought a house and were living in very nice rented home, are three sons were in English schools that cost a bloody fortune so to try to find an extra 600,000pts per month was going to be impossible and I had only days before I was going to sign the contract or I was out!



Lying in bed with only days to go to come up with a sponsor I remembered Roy Peires, a South African friend of mine, who owned one of the most successful timeshare companies in Europe , Club La Costa , who I also knew to be interested in new marketing ideas and hoping a Club La Costa Radio Show might interest him I drove down to his headquarters approx 15 minutes from Marbella and put the idea to him. Thankfully he liked the idea a lot and shook my hand agreeing to sponsor my show for a million pesetas per month approx 6,000€. I was delighted, not only that Club La Costa was going to be my main sponsor but I was also going to make a small profit. Now all I had to do was to work out a way to attract a listenership at that time of the evening and in turn attract some serious advertisers.

When launching a new idea or buisness the first thing I always try to decided on is a name, something I can hook into to continue to develop, this is something I always do whether it be a name for a discotheque or a

restaurant , or perhaps a title for a magazine or in this case a radio show, the name I came up with was The Late Late Breakfast Show I called it after the Late Late Show in Ireland, I'm not sure why I added 'Breakfast' perhaps to make it different I suppose. Now with the name was settled all I had to do was to come up with an a original winning format to attract an evening audience and this I did by turning the full two hours into radio games. I had never heard of a radio show dedicating it's full air time to games, so I assumed this might have been a first. I needed to also come up with something much more substantial than some general knowledge games etc So with pen and paper in hand I sat down and started to design games that I believed would work on radio, I also wrote them in mind to attract a sponsor per game.
The first potential sponsor I approached was Hyper Andalucia owned by the Irish retail group Dunnes Stores who owned two stories at the time on the Costa del Sol, one on the Fuengirola bypass and the other in Las Rampas Fuengirola. I met with the Manager for Dunnes Spain Leo Keohane and explained my idea which I called ‘Let’s Go Shopping With Dunnes, the Trolley Game’ the idea was that every evening we would read out a list of shopping in the fantasy shopping trolley, the object of the game was to guess the total price of the goods, the winner was the person who phoned in with a price closest to the total. The shopping list would be read out at the beginning of the show and the listener who was closest to the amount of shopping in the trolley would win the lot! Thankfully Leo loved the idea and agreed to sponsor that spot.

Next was my idea of a game I called The Hole In One Golf Game. Playing golf on radio might sound crazy but I designed it as a grid game. i.e Make out a grid squire, then write A,B,C,D,E,F across the top and 1,2,3,4,5,6 down the side, I would then place an X in the spot I would allocate as the hole. The player would ring in and say for example D,4 we would then have a sound effect of a golf club swinging and hitting a ball, if it wasn’t the squire that I had marked X there would be a large sound effect of an Ahhhhh! Every time someone missed, the prize money went up by 50€! It didn’t take long, if the X spot wasn’t hit, to build up an attractive amount of cash in the prize fund and became a huge hit with the listeners. It was sponsored by Miraflores Golf.

Another game I remembered using was the well tested Guess Who’s Talking It was simply a mystery voice game that I recorded earlier off the TV or a video etc and play on air. To tell you the truth I can’t remember all the games but I can tell you the show was an instant hit with the listeners all enthusiastically trying to get through on the studio phones to win prizes from the minute the show went on air. The show brought evening listening for English residents into a whole new level. It was a phenomenon.


Petrovic club Long Legs was now closed down and the rumours about his troubles with the football club were now been written about in the press etc. Bob seemed to be spending more time at home and less on Blue Crystal. I felt sorry for Bob his popularity had all but disappeared. Sitting at home staring and his television but not watching it he came across as a very lonely broken man added to the fact that his so called ‘friends’ had all but left him. Why did it all go so terribly wrong for the generous man? Perhaps only he can answer that. I continued to visit him at home trying to show him support etc but he just wasn’t interested. Bob Petrovic’s was simply fizzling out and it wasn’t long before he started to lose everything. This is so typical of Marbella. It seemed every year a new name came into town flashing the cash, the same crowed of vultures would start picking at their bones until they'd picked them clean. the vultures would then disappear and waited for the next vulnerable culprate to arrive in Marbella ladened down with cash so they could get picking again, this lot make me sick! There is a saying here; ‘To make a small fortune in Marbella you need to start with a large one!’ The Petrovic story ended sadly but I for one will be forever grateful to the extraordinary, bigger than life, Yugoslavian for the start he allowed me in radio. If it wasn’t for him I would never have had the opportunity. I haven’t seen Bob for years. I have no idea where he is or where he lives I just hope he’s happy. THANK YOU BOB PETROVIC FOR EVERYTHING.

To be continued......

COMING NEXT THE LATE LATE BREAKFAST SHOW SETTLES INTO ITS NEW TIME SLOT. WE DO OUR FIRST OUTSIDE BROADCAST THAT GOES DESPERATELY WRONG. MY 'BIG RISK TV SHOW' IS GETTING TIRED AND I NEED TO FIND A NEW FORMAT TO KEEP MY TV AUDIENCE FIGURES UP. I HOST MY FIRST CHARITY EVENT AND BARRY AND MYSELF DECIDE TO SPLIT. ALL THAT AND MORE IN THE NEXT CHAPTER OF MY STORY

CHAPTER: 14


AT LAST A CHANCE TO BECOME A TV STAR... SO I THOUGHT!





For as long as I can remember all I ever wanted to do was host a TV show and that eventually happened back on Sunday the 28th November 1993. I can’t remember much of how the opportunity first arose but I do remember Barry Nathan, who I knew as a casual friend, suggesting that he would be able to help me achieve this. He had a friend, Martin Shardlow, a well known UK television producer with many hit shows under his belt including; Only Fools and Horses, Black Adder, The Upper Hand, Are You Being Served to name but a few, who had a villa close to Barry's and saw him regularly. He also told me he was a friend of Jamie Tedesco who ran Coin Film City where the BBC soap Eldorado was being filmed at the time. Within in days of our initial conversation Barry invited me to his home to meet with Martin and Jamie. We spent the good part of the time discussing ideas for the show and by the end of the evening I was given the green light. Martin agreed to direct/produce, Jamie agreed to supply Coin Film City’s facilities etc, Barry said he would raise the finance and was I was to find and invite the guests etc. This show was to be a pilot and be used, we hoped, to sell to a UK TV companies.




The first guest I called was Peter Stringfellow I was desperate to make it up to him after the Mandy Smith fiasco. Peter and his London Club Stringfellows was one of the worlds most famous nightclubs at the time so I was delighted when he agreed to travel over as my guest.

