dramas of sorrow, of distrust, of vice, of nastiness and of delinquency

epub or mobi, with thanks to the original sharer

At weekends, the Flamingo stayed open until 6 a.m., many of its patrons fuelled by the purple hearts dealt in the doorway of the nearby Ravel shoe shop. A 1964 World Health Organisation survey discovered that the source of most drugs in London came from thirteen doctors, one of whom had legally prescribed over 500,000 tablets in a single year. These surplus drugs found their way into Soho. Alarmed by the illicit trade in Drinamyl, the home secretary introduced heavy fines and prison sentences to anyone caught dealing. When the supply of purple hearts slowed down, the market was flooded with new and more potent amphetamines, including ‘French blues’, ‘dexies’ and ‘black bombers’. Penny Valentine visited the Scene in 1964 and described seeing ‘kids standing spaced-out on handfuls of uppers – red pills, bombers.’ ‘Irish’ Jack Lyons would later describe these late-night drug binges as ‘chewing-gum weekends.’ Meaden was always on pills, but there was this strange dark glamour about him. Meaden’s ability to sell himself as an ‘ace face’ worked on The Who, but not everyone was convinced. ‘Pete Meaden and I would go out looking for clothes,’ says Jeff Dexter. ‘But despite what everyone says about Pete being the “face”, it’s a bit of bollocks, to tell you the truth. He could buy a tab collar shirt or two when he’d sold enough pills, but he would never have been pulled out by the majority of folk around at that time as a tasty geezer.’