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CMU Features
Ringo Says Fuck Off 10: PJ Proby
By CMU Editorial | Published on Friday 30 January 2009
So, it’s Friday, which must mean it’s time for one of you lot to reminisce about the time you were told to fuck off by a musician.
Yes, it is. And this week we have a 60s easy listening legend – singer, songwriter and occasional actor PJ Proby – who had a string of UK hits in the early sixties, was once backed by an early incarnation of Led Zeppelin, and who is behind what may be the most justified punter-performer swearing interface we’ve yet to feature.
A reader writes: “In my youth I got a Christmas job working on the singles desk at HMV Oxford Street (the old one at top of South Molton Street). On one particular afternoon an older gentleman came in and walked up to the desk. I was standing there with my manager standing behind me”.
“The old bloke said, ‘Have you got the new PJ Proby single called ‘Love Will Tear Us Apart’?’, to which I replied (with the cockiness of youth) ‘I think you’ll find he died years ago’. He glared at me for an instant, turned and as he walked off said, ‘Fuck off’. I then felt my manager walk up close behind me and whispered, ‘You have just told PJ Proby he’s dead'”.
PJ Proby continues to not be dead and is still performing to audiences around the world. Just last year EMI released a retrospective of his sixties hits to mark his 70th birthday. It’s not known how well HMV briefed their staff about this release.
Have you been told to fuck off by a pop star? Perhaps you told them they were dead. Perhaps not. It doesn’t matter. Just send us your stories to peaceandlove@unlimitedmedia.co.uk.
