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Fact #105914

When:

Short story:

Donovan becomes the first high-profile pop musician to be busted for drugs when police officers led by the infamous Sgt. Norman Pilcher raid his flat in Alexander Court, Maida Vale, London, UK, and find him in possession of hash. Pilcher will pursue a high-profile campaign against drug-taking pop stars and will arrest members of both The Beatles and The Rolling Stones. He will inspire the Primus song Pilcher's Squad, and is also said to have been the inspiration for the line "Semolina Pilchard climbing up the Eiffel Tower" in The Beatles' song I Am The Walrus.

Full article:

Donovan : Of all the pop stars in London in the 60's, I was the first to be busted for pot. Well, it was only right. I'd rented the apartment to two American girls, while I was on tour in America. And they had a few parties, they invited a few undesirable elements. And the cops came around, but when they realized who's apartment it was, they said, "let's wait till he comes back of tour, and then we'll get him", and so they did. And I arrived back, and I was sleeping one night, and there was a great knock on the door. Nine big burly policemen came crashing in through the door. They stomped all over the [...] mats. I jumped out of bed, naked as the day I was born. One policeman grabbed me around the neck, can you imagine me? Naked, tangling on the end of a policeman? They took me down the station, they booked me, and they fingerprinted me. And at 4 a.m. on a cold London morning, they let me out on the streets of London. And the head of the drug squad, Sergeant Pilcher, he said to me as I left the station, he said, "Don, you know, it's only my job, can I have your autograph for my daughter?" Well, the next day the papers were full of it, taxi drivers were waving me down in the street, saying, "Hey Don! Can I have one of them funny cigarettes?"
(Source : http://donovan-unofficial.com/music/songs/isle_of_islay.html)