***************************************

on the basis of fair use in education.
***************************************

Source: the slowhand digest mailing list.

I'm sorry to hear that Alice Ormsby-Gore died.


For those who are a little sketchy on Alice and Eric's relationship here's are
a few details.


Eric is seven years older than Alice. He met her when she was 16. After a year
of 'courtship', when she was 17, she moved with Eric into his house Hurtwood
Edge.


Other than Eric's relationship with Patti Boyd, she was Eric longest
relationship with one women. And probably because of Eric's heroin addiction,
he was probably the most physically faithful to her.

Eric has said that they were together 5 years but the last three under the
cloud of heroin.

>From Ray Coleman's book CLAPTON!

All the negotiating with drug dealers was done by Alice, something she now
regrets. 'I remember when we went to New York in 1971 for George Harrison's
Bangladesh concert, I was desperately running around that city trying to score
some heroin for Eric. And I remember thinking how stupid it was for me even
then. I did that for him, and for myself, for three years. It was probably
childish to be over-protective, but I thought it helped him not to have to face
the full horror, himself, of scoring his own heroin supply. It might have been
better, I can see now, to let him do it and learn the difficulty of it
first-hand. Then he'd know, like I learned the difficulty of the dealing. But
then, you see Eric's able to give himself in to other people's hands for a
limited spell of time, and give himself 'totally' if he thinks it will tide him
over a problem. If it hadn't been me doing the scoring for him, it would have
been someone else. And if you love someone, as I did you do anything . . .'

Alice goes on in Coleman's book to describe her efforts to keep Eric off the
road by taking the rotor out of his car, so it wouldn't start. She thought he
would kill himself by driving. When she couldn't get enough heroin for him, she
would give him -her share- and then drink vodka - sometimes up to two bottles a
day to kill the cravings.

Though a school friend, who was the wife of Bob Pridden the Who's soundman,
Alice got Peter Townshed to get involved in trying to straighten out Eric.

Lord Harlech (Alice's father) in an effort for a public rehabilitation and
which he hoped would turn into a private rehabilitation of Eric. Asked Townshed
to put together a concert which would benefit a charity that Lord Harlech
supported. Thus the Rainbow Concert came about.

Eric almost missed the beginning of the Rainbow Concert, because Alice had to
let out the waist of his pants. Eric in exile had gained a few extra lbs and
couldn't fit in to his pants. You see the photo's of Eric in that white suite,
glassy eyed - from time to time

As we all know he didn't stop using. So Lord Harlech then found Meg Patterson
to get Eric and Alice off of heroin.

>From Michael Schumacher CROSSROADS:

Lord Harlech urged Eric and Alice to give Meg Patterson's method a try. Clapton
resisted the advice for a while, but eventually gave in.

"It finally came to the point," he remembered, "where I could see that [Lord
Harlech] was worried abut [Alice], so I thought, well, OK, if it gets her off,
I don't mind going along with it because I can see the concern of a father for
his daughter and I'm not doing any good, so let her see if she can get cured. I
wasn't actually looking for a cure myself. I was quite happy to go on. It just
so happened that I got cured as well."

>From Colemans' book,  Alice's insight into Eric.

Alice has her own views on Eric's battle with drug abuse, and subsequent
victory. 'As it was with heroin, so it was with drink: Eric always waits for
the other person, or in this case it was the other article, smack or alcohol,
to make a mistake. In the case of heroin, the drug's failure for Eric was not
to live up to his expectations in helping him create some work of genius, or
help him towards some profound recognition of life. So when heroin did not
provide any answers, he could kick it and say "I've conquered it! I've won.
Because I've met heroin head on and I've come out on top-and I can still
create!" So yes, heroin was a major reason he went down the road. Because deep
inside him, he knew that he could find the way back."

Alice on her relationship with Eric:

Alice agrees that her lack of self-esteem infuriated Eric so much that it
created a barrier [between them]. But she does not agree with his theory that
their relationship was not a love affair. 'I can't go along with him on that,'
says Alice. 'Maybe because I was only seventeen I wrongly thought of it as
mutual. My extreme youth made any rational analysis of the situation
impossible.'

When Eric took "The Cure" and was free of heroin, he went to Alice's brother
Franks farm in Wales to work out for a month.
I don't know if he is the current Lord Harlech or not.

And the rest as they say is "History".

Good bye Sweet Alice, Rest In Peace.

-Steve