When are the 70s Rock Stars going to be held to account

[Imanexcellentdrivercharliebabbit]

So in view of Operation Yew Tree with Saville and the ‘Dogdy DJ’s’, Entertainers;
Andrew Mount Batton; Epstein Island/Al-Fayed trafficking scandals/grooming gangs..etc etc
is it unreasonable to think that at some point the rock star mega stars will be next (and need to be )
the whole phenomena of the ‘baby groupie’ ( 13/24/15 year old children in relationships as well as being passed around -let alone young fans queuing up to offer sexual favours to the stars 2/3/4 times their age ) is well documented in biographies/memoirs/interviews of both these young girls retrospectively and the stars at the time- Led Zeppelin /Rolling Stones/Bowie /Red Hot Chilli Peppers/ John Peel and so so many more

i wonder if the shit will hit the fan for these ageing rockers who lived like sex gods in the 70s/80s and thought they could have on tap sex //coercive relationships with ‘willing fans‘/ children back in the day

if you go down the rabbit hole and see how appalling some of our most beloved rock stars behaved (in modern terms -groomers/rapists as children cannot consent ) unbelievable and at some point this will come to a head

Why on earth would you suspect that i am suggesting otherwise. The problem I am highlighting is that girls are groomed at a societal level, from before they can even speak, to put themselves in harms way. That was the case for the groupies of the 70s and 80s and is no better now.

With teenagers, we now have the added problem of the proliferation of online pornography and the normalisation of dangerous practices like choking (strangulation) and anal amongst teenagers. We do not live in a better age.

There is no parent that can totally counteract that. Men and boys are no closer to the understanding that women and girls are human beings same as them, with no more desire than they have of having a penis in their mouth.

So many posters trying to justify a grown man having sex or engaging in sexual activities with children 😳 as “but times were different then”

Just grim

My arse did those rockers not know how young those girls were.

AMW had sex with trafficked women and was probably aware of this fact. Mind you he is stupid enough to think that attractive young ladies would be desperate to have sex with him.

In the case of underage girls with 70s/80s pop stars, yes it would have been better if it didn’t happen but it does seem as if a large number of the girls - although under the legal age of consent- initiated the encounter. It doesn’t make it right but hopefully it means they were less likely to be mentally scarred by it in future life.

It was also not orchestrated on a worldwide scale like Epsteins operation, but mostly seemed to be chance encounters after concerts.

As I say I am not saying it’s right, but its also hard to judge others by today’s standards. Although the Wyman thing was ridiculous. I was the same age as Mandy Smith and couldn’t get over such a young attractive person being with an old wrinkly like him. Ditto how they portrayed the wild girls Amanda de Cadanet and Emma something. They were under age teenagers portrayed as Mata Hari temptresses.Their DPs didn’t seem to be held to account at all.

Did any of the survivors of this abuse report it? What response did they get?
I think as well as the perpetrators of abuse there are questions for the police and other professions who are meant to protect us.

Great post. Thank you

I'm confused, OP.
Your sister is now 62 (or 62) this year.
You were teens at the same time?

You've got to be aged about 60 yourself, then?

reminds me of the people who defended a high profile rapist ‘why would he rape someone when he has women throwing themselves at him?’ ‘Why would he rape someone so ugly when he has supermodel girlfriends?’

a ploy was for the manager or roadie to pick girls out of the crowd/backstage - do you honestly believe every single one of those girls understood what they would end up doing - undoubtedly under pressure if they resisted? Plus the girls who were then passed around the bands mates. I can’t believe grown women are so naive to believe it was just all consensual japes

Not trying to be picky but my dh (who is 10 years my senior but don't worry I was 30 and him 40 when we met so nothing dodgy!) was 14 in '78 that's why I am quickly able to assess your sister's age.

Guess the rock star is 82.

19 year olds arent fully developed and are completely vulnerable to power dynamics in relationships. Is it the same as a 15 year old? No of course not, but point stands with an older partner there is a disparity of power. The choices I made at 19 won’t be the same ones I’ll be making when I’m in my 40s when I’ve had the life experience and maturity to know different. You can think it’s nonsense all you want, but it’s unlikely that a 19 year old would choose to date someone who has no power or fame or money or influence who was old enough to be their grandfather in some cases. 19 is still young enough to be groomed. I’m sorry that you have a hard time grasping that and you can feel it’s nonsense as much as you like however Im not wasting anymore time replying, you clearly can’t accept that power imbalance is a form of abuse.

