The 'Subversion In Contemporary Music' Files http://www.qonline.co.uk/news/default.asp?mode=link&ref=1753 DailyNews Lennon, Sex Pistols & UB40's spy past [Jan 25 2000 11:51AM] Disgraced ex-MI5 agent David Shaylor - currently living in exile in France - claims that the FBI and MI5 kept files on John Lennon, UB40 and the Sex Pistols. Shaylor says that the Feds' file on Lennon contains hand-written lyrics by the late Beatle, plus details of his immigration battles, a supposed $75,000 donation to a left-wing group, and a wanted poster in case it was decided to arrest him. The former agent also maintains that British artists, including dole-form monikered UB40 and the Sex Pistols were under surveillance by MI5. He says, "I saw something from the late seventies called 'Subversion In Contemporary Music'. It was cuttings about bands like the Sex Pistols - but also UB40 strangely enough!" But Shaylor, who campaigns for top secret information to be declassified, takes a cynical view of the surveillance. He says, "You can imagine some Colonel Blimp character compiling this file, whereas anybody with half a brain knew the Sex Pistols talked a good talk - wrote a lot of songs about it, but when it came to political activism did absolutely nothing!" Tell that to HRH.
