I note that all programmes about glam rock on the TV omit the towering presence of Gary Glitter.
I worked with him a few times. He was a tremendous performer, who had a run of eleven top ten hits (in the UK - I think he only had one hit in the US, but glam was never big over there anyway). He had the most astonishing stage presence I've ever seen (and I've worked with a lot of big names from various eras and styles of music and theatre). He radiated charisma. He was a lovely, unassuming bloke, quick to buy a round for all the crew down at the pub, and thoroughly charming. For all his complete control on stage, he had terrible stage fright. Quite the worst I've ever seen. He needed to be physically helped up the stairs to the stage, and nearly threw up before the show started.
And yet...
I wished the allegations about him to be untrue, but his actions following his first conviction just seem to confirm the truth about him.
Does that diminish his musical achievement, being the major force in British pop music at its height? Not really, but it does overshadow him to the extent, as I've indicated, that he is literally written out. All the better for the reputation of Slade, one of my favourite bands, who, in the absence of Glitter, seem to have been far and away the leading lights of glam for those years, but not really a true picture of what was happening musically.
Polanski should have faced justice. I think he still should. But it doesn't stop him from being a great artist. To some extent, all the greatest artists tend to be a little unusual, to say the least.