Another guest I was lucky to secure was the well known London villain Ronnie Knight, formally married for 22 years to Barbara Windsor and was known at the time as the Gangster King of The Costa del Crime (at that time there was no extradition agreement between England and Spain so main UK villains were living the champagne lifestyle on the Costas without fear of the UK authorities taking them home to face charges) Ronnie was wanted for his involvement in the £6 million armed robbery at a Security Express depot in Shoreditch, East London, Why it was quite a coup to get Knight as a guest was because the day after his appearance of my show he was to be flown back to UK by the Sun Newspapers after agreeing a deal with them and face questioning by the police. After returning to the UK he was sentenced to seven years in jail but was paroled after serving four years.


The next meeting was set a few weeks later and was held at Coin Film Studios. Id never been there but more important Martin Shardlow needed to familiarise himself with the studio and the equipment etc. I was meeting some of the planning crew whilst Jamie walked Martin up to what he thought was the sound stage where it was planned the show would be filmed. My excitement was shortly about to turn to disappointment when Martin came in and angrily announced; “There is NO studio, what I’ve just seen is a large warehouse storing props , lights, cameras etc there is NO way we can make a TV show there, end of, this is a total waste of my time!” I just sank back in my chair feeling the blood rushing from my face. Barry Nathan, ever the diplomat, tried to calm the situation by suggesting that surely we could clear the warehouse and turn it into a studio? After much angry discussion behind close doors it was agreed that to turn the corrugated warehouse into a studio would be very expensive, all the walls would have to be covers with thick curtaining, the floors would need to be laid in wood, a stage and set built, camera tracks and lighting gallery constructed etc. Again Barry said he would sort it and raise the extra finance that was needed.

Within weeks all the finance was in place, the studio were being built and the guest had been confirmed. The show was to be filmed in front of an invited audience and the date was set.
As the day for filming my show was getting closer and as it was my first ever TV show Martin Shardlow was spending much of his valuable time tutoring me to the understand of the workings of a TV talk show. He explained that the show would be filmed ‘as live’ meaning that the show would run from beginning to end without stops even if there was a mistake he would keep filming and remove it in the final edit. There would be 4 cameras but one specifically on me. Red lights on top of the cameras would indicate when they were filming etc. So that was that. I started in earnest preparing my notes on each guest and generally getting both very nervous and at the same time as the big day approached very excited.



I couldn’t believe my eyes when I arrived at what was a corrugated warehouse and now the transformation into this stunning studio that was now ready for this evening filming. I had booked a brilliant band The Mix as my musicians, the audience that numbered well over one hundred were now seated and all that was left for me to do was to take my position on stage and welcome my guesst.

Thankfully the show went very well, the studio audience certainly seemed to be enjoying it by responding with laughter when needed and enthusiastic applause as each guest was played onto the set by the band. Everybody involved with the show felt that it was to be my passport into bigger things in UK TV. Unfortunately it wasn’t to be, firstly I had no agent at the time, Martin Shardlow, although felt the show was first class he had moved to live full time almost on the Costa and had retired from TV, the BBC had pulled Elderado or maybe I was just not good enough. I had no intention of giving up!!!




Mr PETROVIC: "I'LL BUY YOU A RADIO STATION, I'LL BUY ME A FOOTBALL CLUB, A JET AND A MULTIMILLION DOLLAR YACHT!"




It was the morning of the 1994 Entertainer of the Year Show rehearsals for the junior section had started

when Bob Petrovic arrived with his young daughter Anna saying he’d like to enter her in the compatition. At first glance I honestly thought Petrovic was a Yugoslavian refugee and part of a group that were being housed in Mijas, a small picturesque town 40 minutes from Marbella. In fact he looked like a colourful gypsy (See Photo). After hearing Anna, who I guess was around 12ish, rendition of Breath Again by Tony Braxton I secretly earmarked her as a winner straight away. As I said, thinking Petrovic was a refugee I asked Rudy to offer him a free meal as tonight’s dinner show was expensive. He turned Rudy down by thanking him and saying he had already booked a table for himself, his wife and six friends.

Once the rehearsals were finished I left to meet Sheik Ashmawi, my partner in Marbella Auctions (we met weekly for an update on the past weeks auction etc) The first thing he said when I walked into his office was that he heard Bob Petrovic’s daughter had entered this evenings show. To tell you the truth I was amazed that he knew a Yugoslavian refugee. He went on to informed me that Bob Petrovic was in fact a multimillionaire and owned a mega yacht called the Blue Crystal which was moored in Puerto Banus, he also owned a private jet in Malaga airport and a Palace in Nueva Andalucia next to Aloha Golf Club! You could have knocked me down with a feather. After my meeting with Sheik Mohammid my next stop was a lunch meeting in Puerto Banus, after lunch my curiosity got the better of me so I sauntered along the pier that moored the mega yachts and their looking big enough to be a mini liner was the majestic Blue Crystal. Should or shouldn’t stop and enquire if the master was onboard? I pressed the bell that was attached to footbridge that led onto this super yacht. A perfectly turned out crew member came forward and asked could he help, I sheepishly asked if Mr Petrovic was on board, he politely asked me to wait where I was then disappeared through some glass doors, after a minute or two he returned and invited me on board, wow I’d lived in Marbella for about 9 years at this stage and had always admired the pure opulence of these super yachts but had never actually been on board one and here I was about to meet ‘The Gypsy’ (Make a mental note appearances can deceive) I was ushered into the main salon , the inner sanctum, my shoes disappeared into the thick pile white wool carpet.

I just stood there speechless. Petrovic was on the phone and a soon as he saw me he jumped up and greeted me like a long lost friend not someone he met that morning! His first words were: “I like you, you are so funny!” He said in his broken English. I'm not sure what I did or said at this stage to amuse him. He invited me to join him on deck for a cool drink. “ I’d like to offer 1,000Euro towards tonight’s show”He said, I thought, he might be trying to bribe me so his daughter could win; “Thank you so much thats very kind of you, but I can't accept because if Anna wins it will look like I've taken a bribe.” But he insisted handing me the cash, I eventually agreed and said I would spend it prizes etc, which we did. I had to excuse myself after my short stay as I had to get back to Rudy’s for the seniors rehearsal.
The night was a great success, to be honest I can’t remember who actually won but I do remember Anna Petrovic was certainly up among the top three. As the Petrovic’s were leaving Bob came back stage inviting on Blue Crystal for lunch the following day.


