'Johnny Go Home'(1975)
...or the strange case of Morrissey, Bannockburn, and the Dilly Boys!
In 1975, well respected documentarian John Willis decided to turn his eye to the ever increasing number of runaway youths descending on London. The film follows Maggie, an English girl who's been in London a fair bit and is already hardened by life on the street. Then we see 12(yes, TWELVE!!) year old Tommy arrive from Glasgow in what looks like his Dad's best suit, already smoking like a chimney.
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Tommy, like many runaway boys, is drawn to Pennyland, a slot machine amusement arcade in Piccadilly. Here he falls in with the gang that frequent the arcade and who have learned that by prostituting themselves, they can pay the rent and food. Deviants call them 'the Meat Rack'("On the
rack I was easy
meat and a reasonably good buy"), the lads refer to themselves as the Dilly Boys. At around the 18 minute mark in the film you can see the whole gang showing off and preening. Are they just playing for the camera, or are they grabbing a chance for a huge advert for their 'wares'. It turns out the boys are 'housed' by serial paedophile Roger Gleaves, a horrible human being, self proclaimed 'Bishop Of Piccadilly' and 'Bishop Of The Medway', using a false religious facade to hide his ulterior motives, he ran a religious commune which was simply a front for a paedophile ring. This man makes Jimmy Savile, Lord Mountbatten, and Cyril Smith look like monastic choirboys.
Then, during the filming, something rather unexpected and unpleasant occurs. One of the Dilly Boys, known as Billy Two-Tone, is murdered in a particularly horrifying manner. Billy Two-Tone, so called not because of the Punk/Ska movement still some years off, but because of his two-tone Bowie-ish haircut, is Billy McPhee a teenager who ran away from a small Scottish town called Bannockburn. Yes, Bannockburn....my hometown!!
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(These photos are of Tommy, I didn't think it very respectful to post images of Billy)
When the documentary was shown, I was in Primary school and FAR too young to watch it, though some of my classmates did claim to have seen it. You could tell those who had from those who only claimed they had. Those who were lying bragged about being tough enough to watch this grim adult show, while those who HAD genuinely seen it were a tad muted and a bit scared looking. The whole class was talking about it, as was the whole school, as was the whole town. Most people knew Billy, or knew of him, or knew his family. This is a small town, actually at that time it was more of a village than a town. Everyone knew EVERYONE. The one moment that everyone seemed fascinated by was the scene around 1hr26mins of Billy's funeral in Bannockburn cemetery. People we knew were on TV!!! This was a big deal at the time, these were the days before camcorders and videophones, so to see our townsfolk on the screen was revelatory.
Even though, as I said, I didn't see the documentary at the time, descriptions of what happened to Billy clung to me like old tobacco smoke. I used to have nightmares because of some of the things I'd heard about. It's well known that Billy was dumped in a ditch like a bag of rubbish. When out walking in the countryside around Bannockburn, there are, or were, a lot of ditches, and I used to run past them in case there was a body dumped in them. Another detail about Billy being made to eat paper(?!) haunted my childish mind, and I can still all these years later see the images from my nightmares.
The three men responsible for Billy's death were given life sentences. They had been associates of Roger Gleaves who escaped punishment this time, but would eventually spend time in prison, his 'religious' pretences often reducing his sentences. Insanely, once when he was released from prison he was housed directly across from a Primary School. This can only illicit one three word phrase...For...f***'s...Sake!!!
Morrissey has acknowledged 'Johnny Go Home' as an inspiration for 'Piccadilly Palare', and listening again to it now, the song takes on a much different, darker hue. The longer, unreleased version with the repeated coda, "No Dad, I won't be home tomorrah'', now sounds a lot more sinister. Will the protagonist not be home because of his new found freedom, or because he's on borrowed time?
Morrissey would have been 15 or 16 when this was aired and he has spoken of his own desire to flee the drudgery of Manchester for the 'glamour' of Piccadilly, but maybe this documentary changed his mind.
