He was deported from Cambodia on suspected child sexual abuse charges in 2002 and settled in Vietnam, where a court found him guilty of obscene acts with minors in 2006.
Martin produced two singles, "Walk on Boy" and "Tower of Strength", but neither sold very well, and Gadd's recording career as Paul Raven stalled.
He did numerous television commercials and film auditions, and in the course of those activities met arranger and record producer Mike Leander, who eventually helped revive his career.
[19][23] After Leander's group disbanded, he formed Boston International with saxophonist John Rossall, and spent the following five years touring the UK and West Germany, recording occasionally.
From 1968 to 1970, several singles including "Musical Man", "Goodbye Seattle" and a cover version of the Beatles' "Here Comes the Sun" were released, his name briefly changed to Paul Monday.
[24] As the glam movement took off in 1971, Gadd adopted the new stage name Gary Glitter, which he devised by playing alliteratively with letters of the alphabet, working backwards from Z.
[25] The song that made Gary Glitter's name began as a 15-minute jam session; whittled down to a pair of three-minute extracts it was released in 1972 as the A-side and B-side of a single called "Rock and Roll, Parts 1 and 2".
[26] After subsequent releases stalled in similar fashion, Glitter announced his retirement from the music industry to start a family life with his new partner in early 1976.
Glitter spent the next decade mostly as an in-demand live performer, and his back catalogue of recordings proved durable enough for several compilations to be successfully released.
The English rock band Oasis interpolated a line from Glitter's 1973 chart hit "Hello, Hello, I'm Back Again" on "Hello", the first track on their 1995 multi-million-selling album (What's the Story) Morning Glory?
[42][better source needed] News reports stated that, as of late July 2013, Glitter may have earned a total of £1,000,000 from royalties derived from the Oasis song "Hello" that sampled "Hello, Hello, I'm Back Again".
Music industry lawyer Craig Brookes cited this monetary sum in addition to the royalties from his back catalogue of songs—£300,000 a year or more—and the estimated £200,000 Glitter was awarded for copyright infringement after he enacted legal action against Oasis in 1999.
[43] In 2014, Billboard reported that "Rock and Roll Part 2", co-written by Glitter with Mike Leander, was earning an estimated $250,000 a year in royalties due to its use in the NHL.
[44] In October 2019 there was controversy over the use of "Rock and Roll Part 2" in the commercially successful film Joker due to the possibility of Glitter, as co-writer and performer of the song, receiving a lump sum and royalties for its use.
[50] Glitter had an influence on various musicians and genres from the 1970s onwards, especially British punk, post-punk, new wave, gothic rock, Britpop and glam metal.
"[64] In November 1997, Glitter was arrested after a technician discovered pornographic images of children on the hard drive of a laptop that he had taken to a computer retailer in Bristol to be repaired.
At Bristol Crown Court on 12 November 1999, Mr Justice Butterfield sentenced Glitter to four months in prison and placed him on the sex offender register in the UK after he admitted downloading more than 4,000 items of child pornography.
He came to the attention of Vietnamese authorities after being banned from a nightclub for allegedly groping a teenage waitress; eyewitnesses also reported seeing him take two young girls into his home.
Police began searching for Glitter, and he was arrested on 20 November at Tân Sơn Nhất International Airport in Ho Chi Minh City while trying to board a flight to Bangkok.
[79] Judge Hoàng Thanh Tùng said: "He sexually abused and committed obscene acts with children many times in a disgusting and sick manner.
He continued to blame the press for his downfall and called them "the worst enemy in the world", alleging that they had paid girls in a bar to arrange a photo scoop.
[85] Christine Beddoe, director of End Child Prostitution, Pornography and Trafficking, criticised Glitter and said that he was trying to "minimise what he has done ... We must allow children to tell their story and not just have the words of Gadd.
"[85] On 15 June 2006, in a closed hearing, a three-judge panel of the Supreme People's Court of Vietnam heard Glitter's appeal for a reduced sentence.
[86][87][88][89] Although he was calm throughout the 40-minute reading of the verdict, upon leaving the courthouse, Glitter shouted angrily to reporters and denounced Vietnamese justice for not hearing the defence arguments.
[93] Glitter's Vietnamese lawyer, Lê Thành Kinh, said that his client intended to return to the UK, although he had also expressed interest in moving to either Hong Kong or Singapore.
He was escorted under police guard to Tân Sơn Nhất International Airport in Ho Chi Minh City and put on a flight to London via Bangkok.
In Bangkok, he claimed that he had tinnitus and a heart condition and refused to board the flight to London despite the efforts of British police sent to escort him, although they had no jurisdiction to take action.
[100] At least 19 countries, including Cuba, Cambodia, and the Philippines, announced that they would refuse entry to Glitter, and on 21 August the Thai authorities stated that he had agreed to return to the UK.
[15] On 13 March 2023, after an investigation into his use of a smartphone, Glitter was recalled to prison for breaching his licence conditions by allegedly viewing downloaded images of children.
[118] On 11 June 2024, a High Court judge, Mrs Justice Tipples, ruled that Glitter must pay more than £500,000 to a victim he abused when she was 12 years old.