Will groovy Prezza swing to the aid of a jazz legend?
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Your support makes all the difference.* John Prescott can expect an imminent call from one of his jazz heroes, Jon Hendricks. The singer currently lives in America on the royalties from songs like "Another Night in Tunisia", and appears in films such as Al Pacino's recent People I Know, in which he played himself. The trouble is, he'd like to come back to Britain.
* John Prescott can expect an imminent call from one of his jazz heroes, Jon Hendricks. The singer currently lives in America on the royalties from songs like "Another Night in Tunisia", and appears in films such as Al Pacino's recent People I Know, in which he played himself. The trouble is, he'd like to come back to Britain.
Hendricks had a right of residency here until he accidentally allowed it to expire in the Seventies. He later bumped into Prescott, a jazz fan, and asked for his help. The trail went dead, but Hendricks has now told Pandora he would like the Deputy Prime Minister to help him "get my residency back".
"It doesn't work like that, does it?" explained a patient spokesman in Prescott's office when Pandora called yesterday. But it might be in Prescott's interests to give the singer some advice.
Forty years ago Hendricks wrote the lyrics to a campaign song for Dizzy Gillespie, who was running for president against Lyndon Johnson.
"Your politics oughta be a groovier thing, so get a good president who's willing to swing. Vote Dizzy! Vote Dizzy!" went the song.
It didn't work for Gillespie, but I'm sure Hendricks would love to help the Labour Party get its groove back - should he only be allowed to stay in this country.
* STARS OF the new Band Aid single were giving away its secrets at the exhibition Beyond Band Aid at the weekend.
"I really wanted to get [the boy-band] Busted," said Midge Ure. "But I don't think Bob [Geldof] was overly keen. I'm just glad they decided not to do a remix. They were going to do a dance remix of 'Do They Know it's Christmas?' I just don't think that's in the realms of good taste."
Beverley Knight is also involved. "I would love to sing the parts that Boy George did in the original," she tells Pandora.
Knight also revealed that Bryan Adams "has been phoning my record company asking for me [to go on tour with him], and finally he phoned the top boss, Johnny - who we call God - and said, 'Get Beverley!'"
She has caved in, and will be accompanying Adams on his European tour soon.
* POOR OLD John Mortimer. After a lifetime entertaining audiences from courtrooms, theatres and television screens, his latest show has had to be cancelled because nobody wants to see it.
Mortimer, pictured, was due to give a talk, called Life, Love and the Law, at St John's Smith Square in London last night, in aid of the Chelsea and Westminster Hospital. But it was scrapped when only one hundred tickets were sold.
"We offered champagne and a buffet and halved the ticket price to £25," explains a disappointed organiser. "But we still only filled 100 seats out of the 600 on sale."
Mortimer himself is philosophical. "I've done lots of talks which are full of people," he tells me. "I don't know what was wrong this time. The world is going to the dogs."
* NOW THAT Star Trek star William Shatner and advertising guru Trevor Beattie have put their names at the top of the list for Richard Branson's forthcoming tours of outer space, the Virgin boss must be expecting millions to follow.
Not that this has stopped the canny businessman from pulling off a neat coup, by persauding Beattie to run a free advertising campaign for his latest venture.
"This is an attainable dream and that's what the adverts will put across," Beattie tells me. "Can you imagine sitting in a spaceship next to William Shatner? It's got to be done. When I expressed interest in the expedition, Richard invited me to the launch in California and I offered to do the advertising. It would be a labour of love for me."
* Patricia Morris, the vice chairman of the Conservative party, recently took her seat in the House of Lords under her new title of Baroness Morris of Bolton. But, she tells Pandora, not everyone was entirely convinced by her well-earned elevation.
"Unfortunately, my mother was taken ill shortly before my arrival in Parliament," Lady Morris explains. "On the evening before my introduction, I was with her in the Royal Bolton Hospital. As we were sitting there, a nurse took me to one side and said, 'Mrs Morris, your mother's become very confused. She thinks you're going to London tomorrow to become a Baroness.'"
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