Coincidentally, Holly Johnson of Frankie Goes To Hollywood and solo fame, also wrote a song inspired by the documentary. He too would have been around 15 or 16 and may also have harboured desires to flee Liverpool before seeing this horror unfold.
It seems really odd that two artists, born within a year of each other, both from the north of England would write a song, both released in 1991, inspired by the same documentary.
Holly's song is called 'Penny Arcade', and the lyrics are absolutely beautiful. The song however is not! Terrible, clanging early 90s production, and Holly's vocals, usually a thing of wonder, here sound like he's straining to evacuate a troublesome stool! He should have done it as a piano ballad to match its lyrical beauty.
As I watched the documentary for the first time(just this week), the horror really hit me. I can understand why the whole of Bannockburn seems to have suppressed this bad memory. I posted a link to the film on the Bannockburn Town Facebook page, and it got taken down after less than 20 minutes even though a few people had commented on it positively. A couple said they remembered the film, others that they remembered Billy.
When I saw the funeral scene, I got chills in my stomach like I have never experienced before, seeing people now long dead move and speak, was like looking at an entire village of ghosts, and not in the jovial Brigadoonish sense! Not only was it strange to see the town's old minister sermonise, but in the truly haunting scene where a group of young boys stare at Billy's coffin, the boy second left in the maroon jersey is someone I worked beside for a short time at my first ever job.
I tried to find some follow ups on the story; unfortunately there never was a 'where are they now' documentary years later to let us know what happened to Tommy and Maggie(maybe it's for the best that we don't know!).
Maggie appears to have dropped off the radar altogether, so who knows what fate befell her. News on Tommy seems rather contradictory; one story claims he remained with Roger Gleaves, acting as an 'altar boy' in his repugnant commune, and telling people that Gleaves was a really nice person who looked after him. Sounds like Tommy may have been groomed to within an inch of his life, both literally and metaphorically. Another story said that he returned to Glasgow and was working as a gardener. Let's hope that's true.
The weekend following the documentary's broadcast, a journalist from The Observer newspaper came up to Bannockburn to see for himself why Billy would run away from our town. He described Bannockburn as some poverty ridden, squalor bestrewn, post apocalyptic wasteland, bereft of any future or promise. Utter bullshit mate!! And you know it!!
Of course Bannockburn is now famous for Braveheart/Robert The Bruce/William Wallace and guys with blue painted faces bellowing "FREEEEEEDOOOOOOMMMMM!!!" But once it was infamous for all the wrong reasons!
So next time you listen to 'Piccadilly Palare', think of Tommy, Maggie, and of Billy Two-Tone.

This is the link to the film. Please be warned, it is NOT a pleasant watch. It gave me nightmares as child, and I don't want to inflict them on you nice people
These are the rather wonderful lyrics to Holly Johnson's sadly disappointing song:
Penny Arcade
Don’t go to the penny arcade
Don’t waste the money that your mother’s made
Don’t waste your life, just use your mind
Play with me, leave the game behind
Game over, you’re my high score
I need you more, I like your smile
Move the joystick quick
You’ve got poise, personality, love what you do for me
In the penny arcade the deals we made
Our innocence the price we paid
From Piccadilly to the Strand
We plied out trade in Playland
Johnny go home, get on the train
Pack you bags and move on again
Don’t sell your love, don’t play around
With the low life in this town (That’s right)
What can we hope for, what can we do
We’re ordinary people too
Trained to drink and watch the game
Weekend over, work again
In the penny arcade the deals we made
Our innocence the price we paid
From Piccadilly to the Strand
We plied out trade in Playland
The streets they said were paved with gold
Are lined with souls that someone sold
Cheap love in alleyways
The pimp and needle never pays, never pays
See a movie with a friend
Watch the credits until the end
As cameras roll across your mind
Watch the stars in space and time
Time to wake up, work the streets
Bright lights and naked heat
Hang around street corners
Watch the world go by
In the penny arcade the deals we made
Our innocence the price we paid
From Piccadilly to the Strand
we plied out trade in Playland
(In the penny arcade)
(From Piccadilly to the Strand)
We plied out trade in Playland
And this is 'Piccadilly Palare' with the coda: