KEY POINTS:
As a rock star with a once legendary reputation for hedonism, Bobby Gillespie knows a thing or two about excessive noise and boorish behaviour.
His band, Primal Scream, performed with such X-rated verve at Glastonbury in 2005 that organisers had to cut their microphones before escorting them from
the stage.
But the 42-year-old son of a Glasgow publican, who once thought nothing of partying through the night and sung "Hallucinogens can open me or untie me", now takes a dim view on those who disturb the peace in the well-heeled corner of north London that he calls home.
In a spectacular example of the taming of a wild man of rock, Gillespie joined a campaign with his neighbours against extending opening hours of his local pub - because it plays loud music late into the night.
A letter sent to Islington Council by the singer, obtained by The Independent, complained that the Alma Pub on Newington Green had been "playing recorded music at an unacceptable volume past 12 o'clock".
Gillespie, who has two young sons, Wolf and Lux, and last year married his long-term partner, stylist Katy England, at a celebrity-packed ceremony, argued that the music coming from a private party at the Alma, an upmarket gastropub, was preventing him from sleeping.
Striking the tone of an outraged suburbanite, the former hellraiser, who once practiced by playing dust bin lids, said: "There was a live percussionist playing along with the records, the sound was of a very high frequency which reverberated into my bedroom and my children's bedroom.
"I found the repetitiveness disturbing and I was unable to sleep because of it."
At the height of their powers Primal Scream, who won the inaugural Mercury Prize in 1992, were renowned not only for dance-influenced rock masterpieces such as Screamadelica but also their consumption of drugs.
One NME journalist recounted how he had one night overheard the band discussing whether to have "Vietnamese, Chinese or Indian".
When the reporter suggested a burger, one of the band turned around and said: "It's heroin we're discussing.
Not food."When the band played the Glastonbury festival two years ago, Gillespie was alleged to have thrown his microphone stand off the stage in reaction to the sound being turned off.
Witnesses claimed he taunted fans of Kylie Minogue, although he underlined he said nothing against the pop star herself.
Older and soberer, Gillespie, who counts Kate Moss, Pete Doherty, Sadie Frost and Mick Jones among his friends, has since become a devoted father more likely to limber up for a gig with a bowl of soup than anything else.
He said recently: "We go into the studio to work. You can't be creative if you're f***** up on drugs. So I prefer to be clean."
Outlining his new-found dislike for anti-social conduct to his local authority, the singer, whose mother Wilma ran a pub in Glasgow, complained that the licence extension sought by the Alma would bring unwanted visitors to his neighbourhood.
Writing last summer, Gillespie said: "It serves to reason that if this application is granted, they will be serving alcohol/playing loud recorded or live music until possibly two o'clock or later - disturbing the peace of our beautiful street and attracting noisy, drunk people to our area leaving the premises or coming into the area looking for a late night drink - who are incidentally just [as loud] if not louder than the music being played."
The singer added that he and his family had moved to their road "because it is quiet and beautiful" and he needed to be in bed by midnight.
He said: "We have two very young children - four years and 10 months - and it's because of this we generally need to be asleep before 12pm every night to cope with their demands."
Mercifully for the rock star, the members of Licensing Sub-Committee A of Islington Borough Council had some sympathy.
Although they agreed to extend the sale of alcohol at the pub and allow the live or recorded music until 1am Monday to Sunday, they ruled it could happen no more than once a month.
Both Gillespie and the management of the Alma yesterday declined to comment.
- INDEPENDENT
