My next step was to order copies of the Soulicious album for my sister and me as a token act of support. A set of duets with some sensational soul singers, most notably Candi Staton, and this masterpiece with Freda Payne, but also Billy Paul, Percy Sledge and songwriting credits for the second generation of Motown, Beau Dozier.
When the evidence to prosecute Cliff went forward to be considered, I underlined five parts of their statement that convinced me that nothing was going to come of it,
We have received a full file of evidence from South Yorkshire Police. We will now carefully consider its contents in line with the Code for Crown Prosecutors, in order to establish whether there is sufficient evidence to provide a realistic prospect of conviction, and whether it is in the public interest to do so.
It hasn't taken very long for the prosecutors to take note of those careful caveats and realize that it meant 'there is nothing we can do with this'. I'm no lawyer but even I could see that. But I'm very surprised that the decision came quite so soon. I expected it to be dragged out for ages. I'm surprised it had even been taken out of the relevant 'in' tray by now, or that it had even found its way into the right one.
800 000 pounds, it says on the BBC website, is how much it all cost. And, if we didn't know better, we might be tempted to think that somebody somewhere was trying to make a name for themselves by nailing the biggest name they could get. The same sort of person who didn't do anything about Jimmy Savile, who very nearly made it to the age of 86 with impunity. Get a grip of it, you lot. What a shambles you really are.
I realize that Cliff has not been found 'not guilty' but, there again, he couldn't have been because he wasn't charged with anything.