Thanks for your lengthy explanation, I still, however, think that your point is utter bullshit.

Totally agree. These girls were literally beating the doors down and then bragging about it after. Have any of them made a complaint? If so, investigate, if not, leave it alone.
If I had managed to get into Les McKeowns dressing room as a teenage girl, I can assure you I wouldnt be complaining about it

Ill get my coat

The only bands I really like from the 70s were the prog bands.

"Well there IS a female in the audience but looks like she's been dragged here by her well-meaning boyfriend and is desperate to leave..."

The most important thing is to stop it happening today and tomorrow. And that should be the priority. Then we should be supporting those former children who are still affected which, in many cases, means bringing the rapists to justice.

But stopping it today is tied up with calling it out in the past

not writing biographies of the band with a ‘oh what were they like! Boys will be boys! They don’t even remember as they were on drugs/drink so can’t blame them!’

The age thing is certainly a problem, but I think there was a toxic attitude towards women generally in the 6Os and 70s, they were seen as a consumer product. Just look at any of David Baileys interviews- women’s value is in their looks and he wants only the best. Same with Rod Stewart, Mick Jagger etc etc. I’m sure a lot of men still feel the same now but realise it’s not OK to spout on about it.

Completely agree.

There are some rumours there - interestingly 10 to 15 years ago mention of them was shut down completely on fan forums etc., a lot of minimising and excusing went on but there seems more acceptance now.

This is how it proliferates and these powerful men continue to get away with it. They exploit the vast power imbalance to do it in the first place and then rely on their victims being too ashamed to ever mention it later... and even if they do come forward, it's just some average unknown woman's word against a widely-worshiped superstar.

Even amongst the big male stars who have no apparent interest in underage girls, it's still the norm for a great many of them to end up married to women who are sometimes decades younger than they are.

Surely, in a marriage of equals, you would naturally gravitate towards somebody at a similar stage of life as you are? Why would you actually choose to marry somebody many years younger if not to exploit the power imbalance and 'because you can'?

I've got good friends who are decades younger or older than me. We get on very well in social situations; but if I weren't already married, it wouldn't remotely cross my mind for a second that we could ever be potential spouses, however objectively attractive or sparkling their personality.

Yes he is, and should be held accountable but in addition why on earth didn't your parents know where their 13 year old was? They should be looking at neglect charges

We can all agree is a good thing society is changing. However I don’t feel we can punish everyone who did something that’s in a grey area but not illegal 30/40 years ago. I’m sorry but we are products of our time and I certainly wouldn’t be watching programmes like benny hill or love thy neighbour now but it was mainstream in the 70s. We can’t simply go arresting everyone involved in this stuff. If they WERE minors. Then fair enough

but society is changing now and that’s what we need to be grateful for.

See it's people like yourself with your apparent pearl clutching over men marrying women (not children, not teenage girls) that always, always derail threads such as this.

Nobody reasonable gives a shiny shite about 'power imbalances' between consenting adults.

I notice you haven't mentioned that younger women marry older, wealthier men for money, either.

Amongst my friends in the 1970s, sex at 14 was considered fairly normal. Several of my friends were married as soon as they turned 16, often to significantly older men. Older more experienced men were seen as attractive to young girls who were unlikely to even look at a 14 year old boy. We dressed up to go out on the town, pretended to be 18, got served in bars and admitted to nightclubs.

I think it would be difficult to selectively attempt to bring 1970s rock stars to account without opening the flood gates to ordinary people for something that was so normal at the time. Why is the girl who 'got lucky' with a pop star any more of a victim than the girl who got together with the local barman. It was happening in every town and village across the country. The sexual revolution of the 1960s led to complete sexual freedom for all in the 1970s until the AIDs epidemic in the 1980s brought back some element of caution. For those who weren't there it is perhaps difficult to comprehend just how normal, accepted and widespread underage sex was.

I'm not suggesting there was anything right about it, and I'm very pleased that views and laws have changed, but I think we need to focus on what's happening now rather than spending police and court time on something that happened 50 years ago and would be extremely difficult to prove.