Please enjoy looking back to October 1972: @allosmonds arrived in London to perform in the Royal Variety Show and embark on their first UK tour. This article from Record Mirror tells the behind-the-scenes stories from a member of the security team.
How Paddy the Plank helped take care of the Osmonds!
Val Mabbs, Record Mirror, 9 December 1972
Val Mabbs talks to Don Murfet, head of Artists’ Services, whose team was in charge of security for the Osmonds’ tour of Britain
EARLIER this year a brief phone call from the offices of Polydor records led to a flurry of activity in the room at the other end of the link up. The Osmonds were coming to town, and one of the men most involved in ensuring their safety and comfort during their stay in England was 35-year-old Don Murfet, head of a flourishing company known as Artists’ Services.
After a recommendation from Polydor, Don and his team of security men, including Patsy, Paddy the Plank, Jim the Plank (both previously loaders of timber), Fat Fred, Tall Ted, and Don’s younger brother Barry braced themselves to face the onslaught of Osmonds fans; and to this day they all bear physical scars to show just how strong some of the confrontations can be.
“Quite a lot of the fans got to talk to the group,” Don told me at the offices of Artists’ Services, a relaxing hideaway near Euston station, “but it was the hysterical fans we had to keep away. Some, hadn’t eaten for four days and they were wet and frantic, and others just fainted.
“Some of the fans were very sensible, though, and they took a lot of trouble to make presents or bring expensive gifts up for the group. Some of the girls would get into the hotel five or six times in different ways and often they got to see the group, because along their corridor it was like musical doors with Jimmy going into his mother’s room, or Alan going in to see Donny.”
But not all the meetings were as easy to handle.
“The kids get very violent sometimes,” Don explains. “They don’t know what they’re doing, really. When they get hold of Donny they start kissing him, digging their fingers in him and it’s really very hard to get them off. You have to do it gently, firstly because they’re kids, and also because the Osmonds don’t want them to get hurt. They really are genuinely interested in their fans, and they would spend all their time talking to them if they could, but at times we had to not let them see the fans.”
First and foremost the job for Don, and partner Gerry Slater’s security men, is to ensure the safety of their artists: and as they have worked with the Monkees, Andy Williams, Des O’Connor, Johnny Cash and are now working with Led Zeppelin, this is a task they are very capable of doing.
Working on protecting older established artists, however, often proves to be easier, because, as Don explains, older women will talk reasonably to security men and try to charm their way in to meet their idol. But young girls, as well as employing their charms, also resort to kicking, biting and generally becoming rather hysterical!
During one incident when the Osmonds arrived back at their hotel garage without notifying the security men a rather nasty moment also occurred for Donny.
“We heard screaming down in the garage and we all rushed downstairs,” explains Don, talking between numerous phone calls. “Mr Osmond opened the car door and about 50 girls swarmed round — and in a confined space that seems like a thousand!
“Donny was the first out and the girls took him off without us realising. So we formed a barrier for the others to run through when I felt someone trying to dive through my legs. As they shot through I turned round and knocked them and saw what I had thought was a girl, but turned out to be Donny hurtling down the boiler room steps! His face went completely white, but I just grabbed him back before he hurt himself.”
Don has observed, particularly when working with the Monkees also, that most artists drop to the floor when caught in a crowd, as crawling away seems to be their only hope! I asked Don how he felt the Osmonds compared to the Monkees in other ways.
“Musically these guys are far in front of them,” he told me. “And I would say they are, in every department. They’re so versatile and they’ve got nine times the experience the Monkees had. it’s incredible to see them at rehearsals, they’re so professional.
“In Birmingham we told them they had to leave by ten to five because the police were arranging for traffic lights to be kept at green for us, and consequently they couldn’t spend their usual two hours rehearsing. They made no complaints and were ready to leave on the stroke of the clock.”
Favourites
Donovan has become a close friend of Don Murfet, but from the massive list of other artists he has worked with — dating from the days when he drove a coach for Vic Lewis, and then ran a limousine car service which was taken over by the late Brian Epstein — Don says the Osmonds have become his big favourites, He says of the individual characters:
“Donny has a fantastically active mind. He worked out how many seconds there are in a year — he just sat and worked it out for fun.”
Alan Osmond is a keen photographer, and Don believes he could make a good film director. Jay on the other hand is more sports minded and can pitch an American football 75 yards with tremendous force. Wayne is also interested in football and mechanics, and apparently suffers from migraine. And Merrill? Well he is known as “Mr Business” and is very interested in antique cars.
“Jay seems to be very popular because he fits into the right age group, too,” says Don. “But they’ve all increased their popularity a lot. Alan likes chicks… in fact they all appreciate good looking women, every last one of them. When we were at the Hard Rock having a hamburger, and girls came in to the room, the conversation would taper off as everyone looked at them… but they’re all very reserved about it.”
When two dancers visited the group’s hotel and were intent upon displaying their ample charms to them, little Jimmy found it all to be something of a giggle, while Donny looked slightly shy though seemingly interested… and some of the other brothers decided to leave. Exit the girls, somewhat embarrassed themselves!
Which just indicates some of the contrasts of life that being a star presents. And the security men themselves were sometimes approached by young girls offering a session in the bedroom if they could see the Osmonds.
“They’re what we call bed-charmers,” says Don. “But it would be very uncool to take advantage of them… most of them are so young.”
Instead the security men spent most of their time touring London with the group — taking in visits to the Mormon church, Buckingham Palace, the Citadel and a fish and chip shop! — and undertaking some extremely strenuous work.
Security
When the group were travelling in Manchester from their hotel to the Free Trade Hall several blocks away, all of the security men had to run to beat their car to the door. “Your legs stiffen up after a couple of runs like that,” says Don.
But with no more time for reflection he is now planning ahead for the Led Zeppelin tour and work with Bill Withers and Ike and Tina Turner, while brother Barry — a past master at working with Americans, and a jovial and valuable character for the organisation — is already tracking across the Continent with a huge van load of equipment.
Don is also helping a new young singer, Marcel, to shape a career for herself. So there’s not much time for looking back, though he will always remember the Osmonds with some affection.
© Val Mabbs, 1972
Don’t miss this video memory of the Osmonds greeting their fans from their hotel room:
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