Should millionaire pop mogul Jonathan King lose his BPI man of the year award? Photograph: Michael Walter/PA.
In 1997, four years before he had received a seven-year prison sentence for four indecent assaults and two more serious sexual offences on teenage boys, Jonathan King was awarded BPI man of the year. In any other industry, an honour awarded to a man convicted of sex crimes would be stripped from him in disgrace. Not in the music business, my friends. Shamefully, the BPI, the music industry body and the people who put on the Brits, have allowed the honour to stand.
King is still as deluded as he was in 2001. He maintains he is innocent though his well-publicised appeal has never materialised and never will - like most King rhetoric, it's all talk and no action. These days he claims he discovered Orson. I pity them - imagine Jonathan King claiming he had a hand in your career.
I truly wonder about the morals of the BPI given that the fool on the hill, former chairman Peter Jamieson, dismissed the idea of King being taken off the honours list out of hand, saying it was a rolling award. They all roll, Peter - King still won it in 1997, and the fact that it still stands on the books is a disgrace.
King still lurks on music industry messageboards. What does that say about their moderators and subscribers? You can only hope that they can sleep easily - and that none of their children is unlucky enough to meet the next Jonathan King.
King groomed his victims by using his celebrity and status in the music business, yet they still allow him unfettered access to that world. Kirk McIntyre, a man who has truly suffered at King's hands, has started a petition to strip him of the same award George Martin received in 1998. Should George Martin, who changed people's lives, be on the same roll call as Jonathan King, who ruined lives? To quote Arctic Monkeys, "he's a scumbag, don't you know?"
So far, the BPI have ignored Kirk's petition, but then the last chairman was a muppet. The new one, Tony Wadsworth, is a man I have met and respect. I believe he'll do the right thing and redeem the BPI in the eyes of parents all over Britain - before the situation ends up in the Sun.
