Donovan

:For the American soccer player, see Landon Donovan.

Drug bust

Donovan became the first high-profile British pop star to be arrested for possession of marijuana, which evidently occurred some time in late 1966. In Donovan's case, his drug use was evidently moderate, and seems to have been mostly restricted to pot smoking -- certainly he was not indulging on the Herculean scale of friends like John Lennon, Jimi Hendrix and Brian Jones.

Related Topics:
Marijuana - John Lennon - Jimi Hendrix - Brian Jones

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Attention was first drawn to his marijuana use by a 1966 TV documentary, which showed the singer and some friends sharing a joint. The subsequent bust gained a great deal of publicity and in early 1967, Donovan was the subject of an expose by the British tabloid News of the World; it was the first instalment of a controversial three-part series "Drugs & Pop Stars - Facts That Will Shock You". Although some claims were probably true, others were completely false. The most notorious instance was that of the News Of The World reporter who claimed to have spent an entire evening with Mick Jagger, who (he claimed) openly discussed his drug use and offered drugs to his companions. Only after publication was it discovered that the reporter had actually mistaken Brian Jones for Jagger (who promptly sued the paper).

Related Topics:
News of the World - Mick Jagger

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Among the supposed revelations were claims that Donovan and other leading pop stars including members of The Who, Cream, The Rolling Stones and The Moody Blues regularly smoked marijuana, used other illicit drugs, and held parties where the recently banned hallucinogen LSD was used, specifically naming The Who's Pete Townshend and Cream's Ginger Baker as LSD users.

Related Topics:
The Who - Cream - The Rolling Stones - The Moody Blues - LSD - Pete Townshend - Ginger Baker

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

It emerged later that the News Of The World's reporters were using their access to pop stars to gather information and then pass it on to the police. In the late 1990s, an article published in The Guardian revealed that it was News Of The World reporters who had tipped off the police about the party at Keith Richards' house, 'Redlands', which was famously raided in the early hours of 12 February 1967, just after George Harrison and his wife Pattie Boyd had left.

Related Topics:
The Guardian - 12 February - 1967 - George Harrison - Pattie Boyd

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Although Donovan's bust was nowhere near as sensational as the later arrests of Jagger and Richards, it had one especially unfortunate outcome -- because of the charges, he was refused entry to the United States until late in 1967, and so was unable to give his scheduled performance at the epoch-making Monterey International Pop Festival in June of that year.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~