I arrived on the yacht around 2pm, there was just me, Bob and a crew of about 10. No sooner had we sat for lunch than the Blue Crystal gently eased it's way out of port. Where we were going I had no idea but never mind this was more than cool. After lunch we sat having coffee on the upper deck enjoying the views of the Costa del Sol’s coastline as we cruised in the direction of Gibraltar. Bob started to explain his plans for his future in Marbella, He told me he had just purchased Regines famous discotheque in Puerto Banus , he also had bought the Marbella Football club for he paid the princely sum of $4million! A lot of money for a local football club. All very exciting I told him and if he needed any help etc I would delighted to help where I could. He went on to tell me he was going to call the club Piernas Largas meaning Long Legs, terrible name I thought and told him so but he explained he had this thing about short people and wanted a measured mark on the wall by the door and anyone shorter than a certain height would be barred, wouldn’t get away with that today, mind you I thought at the time he was joking! He said he wanted the American platinum selling group Kool and the Gang for the opening night and asked me if I could book them.

“ You mean you want me to book THE Kool and the Gang and fly them in from America for one night only,You must be crazy, Kool and the Gang normally play huge ten thousand plus seat venues, your club holds 300, 400 max, have you any idea how much they would cost?” I replied.
He just shrugged his shoulders and smiled: “How much?”
I hadn’t a clue but with first class air fares for the band that numbered 8, then I was sure they would have at least another 3 or 4 more join them, they would acquire hotel suits, meals, transport etc I told him: “I really don’t see much change from $100,000!”
Again he smiled; “Lets give a new car away to a lucky ticket holder that night.”
So there you have it folks this is Mr Petrovic.

I did book Kool and the Gang and they did cost $100K but what a night what a band. After the show we continued to party on board the Blue Crystal. The next day Bob called to ask me to get myself down to the club as he had a TV crew there who wanted to film an interview with ‘Kool’ and I was to conduct the interview. (Photo: With Arthur 'Kool' Bell aboard the Blue Crystal)

(You will find at the bottom of this chapter a rarely seen video of that amazing night)


I had hardly got back to the house when Bob called and said he wanted me to join him aboard the yacht for dinner that evening as he had some VIP's he wanted me to meet. So a quick shower and change and I was back in Puerto Banus, as I approached the Blue Crystal I noticed a huge crowed had gatherd on the port oppisit Petrovic's yacht

I boarded and joined the pre dinner drinks party wondering why there was so much fuss on the key side until I was introduced to the strikingly good looking Albert Tomba the then world champion downhill ski champion, he had won three Olympic gold medals, two World Championships, and nine World Cup season titles. He was famous for his playboy millionaire lifestyle, driving Ferrari’s and flying his own private jet. He was known as Tomba the Bomba! Also on board were Manchester United stars, Ryan Giggs and Teddy Sheringham, no wonder there was a load of screaming girls hoping to be invited on board and thought the screaming was for me!!! Okay only joking!



One day whilst Bob and myself were alone I told him that I had an idea that might work well for marketing Long Legs and his football club and that was to negotiate a deal with Onda Cero International Radio (OCI) the then only English radio station in southern Spain, to buy a few hours per day to broadcast the Long Legs Radio Show and promote his football club, Bob thankfully loved the idea. Onda Cero scheduling included afternoons leased by a Scandinavian radio station who went off the air every July and August and all the radio played during that period was non stop music. Bob bought that airtime and gave it to me! Thanks Bob.
OCI's director, Pepe Navajas, who had turned me down so many times was now stuck with me but added a proviso that the radio station had to supply a co-host to drive the radio show and use radio equipment etc and that person was Barry Mitchell.

We had such a blast that summer broadcasting every afternoon for 2 to 4pm which included sending out the team of great looking guys to measure girls legs on the beach and then those with the longest legs were invited take back to the radio station so we could speak to them live on air! You can imagine the chaos that occurred every afternoon when dozens of bikini clad girls turned up cover in suntan oil leaving sand all over the place! I’m sure poor Pepe was now regretting doing the deal with Petravic and letting myself and Mitchell loose in the studios, his only saving grace was that it was only for the eight weeks of July and August. (photo: Barry Mitchell and myself on the very first day of the Long Legs radio show, in fact it was my very first radio show June 26th'94)

I was still as busy as ever with Wednesday night shows at Rudys still packing them, In fact such was the demand for reservations for my show a ticket desk was set up opposite Puerto banus Sunday auctions still drawing big crowds but I was also under pressure from Bob to host certain nights in his club and booking acts from UK including the number 1 best selling soul group Imagination. It was a wild Marbella summer either on radio, Long Legs, Marbella Auctions and The Blue Crystal I even had a column called Day by Day WITH BOLAND in one of the Costa Del Sols weekly English Newspaper. (I’ve just picked up an old edition and I see i was also presenting Jazz on The Sand at Ipanema Beach!)
Petravic’s spending continued to skyrocket. I remember he started to buy famous Yugoslavian footballers to play in his Marbella football team and I even arranged for Peter Reed who had managed Manchester City to fly over on his jet to meet Bob with the possibility of him managing the local club!



One afternoon I was with Bob in a Marbella car showroom, although he was driving a white convertible Rolls Royce at the time, he fancied adding a new Aston Martin to his increasing fleet of top end cars.

No sooner had he agreed to buy the Aston than a stunning red Ferrari, also sitting on the showroom, caught his eye, after inquiring about the price he agreed to buy that also!!! On the way back to the port I asked Bob why he bought the two cars? He informed me that the Ferrari was a birthday present for his star Yugoslavian football player now playing for Marbella FC. I made a mental note to remind Bob my birthday was on the 2nd June!


Bob telephoned me early one morning, which was very unlike him as he liked to sleep until early afternoon thats because he usually didn't get into bed much before sunrise, this morning he sounded excited and asked me to come to the Blue Crystal as soon a possible. As usual Bob was on his mobile phone when I arrived, as soon as he saw me he hung up and without as much as a ‘hello’ he asked; “You know Peter Stringfellow?” where was this going I thought, if you had read my earlier story about my major fall out with Peter over Mandy Smith’s trip to New York you will understand why I hesitated before asking why. “Call him!” demanded Bob, "Ask him to come over I want him to be my guest and get some advice about Long Legs.”
I called Peter and explained about Bob and how he would like to invite over him as his guest to Marbella etc etc, as I was explaining to Peter, Bob interrupted and asked me to tell him to come now!
“One moment Peter.”
Covering the mouthpiece of the phone with my hand I turned to Bob and asked; “ what do you mean by now?”
Bob was jumping around like a kid with candy;

“Now as in NOW!" yelled Bob
I uncovered the mouthpiece and repeated what Bob had said; “Now as in NOW!” Peter must have thought that I had lost my marbles since last speaking to me those 5 years ago. I excused myself and took the phone on deck where no one could hear me and explained in depth the whole Petravic story. I could tell Peter was excited when he asked who would look after the travel arrangement etc. Again I asked Peter to hold on and I’ll ask Bob. I went back inside where Bob was waiting and asked him who would arrange Peters travel etc?
Bob looked at me as if I was mad saying; “ You crazy, I’ll send my jet, it will leave within the next hour or two!” His accent seemed to get heaver and his words interspersed with little bits of Yugoslavian, which I assumed were possibly swear words.
Jet, Jet of course I’d forgotten, Bob had a private Jet in Malaga airport. After explaining about the jet etc and Peter agreeing to come, within two hours or so I was in the air being jetted to London to pick up Peter Stringfellow, life with Bob Petrovic was full of surprises and totally surreal!

