Read Online Filling in the Gaps by Peter Keogh - Free Book Online Page B

pianist played their latest hit or a song from the show they were currently appearing in. I was also reminded the other day by a pal on Facebook of the Peacock Bar next door to the Adelphi stage door. They even had a signed photograph of Su and me on their wall. I was very honoured!
    On one occasion I had been to a bar in Earl’s Court where I met a charming chap who seemed intrigued by my Australian accent and we seemed to click on a superficial level. Whilst many of the hotel patrons were in leather chaps, he was in a suit, so I felt he was some sort of businessman. Little did I know the ‘business’ he was in ‘after hours’! I agreed to meet him the next night in his nearby flat and was looking forward to getting to know him better - not THAT way but just as a new social friend. I knocked on the door, which was opened by this apparition. He looked a lot like the Spiderman character popular today but he was all black with only his lips visible and when he turned around I was confronted by his bare behind. He definitely was a Spiderman type and getting out of his web took me almost an hour. I used every trick in the book - feigned a migraine, said I felt faint, that I was new to the gay scene and more. His type of scene certainly was new and very scary. He was just about to turn quite nasty when I hit the road. It was years before I returned to that pub!
    Through my work in theatre I did make some very special friends, some of whom I am still in touch with today. However, the most awful incident happened, which I did not mention in my first book because it scared me and turned my stomach. My reason for mentioning it now is that an aspect of it recently surfaced in the news and brought back to mind the experience I had with a very high-profile MP at that time. The MP, who was probably in his late forties and whom I had met on several occasions socially, knew how interested I was in the beautiful and historical buildings in London, so he asked me to lunch at the Houses of Parliament one day, which I was thrilled to accept. After passing through several security checks, we went to his office briefly before lunch. To say I was overawed would be an understatement. He then he took me on a private tour of parts of the building the average tourist would never see. I was so excited I had to keep taking deep breaths. Everywhere I went I kept touching the walls, trying to comprehend the history of the place, which I still can barely grasp. We ended up meeting some of his friends in the Terrace Pavilion, which was like a marquee on the Thames side of the Houses of Parliament. All was light and only a bit formal so we decided to meet at this MP’s home in Wimbledon where we could all relax a bit more easily. Did I mention that all of those mentioned above were gay, not overtly or flamboyantly, but definitely gay?
    A few nights later we all met at the MP’s beautiful home and drinks were served and sexual preferences were discussed. As usual, I made a flippant remark but their remarks were much less so and leaned towards their preference for very, very young boys! I have no idea why they assumed I might have been remotely interested in such a topic, because the opposite was true - I find the whole idea abhorrent. They seemed to belong to some kind of club with a secret code name and out came some photos. There was no internet then but they had slides shown on a projector. They were not all that explicit, mainly just nude poses, but of very young boys. I knew that once again I was in a very tricky situation and had to get my stupid self out of there, and fast!
    I remember reading recently that an investigation was going on into similar events and I wondered if any of those involved were from that evening, but I suspect most of them would have passed away by now because they were not that young then. Sadly, those days seem to have had more than their share of dreadful paedophile incidents - so many well-known and