Barry meanwhile had also spent a year in bed as a tax dodge. Eric
Manchester thinks that he had either received appalling financial
advice or he was desperately trying to start a "Barry is also dead"
rumour. When he finally got up to answer the telephone, Rutle Corps
was in a perilous financial state.
Nasty had flown back in a hurry from his honeymoon rally in Nurembourg
to meet Ron Decline, the most feared promoter in the world, in an
attempt to settle Rutle Corps' appalling financial problems.
Unfortunately, Stig was by now accepting the financial advice of Billy
Kodak, Dirk had hired Arnold Schwarzenweisengreenenbluenbraunenburger
to handle his end of the name, and Barry was consulting the I Ching
every three and a half minutes.
Business meetings were crazy. Every five minutes ashen-faced financial
advisers would discover that the boys had hired more financial advisers
to check on them, and would come rushing out to hire more lawyers.
At the final meeting 134 legal people and accountants filed into a
small eight by ten room. Only 87 came out alive. The black hole of
Saville Row had taken toll of some of the finest merchant banking
brains of a generation. Luckily, that's not very serious, but the
Rutles were obviously self-destructing fast.
In the midst of this public bickering and legal wrangling "Let It Rot"
was released as a film, an album, and a lawsuit. It showed the Rutles
as never befor--tired, unhappy, cross, and just like the rest of the
world. Gone forever was the image of the four happy mop-haired
youngsters who had set the foot of the world a-tapping. In December
1970 Dirk sued Stig and Nasty; Barry sued Dirk; Nasty sued Stig and
Barry; and Stig sued himself accidentally. It was the end of an era,
but the beginning of another for lawyers everywhere, who could look
forward to at least seven or eight years of continuous litigation.
|
An Interview With Paul Simon
An Interview With Mick Jagger
|