As soon as picking up Stringfellow we turned around and took off again, not a lot of difference from a taxi I suppose except the meter was probably at 10K by now! Peter and myself had a couple of hours in the air to kiss and makeup for the misunderstanding between us 5 years ago. On arrival at Malaga’s VIP private air terminal we hit a major problem, Peter had forgotten his passport and the Guardia Civil in charge of arrivals didn’t look the friendliest bunch to say the least. I asked Peter to wait and I went through to find Bob to explain the problem to him. Bob never seemed fazed by any problem and smiled at me telling me to wait he’d sort it out. There was no way Peter will get into Spain without a passport! Wrong! After about 5 minutes Bob and Peter came out together beaming from ear to ear. I just stood there mouth open as Bob smiled and gave me a wink. To this day I have no idea how he managed to pull that one off but then he WAS Bob Petrovic!


We all had dinner aboard the Blue Crystal that evening.

Among Bobs crew was a top class chef and I could tell over dinner that Peter was not only warming to Petrovic but couldn’t help to be impressed. After dinner we sat under the night sky enjoying the finest wines and champagne. I know the heavens were above us but this particular night I thought heavens was right here on the upper deck of the Blue Crystal.
It was only then that Bob started to roll out his plans as to why he had invited Peter over, he explained that he wanted to throw a party in Stringfellows London to pick 60 lucky girls who would be flown to Marbella for the summer, put up in
luxury Puerto Banus apartments and all they were required to do was to hang around the popular bars like Sinatra’s etc and convince anyone they could to come to Long Legs. I remember thinking how much is all this going to cost for a minimum of 30 apartments in Puerto Banus to rent at the height of the tourist season added to that the 60 return airfares, food etc, but I had learnt to say nothing, anyway it would have been a waste of time, once Bob Petrovic made up his mind that was it!
Peter loved the idea and suggested that he would ask the Sun newspaper to run the competition for the 60 lucky girls as a joint promotion. As Bob had no passport that allowed him entry into UK at the time he asked me to go in his place. (Photo: The night Peter Stringfellow came aboard, bottom right, with Petrovic , myself and I haven't a clue who the rest were!)

A few weeks later I was up in the sky again on my way into London, yet again aboard Petrovic's private jet, boy I loved that jet, it’s the only way to travel, arrive at the airport 10 minutes before departure simply walk onto the jet and away we go, I could have easily got used to that. On my arrival I went straight to my hotel got changed and made my way over to Stringfellows. I was met by Peter who brought me straight to his table, the club was simply jammed tight with stunning girls and not a lot of men.After dinner Peter got on the microphone and boldly announced: “Ladies welcome to Stringfellows this evening, sixty of you lucky girls will be jetting off to Marbella within the next few days and the man who will decide which ones of you will be going is sitting right next to me, having flown in on board his private jet, lets hear it for Mr Maurice Boland.” Girls started to cheer and scream and for a fraction of a second I felt like some pop star celebraty. My job was to simply walk around and hand a confirming invitation to the girl I believed would be suitable for the job. Truth be known they were all suitable but I couldn’t invite hundreds so handing out the invites was simple. It was a great night and Peter was the perfect host. By the time I got back to the hotel it was so late I called the pilots to say I was on my way, showered and changed and took off shortly after 6am. The girls arrived the following weekend and Bob was delighted thankfully with my choice.(Photo: On board Petrovic's private jet on my way to London for the Stringfellow party taking with me a giant poster of Bob)

I got a call from an Onda Cero colleague the late Craig James to invite me onto his TV show that went out once a week in English on the Spanish Station 340TV.

After a chat on air the producer Martin Wood invited me for a coffee in the studios canteen and suggested that I should consider a weekly TV show, this really appealed to me at the time and I saw it as a natural progression along with radio. I told him that I believed to attract an English audience to tune into a Spanish TV station it woiuld need something very special, knowing how much the English loved television game shows I suggest a game show I had written. He agreed and not before long Bolands Big Risk was been screened on TV (this was well before SKY. The only choice on offer was Gibraltar TV which was pretty poor at the time) The TV Show was an instant hit.

The summer of ’94 was truly wild, crazing and if I hadn’t lived it I wouldn’t have believed it! As the season was beginning to come to an end the Petrovic band wagon was beginning to show cracks. To be continued.....


This is a rarely seen video of Kool and the Gang in Petrovic's club Long Legs Marbella


To be continued...

CHAPTER 14.

SUN, SAND AND KARAOKE




Since the early days in Marbella I always enjoyed Sundays, still do, at first we used to hang out at Victors Beach, at the time

it was ‘the Beach’ famed for its excellent barbequed spareribs, great looking bodies and backgammon, that was until Mel's Beach started their Sunday afternoon's live sessions.(Photo: Mel and yours truly slightly younger looking than today!)
Mel Williams a long time resident of Marbella and simply know as the ‘Boss’ when it came to music, his Sunday Sessions were always packed with the Marbella ‘faces’ and visiting celebrities. Each Sunday there was always a well known celebrity or two joining Mel on stage, names like Joe Cocker, Phil Lynott (I arranged that) 60’s iconic groups like Marmalade, Brian Pool, The Merseybeats and Freddie and the Dreamers in fact any visiting musical celebrity to Marbella would end up on stage at Mels. I loved this concept and put at the back of my mind in case an opportunity should ever arise for me to duplicate it.

One evening whilst having dinner with a friend in Puerto Banus he suggested we should go for a drink in the new 60’s bar before going home. I’d never been there in fact I'd never heard of the place, so you can imagine how amazed I was not only to find the bar packed but the famous 60’s group Dozy, Beaky, Mick and Tich (see photo. Dave Dee had left the band by the time they had moved to Marbella) belting out their hits like Hold Tight, Bend It and the Legend of Xanadu on stage. The atmosphere was electric, the band were simply amazing. I became an instant fan and started to make friends with the boys, spending many nights in the bar soaking up their hits and the music of the 60's.



