All that glitters not gold for Gary

29 Oct 2012, 11:48 am   -   Source: AAP

Disgraced former pop star Gary Glitter has been arrested on suspicion of sex offences as the UK investigation into Jimmy Savile starts to cast a wide net.

Disgraced ex-pop star Gary Glitter, who has been arrested on suspicion of sexual offences, has fallen a long way from his 1970s heyday as the leader of the glam-rock gang.

Glitter, 68, was the dazzling king of the glam era, characterised by performers in sequined dresses and extreme make-up.

The British singer sold more then 20 million records and had a string of hits like, I'm The Leader Of The Gang (I Am).

But his fading career was dealt a fatal blow when he was caught with thousands of hardcore child pornography images on his computer in 1997, and spent two months in jail.

He left Britain for southeast Asia, only to serve nearly three years in a Vietnamese prison for child sex offences before being deported in 2008.

Glitter had kept a low profile since returning to London, but on Sunday became the first person arrested in a widening investigation into the activities of Jimmy Savile, who for decades presented Top of the Pops, Britain's top music television show.

The flamboyant star was born Paul Francis Gadd on May 8, 1944, in the town of Banbury in Oxfordshire, southern England.

Gadd had been performing on the British club circuit since the 1950s. Riding the crest of British pop music's glam wave, he adopted the Glitter name and scored a huge hit with Rock and Roll (Parts 1 and 2).

Complete with extravagant make-up, silver outfits and high boots, the showman notched up three British number-one records in the 1970s with a cheerfully anarchic brand of music based on the "Glitter Stomp": a thumping drum beat and simple instrumental riffs.

The hits kept coming, such as Hello, Hello, I'm Back Again and I'm The Leader Of The Gang (I Am), as glittermania swept Britain.

Concert-goers lapped up his energetic singalong performances, with Glitter striking poses and giving a wide-eyed stare.

He announced his "retirement" from live shows in 1976, went bankrupt in 1980, then relaunched his career and scored a 1984 hit with Another Rock and Roll Christmas, one of the classic yuletide tunes.

The Timelords' 1988 British number-one hit Doctorin' the Tardis featured Glitter and sampled Rock and Roll.

But despite pulling in crowds with his extravagant live shows, Glitter's record sales slowed.

His shock arrest in 1997 came after he took his computer to a store for repair. Hardcore paedophilia was found in the computer's files.

He was sentenced in 1999 to four months in prison, of which he served two, after he admitted to 54 charges of downloading indecent pictures from the internet.

Keen to avoid the media, Glitter left the country.

He was permanently expelled from Cambodia in 2002, allegedly for trawling for underage sex, although Cambodian officials did not specify his crime or file charges.

After being tracked down in Vietnam by a British newspaper which alleged he was living with a 15-year-old girl, Glitter was arrested at Ho Chi Minh City airport in November 2005 while trying to leave for Thailand.

He was charged with molesting two girls aged 10 and 11 and, in a two-day trial in March, was convicted. Glitter maintains his innocence, blaming a media conspiracy.

The singer was sentenced to the minimum three years in prison, a term later cut by three months.

It ended with his deportation and an apparently in a desperate attempt to avoid returning home, he shuttled between airports as Thailand and Hong Kong refused to let him in.

Now Glitter is back in the headlines, facing police questions once again in the explosive investigation which detectives have called "Savile and others".

Police are following more than 400 leads.

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