End of the innocence

When Rolf Harris was first arrested on sexual assault charges, it saved me a few bob.  I was seriously considering investing a fiver in a greatest hits collection from the Aussie entertainer.

I decided not to, certainly until the court case was over, and now I am no more likely to buy anything from him than I am from the Lost Prophets.

It saddens me in all sorts of ways.

To the current generation, Harris has been a cuddly family entertainer whose biggest achievement in recent years was to destroy Led Zeppelin's 'Stairway to Heaven'.  As an aside, I thought that was fair enough since in my view it was the worst thing they ever did.

I grew up at a time when Harris was all over the telly, especially on Saturday nights where the 'Rolf Harris Show' topped the ratings.  Since there was only one other TV channel, this should not be regarded as too much of a surprise.

He sang songs, played odd instruments, did brilliant paintings and generally larked about.  He was a harmless guy and I absolutely loved 'Sun Arise'.

He'd be on 'Top of the Pops' too, hosted by Jimmy Savile and he appeared in the ITV equivalent of 'It's a Knockout', the BBC host of which was Stuart Hall.  Can you see where this is going?

Not exactly icons of my youth - the icons for me were Dennis Law and Marc Bolan - but they were omnipresent. 

My childhood and indeed later life featured them all too and they brought me many happy memories.

Now that part of my life has been snatched away.

When I read Harris's autobiography, I was really reading about a filthy paedophile.  When I laughed at Stuart Hall, I was laughing at a rapist. And when I marvelled at Savile's generosity and charity work, I was being fooled by one of the sickest people ever born.

I'm not going to lose sleep about it but you don't think that your lifetime memories will get tarnished like this.

It's how they exploited my innocence and lied to me that really hurts, the trust I had for them gone far too late.