It was one afternoon I was having a coffee with Beaky when I suggested that they should consider putting on Sunday afternoon beach concerts to capitalise on the success Mel was having. Beaky loved the idea and ask me if I could stage manage the event and find a location for the sessions. I remember driving home thinking; here I am from Mandy Smith To Dame Shirley Bassey and now Dozy, Beaky, Mick and Tich, made me smile. The band were not only brilliant musicians but also had outstanding stage presence, I honestly felt they would be a huge success on the Sunday sessions. I was excited, now all I needed to find was a beach that would agree to partner me and the band on Sundays.

Dozy, Beaky, Mick and Tich on stage at their first sell out Sunday beach session. Looks like they were mobbed by a female fan.

I remembered that there was a very nice beach not far from where I lived at the time and I knew it also to be very quiet, so I drove down to see if they might be interested in my idea of duplicating Mels beach success. Luckily the owner, who also owned a well know restaurant in the old town in Marbella, knew me and had seen the band so he was up for giving it a go. The date was set, posters were designed, the stage built and sound equipment arranged. One little problem I had was to get the boys out of bed as they had been up until 4am playing in their bar! Finally after kicking each one of them out and into the van we arrived at the beach we couldn’t believe our eyes, we were greeted by literally hundreds of people eating, drinking and generally enjoying themselves waiting for these four famous 60's icons to take to the stage.

(Photo: Sunday crowed enjoying the band. In the middle Paul Henry who played Benny in the TV soap Crossroads)

Mike the owner did a terrific job transforming his beach for the Sunday session, adding dozens of tables with sun covers shading them from the heat of the afternoon sun. He had built a large stage which was also shaded from the sun and flags everywhere. The boys were greeted with large cheers as they played each one of their hits as the sand in front of the stage was full of couples dancing and cheering. It was a tremendous success and amazing atmosphere that lasted well into the evening! The Sunday beach shows took off like a rocket. I decided to add another band to the session It was headed up by

Adam Baker the son of the actor the late Sir Stanley Baker. He was brilliant joined on stage by his then girlfriend and some made Argentinian, whose name slips my mind. (Photo. Adam and his Band on stage)
The Sunday sessions continued with great success throughout the summer season. The band tired of getting up so early and decided to call it a day. I also felt it had run it’s course. As they say ‘It was fun when it lasted’.


One afternoon I got a call from a gentleman called Jimmy Howson who invited me for a coffee in Estepona Port saying that he had an idea that he felt that I might be interested in. He explained that he was playing a round of golf with a group of friends when he inquired if any of his them knew someone living on the Costa who was in the entertainment business. My name came up and hence the coffee date. He asked if I had ever heard of Karaoke. I told him honestly I hadn't and asked was it some kind of martial arts? He explained that someone would get up and sing to a backing track with the words on a TV screen and that the craze, which started in Japan, was spreading like wildfire throughout UK and the US. I hated the idea and told him so, a load of drunks singing 'My Way.' I thought, do me a favour! How wrong I was! In the end I agreed to give it a go. What I didn’t tell Jimmy was that; .1. I couldn’t sing and .2. I was dyslexic, so singing and reading were out, two important points I felt to host a Karaoke show.

Onda Cero international English radio, then the only English radio station on the Costa del Sol, was in it’s infancy, I had approached them on a number of occasions to see if I could get a job presenting a show, although I had no experience I believed I had the talent and felt that it was an obvious step for me but unfortunately the boss, Pepe Navajas, didn’t feel the same and continued to turn me down. One of the presenters was Laurie Scott an excellent music DJ and I also knew he was a very good singer. With that in mind I offered him the job to host the Karaoke Shows, add to that, that he was a very popular DJ I hoped he could use his show to publicise what venues he would be appearing, which would be invaluable to help establish ourselves from the outset. Thankfully Laurie liked the idea and now all it was left for me to do was to find a venue to launch our new business venture.

I can’t remember how or why but I ended up persuading a gentleman called Graham to give it a go in his Christopher Columbus Bar in Estepona Port. From the very first night it was packed, it seemed everyone else in Spain had heard of the Karaoke phenomenon but me! So successful was that first night that we agreed with Graham to return every Tuesday. Word started to spread about the arrival of Karaoke in this Estepona bar, which in turn saw people travelling from all over the Costa and Gibraltar, Jimmy was correct this was a phenomena and Laurie Scott popularity certainly helped to pack the bar every Tuesday evening.

One Tuesday morning I got a call that was to make a great change in my life, it was from Laurie Scott to say that he couldn't host the show at the Christopher Columbus that night as he was tied up with the moving the Onda Cero studios into a new building. I was far from happy that he had left it this late to let me know. What was I going to do with approx seven hours to find a replacement! Jimmy’s reaction was to not panic ; "You can do it" He suggested. " Who ME! Are you crazy? I can’t sing, I can't read!" I exclaimed “No way Jose! Not a chance, never, end of!” I told him. I made a few phone calls looking for someone else to host the show but to no avail. Jimmy made a reality check; “It's either you or we call Graham and cancel, but make up your mind.”
I would have loved to have been the lead singer when I was in the band but I had no voice so I took up drumming. Faced with the fact it was now lunch time and the show was scheduled for that evening, myself, Jimmy and Jimmy’s wife Carol started to rehears with all of us trying to find at least one song that I could sing in tune! It took many disastrous attempts until eventually we settled for Sugar Sugar by the Archie's to open the show, it wasn’t great but it was the best I could do.

(Photo: This was taken at the Christopher Columbus Bar when a BBC TV surprised us while filming a travel show in Estepona)
When we arrived at the venue we explained to Graham that Laurie couldn't make it but I would try and of course we wouldn’t charge him if he didn’t like it. He wasn't very happy to say the least but it was now too late to cancel, the place was already heaving. I spent at least 10 minutes in the toilet panicking, too nervous to come out. Eventually I took to the stage and what ever happened during that evening the crowds loved it, I covered up my tuneless performance by winding up most of the poor unsuspecting singers by dismantling their performances. Whilst a lot of the hopeful 'superstars of the future' weren’t to happy with me the audiences loved it.. Thankfully Graham also loved it and insisted in not only paying the full fee but with a proviso he wanted ME back instead of Laurie every Tuesday! This was a very unexpected turn of events but secretly I was delighted, at last 40 years old and I was accept as a live performer of sorts. As word got out about the success of the Christopher Columbus shows and the mad Irish presenter more venues along the Costa started to book us.


