Satanic Bubblegum

After listening to Sly Stone's There's a Riot Goin' On fifteen times over the course of one cough syrup-coated night, Lester Bangs had come to the conclusion that Stone was the first human being in history to freebase cocaine, the main source of evidence being Track 10, "Spaced Cowboy." After listening to the album for a sixteenth time, Bangs decided he would be the second. 

As a young child, Robin Askwith swam in a pool contaminated with insects; later that day Askwith's mother found him fully submerged underwater in the bath. Taken to hospital in an ambulance, Askwith was found to have contracted polio and had to spend nine months in an isolation ward at Southport Infirmary and had to learn how to walk again. Askwith began an interest in acting because his neighbor was Carry On actor Kenneth Conno. Askwith made his television debut as a yob in the BBC series Scene. Shortly after starring in Antony Balch's Horror Hospital, Askwith was offered the starring role in Confessions of a Window Cleaner (Films and Filming: "The film is a real confession, a confession that the British people cannot properly create films, erotic images, comedy, or anything related to love"). The success of the film led to three sequels, Confessions of a Pop Performer (The Radio Times Guide to Films: "Robin Askwith abandons his window-cleaning round to help organize a tour for a band of no-hopers and finds himself knee-deep in groupies [the finale at the Palladium has to be seen to be believed]. Askwith struggles with a dismal script and comes off much better than Tony Blair's father-in-law, Anthony Booth"), Confessions of a Driving Instructor (The Monthlu Bulletin: "Askwith has three or four mannerisms [an apprehensive glance, a tug at the underpants, an empty grin"]), and Confessions from a Holiday Camp (Variety: "Linda Hayden [Askwith's real-life paramour], once again strips off at every available opportunity. Talent is wasted all around. Norman Cohen directs with his usual numbing dosage of slapstick, vulgarity, and innuendo"). "Bear in mind," said Askwith to an interviewer in 1986, "I haven't only done Confessions, alright? I played Arturo Ui, and other serious roles, for Christ's sake." To an interviewer in 1991, Askwith said: "I was at a dinner with some actor friends of mine the other night, and there was an après-brandy dig at some of the films I've made in my career, and Michael Winner (director of Death Wish, Death Wish II, and Death Wish 3) said to them, 'Ah, yes…but when was the last time any of your films made any money, you stupid cunt?'" While speaking about his career at The Blackpool Film Festival in 1998, Askwith said: "Buying dope was an absolute adventure. You had to see someone who would take you see someone else, you'd change the bus about 50 times and then you'd find yourself in a room with blacked-out windows and be given a tiny bit of dope, and you'd go 'Yessssssss.'" Speaking at the funeral of producer Dino Laurentiis in 2010, Askwith said: "I made loads of films that I didn't want anyone to see. I did one called Queen Kong where I fell in love with a giant gorilla with big tits."

He was crossing a busy street with his non-verbal five-year old son, and when he realized that the car coming towards them was not going to stop, he grabbed his son by the arm and tried to pull him out of harm's way. But his son refused to move, decided to go all floppy down onto the ground. In a panicky fright, he picked up the kid as fast as he could and ran towards the other side of the street, narrowly avoiding the speeding sport utility vehicle. As soon as they were safe he spun the boy around and punched him as hard as he could in the kidneys. The kid dropped to the ground and let out an epic silent scream. He picked up his son and carried him all the way home, scolding him every step of the way. "You can't do that, you spoiled little shit," he said. "This is the last time I'm taking you to the beach," he said. "I don't know what's wrong with you," he said. As soon as they walked through the front door he put the boy down and noticed that the boy had a severe limp and was dragging one of his legs. "What did I just do," he said to himself. He put in an emergency call to his therapist. "Please call me right back," he said. "I think I just did something I'm going to regret for the rest of my life." His therapist called him back immediately and told him to log onto Zoom so they could meet face to face. His therapist asked him what happened. He told his therapist about crossing the street and the speeding car and the punch in the kidneys. His therapist did not respond, sat there on the other side of the screen with his arms folded, his face locked into a countenance of great concern. "What am I supposed to do now," he said. His therapist asked him how many grams of LSD he was taking every single day. "You prescribed me 20 micrograms," he said. His therapist said that was probably too much, that the prescription would be altered to 10 micrograms, and that the new prescription would be called in immediately. "But what about my son," he asked his therapist. His therapist told him to tell his wife that the kid slipped and fell. His therapist told him to give the boy some Advil. His therapist told him to take the kid out for the biggest ice cream cone of his life. His therapist told him to thank God the kid couldn't talk, and probably never would.