I know a lot of people can't stick the old bugger, but his tales of gigging with Mick Mulligan are pretty funny. I first picked up 'Owning Up' as a teenager, and have read it over and over. A middle-class arsehole in many ways, but a genuine lover of the music, no doubt.
He was allright old George. I love that story about hime meeting Mick Jagger at a party:
George: Looking a bit wrinkly, Mick.
Mick: They're laughter lines, George.
George: Nothing's that funny.
Melly is being name-checked Elsewhere. I sat behind him and a blonde female at a production of Bennett's 'Forty Years On' circa 1984; saw him performing (benefit gig for Amnesty International) a couple of years later. Pure bollocks. Just more or less a put-on, a comedy act. Yet his books remain highly readable on a wet Sunday afternoon if you fancy that post-rationing, pre-skiffle/Tommy Steele vibe.
Apparently JFM claimed to have corn-holed him.
Probably shite.