One day whilst driving passed a large stand alone restaurant called Dragon D'Ora that had a small lean-to bar attached called the Roadrunner I decided to call in to see if I could do a deal for Wednesday nights, now the only night we had free during the week. Luckily the owner, a bigger than life Belgian called Rudy was working in the office. I introduced myself and tried to sell him the idea of putting me on, on Wednesdays, he had never heard of Karaoke but said he would give it a go

(Photo: One of the earliest performances at Rudy's before the rebuild!) He wouldn't pay a set fee but would give 25% of the gross turnover and that we could put on the show in the Roadrunner bar not in his bigger Dragon D'Ota restaurant. I agreed feeling sure the growing successes of my show would fill the rather small Roadrunner bar.

The first Wednesday was a disaster hardly anyone turned up and I went home with just 6 Euros!! Rudy decided to add a Chinese buffet to Wednesday nights to help boost the turnover, which was supplied by his restaurant next door,. It worked and the nights started to gain popularity. One noticeable difference between Rudy's and other venues I was playing was the clientele they were pulling up in top end Mercs, Range Rovers , Jaguars etc It was because the price for the evening was a lot more expensive, obviously being a dinner show, than other venues , mostly bars I was performing in at the time. Within a few months there were queues waiting to get into the show with tables been booked weeks in advance. I was loving every second of what was happening. The shows were in huge demand and there was hardly a night I wasn't on stage in one venue or an other.

One day Rudy called me and asked how I felt about him closing the large Dragon D’Ora restaurant next door and knocking through from the Roadrunner bar to make one large 100+ seater show restaurant. I told him he was mad. Firstly it was the end of September, secondly filling the Roadrunner was one thing but to try and fill the much bigger venue on a Wednesday night in winter with no tourists around would be all but impossible! I did everything in my power to try a persuade Rudy out his crazy idea. Driving by the Roadrunner a few days later I spotted a builders rubbish skip and a few vans outside, I called in dreading what I was about to see; there was big Rudy and a load of builders with Kango hammers battling their way through the walls into the restaurant intending to make it one huge venue!!!! I nearly collapsed; Rudy had a big smile on his face. “Don't worry" he said " All will be ready by next Wednesday" All I did was shake my head in disbelief as I walked away. I was very worried on how we could get enough people in to make the night look at least half busy!!!


I hardly slept all that week. I had made the decision, because of the size of the venue, to change the total look of my show,

I still hated everything about what karaoke stood for and felt with this new revamped venue I would take the opportunity to turn it into more of a dinner show. The first thing I did was change the name to The Maurice Boland Celebrity Show not using the word karaoke anywhere, then to make the show more spectacular I hired dancers to accompany me on stage. I felt wearing street clothing on stage should stop and I started getting stage outfits especially tailored. Finally I decided, very bravely, to cancel all other shows so I could concentrate on filling this very large venue.





Finally the Wednesday arrived and I made my way towards the now enlarged venue and to tell you the truth I was very nervous, new show, huge venue, would anyone turn up? As my car approached I couldn’t believe what I was seeing; queues of cars parked all the way down the road leading to the show. I remember thinking someone must be having a very large party in one of the large neighbouring houses, not for a moment did I believe it was for my show. As I arrived in the car park I noticed the newly erected a large lit up sign with my photo on it announcing the show and the throngs of people making their way into the venue!! I simply couldn't believe it! I quickly realised that Rudy had actually pulled it off, perhaps a couple of hundred packed into the restaurant for dinner and the bar knee deep with people hoping for the chance to get a table!!. By 10 o'clock I was back stage changed, ready and extremely nervous, all I could think was; 'what if they don't like my show, what if they don't like the new enlarged venue, this will be it, the end !!!.
I had rehearsed all week with the dancers the opening of the show which included my opening number Achy Break Heart by Billy Ray Cyrus. The lighting and sound were outstanding. The crowed loved it. The atmosphere was electric. I loved it, it was like a dream come true. Rudy's became THE place to be on a Wednesday night from that day on. Many celebrates began to turn up whilst visiting Marbella to get up on stage and join me, They included Lionel Blare, comedian Faith Brown, Bonnie Langford, Mike McCartney (Paul's younger brother), Peter Stringfellow even Eric Morcambe's widow and many famous footballers and show biz celebs would turn up on a Wednesday at Rudy's.


From left to right: Kenny Lynch, Bonnie Langford, Mike McCartney (Paul's younger brother) Lionel Blair.


The Wednesday’s at Rudy’s continued to sell out every week, I was having a ball but felt I needed more to do than just one show a week. Back in my days in Ireland I used to love attending furniture occasion held at Adams showroom in Blackrock, somehow I always left owning something I didn’t really mean to buy! I realised that’s how these auctions work, you quickly get caught up by the occasion. I always enjoyed the banter from the auctioneer and it must have stayed in the back of my mind as I pulled into the car park in front of a large empty store on the Golden Mile. Although it was empty and there was no sign indicating it was for sale or rent, I started to get excited, was perfect, I would open Marbella’s first furniture auction showroom right here, all I had to do was to find the owner and negotiate a deal.
It didn’t take long for me to find out it was owned by Sheik Mohammed Ashmawi one of Marbella’s wealthiest residents.

Among many businesses he owned worldwide he had a very stylish motor showroom in Marbella that housed Rolls Royses, Ferraris, Lamborghini’s and a number of luxury limousines, the big difference with this showroom than your normal car sales rooms was that NONE of the cars were for sale they were all part of Sheik Mohammed’s private collection, he also owned his own departure lounge at Malaga airport where he could board number of his private aircraft whenever he felt like flying off on business, add to that a string of yachts birthed in Puerto Banus and the avenue leading up to his Marbella mansion named Ashmawi Boulevard and you can start began to think how powerful and rich this man was. I drove to his showroom where he had his offices and after a short wait I was granted an audience with the Sheik. I stared to explain that I was interested in his large store on the Golden Mile, he said I could buy it from him for around 2 million dollars!!! Before I could catch my breath he said he do a very special deal for 1.8 million. Catching my breath, I sort of stumbled over my words as he interrupted and asked what offer I’d like to make. I told him my idea of turning the showroom into an auction house and that he should join Jimmy and I as a partner. After a long pause he smiled and asked his assistant Albert to give me the keys, we had a deal. I left that office speechless It took less than 30 minutes maximum and I had the keys and a deal on a 2 million dollar premises which cost me nothing not even rent to pay.

I drove immediately to the showroom where I met Jimmy. The first thing that struck us was sheer size of the premises, it was huge we wandered to the very back and to our surprise it was full of brand new furniture, most of it still in corrugated cardboard wrapping. It must have been left over from the original furniture store when Sheik Mohammad bought the premises.

