It's always sad when old friends fall out and the reports this week about Procol Harem's key board player suing over royalties for the famous opening bars of A Whiter Shade of Pale reminds me of my own legal troubles.
Back in the '67 Summer of love Procol Harem scored their massive world wide hit which stayed at the top of the charts for five weeks. Counter culture was coming centre stage and the youth of the west stopped and looked around - love and freedom were in the air.
At the same time I was encouraging hordes of young students to form Red Guard brigades and torture and humiliate their teachers while smashing centuries of culture and art, creating the conditions for permanent revolutionary upheaval.
You can understand my disappointment when many years later former Comrades starting coming out of the woodwork and saying "Madame Mao, it was my idea to shave the head of that primary school teacher" or "Madame Mao it was I who thought first to force children to denounce their parents or face being sent to a re-education camp".
Instead of complex legal battles, however, I simply had them all shot.
The possibilities for a fourth Austin Powers movie are limitless.
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