The Bank Job Movie-2008

How many of you saw the Movie that just came out recently of a bunch of inept crooks. Who do the impossible and rob a Big Bank in the Middle of London and get away with it all. Well sort of got away with it all. Only to get tangled up with several shady characters a Malcolm X, a London Madam with ties to the Upper Crust, a Porn King with ties to the Police and of course to make things interesting MI5.

Well all around that same time frame Michael and I were under the wing of our very Shady Manager a Mr. Peter Utal and a Lady by the name of Janie Jones. ( If you happen to Google them Peter was arrested for living off the means of Prostitution and Janie Jones was a local London Madam. Who by the way was the subject of a song by the group "Clash". ) It appears that Peter is still up to his eye teeth in "Tricks of the Trade " so to speak.

This all occurred around the time of the London Bank Job and the subsequent Arrests/Public Embarrassment/Resignations of many of the Lords and Senior Government Officials being caught up in a scandal that had so called ties to the Royal Family.
Due to the unseemly nature of a so called Madam known as Sonia Bern according to the film.

Now the interesting thing in of all this. Is the fact of our acquaintanceship with perhaps some or all of these persons apart from Malcolm X, MI5 and the Porn King. Michael and I were actually practicing in the basement of a rather large house in London in the Studio at the time, where they had a Dark Room funnily enough as well. Peter Utal had a different coloured Jaguar for each day of the week. We often remarked about all the girls at the House but we were told it was a modeling agency so never really paid any attention to what was really Going On or "Coming Off." We never did get to know the name of the Lady who owned the House was exactly either and never came in through the front door of the place.

Michael and I were busking at the Marble Arch. We met some chap who had an Italian Restaurant in the Marble Arch Area.
We used to sing at his place on the weekends for meals and enough to pay for our 1 room flat off the High Street over a Greek Restaurant between Paddington Station and the Marble Arch. While were were playing one night we met Peter Utal who used to come in to the Restaurant with Janie Jones and some other Lady on occasion to talk business or to eat, who knows or even remembers all the details after all this time.

I haven't really thought about these events for decades until I saw the Movie the other night and things came back into a blurred focus. I remember Micheal came over to the flat one night and said. "Our Manager Peter and Janie were busted for vice and running a Brothel etc and a lot of Mucky Mucks will be brought out in the open because of it." ( that may not have been his exact words, hey it is over 35 years ago at least or longer). I didn't believe him but the next day headlines in the local papers and on the news told the sorid story.

I certainly was in the wrong place at the right time a lot in those days. We later on through EMI and another more legitimate Manager were going to be the Opening Act I think for Mungo Jerry but the Miners strikes brought an end to the tour and Michael and I went off in our own separate directions and I haven't seen him since. He did record a song or three with EMI.