What was even more exciting there was enough stock to hold our first auction! We had hardly put the sign up ‘Marbella Auctions’ than people started to wander in either out of curiosity or to browse around looking at items they might be interested in bidding for at the first auction. We decided that we would hold the auctions on a Sunday afternoon at 5 o'clock. The first auction was packed, I’d never seen anything like it. Although I had never conducted an auction before I found it easy and before long I interspersed my banter with a few jokes. All I know was that by the end of that day we had sold everything not an item was left. Everyone one who attended was more than complimentary, most saying they were looking forward to the next weeks auction. (The photo above was taken at a charity auction, looks like a bowls club somewhere)

Rudys was still packing them in every Wednesday. I came up with the idea to run a singing competition in two parts and called The Entertainer of the Year Show. Please note this was well befor X Factors or Pop Idol's etc. The entre ages were from 10 to 14 and 15 upwards. During the day of the show I invited the younger participants into Rudy’s to rehearse in the morning. One of the entries was a young girl called Anna Petrovic the daughter of Yugoslavian Bob Petrovic. I immediately thought Bob was a poor refugee as he wore torn jeans (They were in fact very expensive Versace jeans but id never known them at that time) and a leather type cap. He had shoulder length hair and generally looked very scruffy. Little was I to know this man was about to change my life again.

To be continued.......

Coming shortly, chapter 14: Mr Petrovic; "I'll buy you a radio station and me a football club, a private jet and a multi million pound yacht"

CHAPTER:13


IT'S ALL OVER NOW WITH MANDY AND DAME SHIRLEY BASSEY GOES WILD!



The demand for Mandy was still extraordinary, there was hardly a day that we weren’t either flying off somewhere for a TV show or spending the day at some photographic studio for yet another glossy magazine article. Wherever Mandy went the paparazzi turned out in force. Mandy couldn't go to the toilet without her photo appearing in the front of the morning papers! All was putting terrible pressure on her young shoulders and was beginning to really get to her, as I said, I started to notice bad eating habits begin to form , she continued to ask me if I thought she was putting on weight? Unfortunately, if anything, she was losing weight. Mandy wouldn’t except that and kept eating very little. By this time I was getting very worried. Mandy being Mandy handled herself publically brilliant and as soon as she was working you couldn’t tell anything was wrong. We could be having a row in the car on the way to a job but as soon as the cameras rolled she would light up like a Christmas tree. (photo: Mandy making one of her now routeen Europian TV apperances))

We were now spending a lot of time together, she had broken up with Keith, who was left heartbroken. By this time Mandy was beginning to distrust everything and everyone believing they were just using her for what they could get. She was getting more and more difficult to manage!

I secured a very important job for her to fly to Tobago to do a photo shoot for Harpers and Queen, one of the worlds most prestigious magazines, I knew this was really a very big step forward for Mandy's career and meant she was making inroads to being accepted by the establishment. The photographer, again, was the brilliant Andrew Macpherson; remember he was in charge of the Vanity Fair shoot and knew Mandy could be moody. We were accompanied by a crew of approx 10 including makeup, a hairdresser, stylists and a team from the H&P. We stayed at a magnificent five star hotel (the name has slipped my mind) each room was a thatched chalet in the hotels stunning grounds. I remember on our arrival we were gathered in the foyer for our room allocation, when it came to Mandy she was told she was to share a room with one of the makeup girls. To everyone's surprise she refused point blank and insisted that she would be sharing my room, saying that I had promised her mum that I would look after her. I just stood there not knowing which way to look knowing exactly what everyone must be thinking (You the readers can STOP now thinking anything untoward, it was a suit with separate bedrooms!!!!)

The trip was not a very happy time for Mandy, she just wasn’t enjoying it and everyone could tell. We always had to leave very early for location shots on the Island so we could take advantage of the morning light which meant long exhausting days under the hot sun. I remember one day driving back from a glorious location called Pidgin beach when the crew wanted to stop off for a cool drink at a small roadside bar which was swimming with the wonderful sounds of reggae music and a load very colourful Rastafarians, the place was thick with the smoke coming from the reefers that were been freely passed around, everyone one started to drink the local, illegal and highly potent Poteen (like the Irish Potcheen) and insisted I had a glass or two. It tasted like what I imagined rocket fuel tasted like and had the same desired effect!! All I remembered was my legs left the bar before my top half did!!!

Mandy and myself rowed a lot on this trip and I was glad to board the BWI airways flight back to UK in fact I didn’t even know if Mandy was going to sit next to me until she boarded the plane plonked herself down and apologised for her moods. That was Mandy for you. I realised our time together was coming to an end, she just wasn’t enjoying this celebrity life and I was finding it harder to manage her.

On our return the driver who picked us up at the airport informed us that he was ordered to take us straight to the PWL studios as Pete Waterman needed Mandy for a project that he was working on. I remember thinking poor kid, we have just arrived after a long hall flight, after a stressful week, it was also Sunday and Pete wants Mandy to work! All Mandy wanted to do was get home to see her mum and sister and get some much needed sleep!! When we finally arrived at the studios we were amazed to find literally hundreds of screaming teenagers standing outside. Once we had pushed through the crowds trying to find out what was going on Pete met us explaining that Mike Stock and Mat Aitken were in the recording studios with a choir made up of artists like Boy George, Mel and Kim, Bananarama, Kate Bush , Gary Moor, Paul Young and many more. They were recording a cover of the Beatles Let it Be all in aid of the Zeebrugge Herald of Free Enterprise ferry disaster and wanted Mandy to go straight in and join them. The place was bedlam but the atmosphere was electric.
It was that very evening that Stock, Aitken and Waterman’s struggling careers made a dramatic turn around, shortly they became one of the biggest selling writers and music producers in Europe!!!

The pressure of work and the constant rows that were now occurring more frequently between Mandy and myself were to finally drive us apart. Managing her was now practically impossible. Mandy was not enjoying the whole fame thing, her health was also suffering, I was beginning to turn down jobs. I believe our eventual split up was as much my fault as hers and we simply drifted apart. Mandy went on to record a couple more songs for PWL before finally stopping. It was such a shame because she was such a talented girl and I believed if she had gone on she would have become hugely successful as an actress.

Our paths were to cross twice again over the coming years. She was to be guest on my TV show in Spain in 1995,

six years on from the time we split, in fact we hadn’t seen or spoken to each other over those years, so it was great to see her again (Photo: Hello Magazine covered our reunion, although it was to be short lived)
The second occasion was when Mandy and her sister Nicola worked on a magazine I launched in Manchester, that was back in 2005. I haven't really heard or spoke to her since.

As most of you know Mandy married Bill when she was eighteen and divorced him two years later. During her time married to Bill she continued to suffer health problems ending up in hospital at one time.


