Georgie Fame: ‘Larry Parnes tried to seduce me’

Veteran pop star Georgie Fame has recalled how he fought off Larry Parnes when the revered music mogul tried to seduce him as a 16 year old.
The Yeh, Yeh hitmaker was managed by Parnes during the late 1950s and he has branded the impresario “ruthless” and “intimidating” and accused him of making unwanted sexual advances.
On one occasion, the panicked pop star struggled to get away from Parnes, who died from meningitis in 1989, and eventually struck him across the arm and fled.
Fame tells Mojo magazine, “(He was) a cold fish, ruthless, intimidating. I was 16, he had the monopoly on the scene, it was like, Anything you say, boss. He actually tried to seduce me, and he probably tried to seduce all the other singers too. Homosexuality was illegal then and I was terrified, so I never said anything about it. I whacked him across the wrist and got the hell out of there.”