In conclusion to my Mandy Smith Story: Would Bill Wyman be arrested today for what he had done, absolutely, but I will leave this question up to Mandy as she had told the Mail on Sunday only a few years ago: ‘People aren’t as protective of celebrities nowadays and if this had happened recently I think Bill would have ended up in prison. I can’t think of it as child abuse. If I did I wouldn’t have been able to move on. But I’m reminded of it on a regular basis. 'Things I hear on TV about young girls, different scenarios with older men, rape... But he fell in love with me so I can’t look at it as sordid or wrong. I did sleep with Bill Wyman when I was 14... but now the only man in my life is God'.

Mandy married and divorced footballer Pat Van den Hauwe. In 2001, she was briefly engaged to fashion model Ian Mosby with whom she had a son, beautiful son Max. She is now single and happy. I would never hear a bad word said about her, she is a very special person.


I was now back at home in Marbella and wondering what I was going to do with my life, what would be my next big thing? The time spent on the Mandy Smith circus now felt so unreal. I would lay in bed nights remembering the excitement and amazing times we had, the lows and the highs, but it was now all over and time to move on and get back to reality. Although at times it was very difficult, I don't regret one moment and given the choice I would do it all over again.

One afternoon I had pulled into the car park of one of Marbella’s most exclusive apartment complexes where I had been invited to friends for lunch. As I got out of my car a red convertible pulled up beside me driven by Dame Shirley Bassey no less! As she got out I gave her a friendly smile, she smiled back and started to unload shopping bags from the boot of her car, I could see that she was struggling, and as the gentleman I am, I immediately offered to help her carry the shopping up to her apartment, she gratefully accepted my offer. Once I unloaded the shopping Dame Shirley invited me to stay for a drink. We sat on her terrace enjoying a drink and chat. After some Marbella small talk we got around to music and I asked her, her thoughts about Dusty Springfield current recording of a Pet Shop Boys penned; What Have I Done which had just topped the UK music charts? . She told me she loved the song. I then asked her why she hadn’t recorded anything away from her jandra of songs Like Goldfinger and Hey Big Spender etc? Would she not have liked to do something more current? She told me she would like to go back into the studio and try something more up to date but hadn’t been offered anything that she liked. As bold as brass I told her I had penned a song called Cruel and would love her to hear it, in fact I told her I had the cassette in my car, she agreed to listen to it and within minutes myself and Dame Shirley were listening to my song, it was all pretty surreal sitting here with one of the world's iconic female singers listening to my silly song. There was a pregnant pause when the tape finished before she smiled and said she would like to give it a go and where would we do it. I nearly fell off my seat. After all it was only a short time ago I had met Dame Shirley by carrying her shopping in and now we were planning her recording MY song!!!

Dedicating this part of My Story to the late great Martin Rushent. Many a wild time we had! RIP


I had made great contacts in the media world during my time in London and many lasting friendships which I hoped that I would be able to call on in the future. One of them was with record producer Martin Rushent who owned Genetic Studios. These were residential studios housed in a magnificent thatched mansion in Goring and Streatley, Reading. Martin had produced many hit records for bands like Human League, Dr Feelgood, the Stranglers etc. I had spent some time with Martin just after the Mandy period at his studios messing around which included me co writing a song with Joe Callis, keyboard player with the Human League, called Cruel and recording a cover version of the Troggs Wild Thing.

I explained about Genetic Studios etc. to Dame Shirley who told me she was going back to UK at the end of the week and could possibly come up to the studios the following week.
After leaving Shirley I called Martin Rushent to tell him the news that Dame Shirley Bassey was coming to his studios next week to record Cruel, his first words were; “Have you been drinking?” Thankfully in the end he believed me and the stage was prepared for the great lady’s recording.

As I said Genetic Studios is a residential studio so Dame Shirley and her assistant planned to stay overnight. Around 5pm a chauffeur driven limousine with blacked out windows pulled up outside the thatched mansion and out stepped Dame Shirley

dressed in a dark blue velvet track suit and a turban style headgear (See photo). She was full of smiles and greeted Martin like long lost friends, it was only then did Martin tell me he had engineered a Bassey track back in ’75 on a song called Good, Bad but Beautiful.

After dinner we made our way to the studios which were housed in a standalone building in the grounds of the mansion. Next to the studios was another residential building that was then being used by Roy Thomas Baker who was currently cutting an album in studio one with the American group East of Eden. Thomas Baker is responsible for some of the greatest hits to come out of UK including the Grammy award winning Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen and hits for The Rolling Stones, David Bowie, The Who and T’Pau to name but a few.

As soon as Shirley prepared to record a difficult problem occurred, she explained she never uses headphones and wanted speakers in the sound booth, this would cause a serious problem as the backing track would bleed onto her voice microphone (sorry, this sounds very technical but anyone who knows about studio recording will appreciate this difficulty) Martin sorted it out and in less than four takes the voice track was laid down she was brilliant a true professional. After a few playbacks we all went back to the main house where we joined Roy Thomas Baker and East of Eden who were celebrating the completion of their album by enjoying drinks and a buffet supper. Although it was almost 1:30am Dame Shirley stayed up and joined in the fun

Around 2am Shirley called myself and Martin aside and asked about the B side of the record as she insisted that it should NOT be just a musical version of the A side (this went on a lot in the music industry at the time so the writers could claim all the royalties without having to pen another song) All we had finished was the backing track of Wild Thing and as Dame Shirley was leaving the next morning it was all we could offer her. As ridiculous as it seemed and hard to ever imagine Dame Shirley Bassey does the Troggs!!!! But to our surprise she was game for it. So armed with beers and bottles of wine we made our way back up to the studios. Bassey recorded Wild thing in just two takes!!! You can listen to it and the video below. (Interesting to note, when Bassey’s version of Wild Thing was eventually to make its way onto Youtube some of the comments questioned that in fact was it Shirley Bassey or just a sound-a-like, but I can assure those doubters it IS Dame Shirley Bassey) .



Shirley Bassey has a reputation of being rather hard to handle but all I can say from my experience she was more than cooperative on every suggestion and a lot of fun, in fact we spent a lot of time enjoying a good laugh during her stay at the studios


After returning to London Shirley called to asked me to telephone her management as they needed to talk to me. I called them thinking how excited they must be with my plan to launch Shirley Bassey into a younger market, in fact I had planned that she should come back to the studios to record an album which I had the idea of calling it The Bitch Is Back which would include her recording a cover of that same song by Elton John, Shirley loved the idea. With that in mind I couldn’t of been more shocked when her management tore strips off me for getting Shirley to trivialise her career by recording these 'These silly little songs’ as they described them. They told me that Bassey’s total career was being put at risk and I should forget any work with her in the future and that there was NO chance of these recordings seeing the light of day! They just simply hung up!! I never saw or heard from Dame Shirley again.


To be continued.....