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Hounded: Otis Ferry... rock star's son, huntsman, jailbird
Marianne Macdonald, ES Magazine. Photographs by Minh. Styled by Gianluca Longo19.06.09
I just want to give Otis Ferry a hug. He seems so sad. Four months on remand in jail for a small hunting altercation, on which the charges were dropped, seems too cruel for this man of 26 who is serious and sensitive beyond his years. He has a gravitas and sombre, unblinking presence that owes much to his rock star father Bryan Ferry and his glamorous childhood as the eldest offspring of a music icon and aristocratic model, Lucy Birley.
He is tall and elegantly narrow and is wearing a black jersey that shows a V of green T-shirt stretched over coathanger shoulders. He isn't spoilt, but has strong opinions, coolly delivered in a Marlborough-educated accent.
He's agreed to model Gieves & Hawkes suits, though he admits in his matter-of-fact way that he's never bought an item of clothing in his life. 'I get a lot of hand-me-downs from my father and I did a big Burberry campaign a few years ago; I got a huge selection of odds and ends from that.' This was his shoot alongside Kate Moss, wasn't it?
What was she like? 'Lovely. Nice. Very friendly. But I've never been into a shop to buy clothes. I can't stand it. And I refuse to go with anyone else. Girlfriends have no chance. If they want me to buy them some clothing, I'll happily fork out, but I couldn't go and buy it because I hate dithering. You know, "Does this look good?" "Yes, it looks fine." "What do you mean, fine? I want it to be brilliant." It's exhausting. Also, I like people to make up their own mind about what they like.'
It must have been fascinating being Otis Ferry, the oldest child of Bryan Ferry. His father is such a figure of our times - born in Washington, Tyne and Wear, in 1945, the son of a miner; someone whose dreams propelled him to Newcastle University and beyond, to London, where in 1970 he started Roxy Music, one of the decade's most influential bands.
Ferry defined the word 'glam,' and like his contemporary David Bowie, wrote songs that were witty, original and ambiguous. Variously called a lounge lizard, the godfather of style, and the coolest living Englishman, he went out with Jerry Hall and then, after she left him for Mick Jagger, married the model and socialite Lucy Helmore in 1982, the year of Roxy Music's last album, Avalon. They had Otis and three more sons, Isaac, Tara and Merlin. But Ferry never hid his melancholy and six years ago the couple divorced, when Otis was 19. Lucy remarried Robin Birley; Ferry was quickly linked to a backing dancer 25-year-old Katie Turner. He embarked on his own ad campaigns for Burberry and M&S; Roxy Music reunited and released a Bob Dylan tribute album in 2007.
All extremely glamorous but clearly complicated. Perhaps this could be at the root of Otis's activism. I ask how he's coping after jail? 'You get a complex when you come out of prison. When people look at me I get paranoid that they might be thinking I'm a criminal or tainted with the coating that prison gives you.' He gives a faint smile. 'I went through a lot of suffering and that carries on once you get out. When I walk down the street and people look at me I think, "Oh God, they're checking their wallets."'
I realise that it has truly scarred him. It makes me hope that his family are there for him. 'Oh, that's very sweet of you,' he says, suddenly sounding younger. 'I hope people see it like that. Luckily, all the charges have now been dropped and the reason I've been in prison has been shown to be flawed. But there was a time when I'd feel I was getting a funny response, even from close friends. I think there's going to be an element of doubt in people's minds. It's one thing to be pulled over for speeding, but to be put in prison for four months makes people think, "Gosh, they can't be wrong about something like that!" So, I don't know, it hangs over me.'
(Left) Otis wears cardigan, £145, and shirt, £125, Gieves & Hawkes (020 7434 2001). Jeans, £24.99, Uniqlo (020 8247 9200). Belt, Otis's own. Watch, price on application, Piaget (020 7290 6500)
Otis left Marlborough at 16 and joined the Middleton Hunt in North Yorkshire as apprentice whipper-in, the huntsman's assistant who keeps the hounds together in a pack. He became a poster boy for the pro-hunting lobby five years ago when he and seven accomplices stormed the House of Commons dressed as builders in tabards and helmets; they got to the floor of the House.
Then he invaded Tony Blair's constituency home, carrying pro-hunting stickers. But his convictions took him to a much darker place two years ago, when he rode to the support of his hunting friend John Deutsch after he had got into a fight with two hunt saboteurs.
Deutsch had been taking an injured horse to be looked after, and during the altercation Otis got hold of the women's sat nav, video camera and car keys. Subsequently, there was an allegation that he had tried to influence a witness not to give evidence against him. Otis says he received an anonymous text and after calling the number out of curiosity found himself speaking to his former groom, David Hodgkiss. Hodgkiss then told the police he had been warned by Otis not to give evidence against him. That led to a charge and Ferry was held in prison on remand for the astonishing period of four months, over Christmas and his birthday, and was only released this January. He is writing a memoir about the experience. 'I'm still very healthy, surprisingly,' he says, knotting his long, thin fingers.
What did he do in those four months? Read? Receive millions of visitors? 'Well, you can't have millions of visitors,' he points out drily. 'You only get them twice a week, for an hour-and-a-half. No, you just sit there, really.' His laughter has a bleak edge. 'You're locked in the whole time. So you occupy your time as best you can. You don't get let out in the morning until eight o'clock and you have supper at 4.30. So the day is incredibly short. You're sitting up at nine or ten thinking, "I'm starving."'
Mostly, he sat alone in his cell, he goes on. 'Because I don't smoke, and 99.9 per cent of inmates do.' Were the other prisoners nice to him? 'Very nice. The majority of the guards were OK, too. But it was terrible to start with.'
How was Christmas? 'The same as any other day. I saw my dad on Christmas Eve, I think. I felt terrible for anyone who visited. My predicament was unavoidable, but I always felt really guilty whenever people came in for me.' They were probably more worried about him than themselves, I point out. 'Well, maybe. But whenever you drag people to a bad place you always have a feeling of guilt.' He has said his father was tougher about the whole thing than his mother. 'I was very touched that he came. I didn't think he would - not out of disloyalty, but because it's a demeaning place to have to see your son. If you are in the public eye, you are very image-conscious, quite rightly.'
I ask if he managed to listen to music in jail - it is his other great love, along with hunting. 'Yes, but there were all sorts of rules about where you got it from. It had to come via Amazon: someone couldn't just send you a CD, just in case it contained child pornography.'
Well, at least he's out. He nods doubtfully. 'It's very strange because after four-and-a-half months, you lose the belief that you ever will get out. It's the frustration because there's no way of conveying your message. You've got to keep avoiding that subject in your brain, otherwise you get into all sorts of trouble.' He gives a pale smile. 'It hasn't really sunk in that this is all over, because it's been two years that the court case has been hanging over me.'
So did the lawyers explain why he was held on remand for so long when the charges were dropped? 'Well, I wasn't guilty from the start. Which we told the police and the judge. The judge felt the police were entitled to carry out their investigations. The police were particularly malicious, setting out these parameters where they needed another x weeks to recover phone records, x more weeks to interview other suspects. The goalposts kept being moved. It's ridiculous but they've got the power to do it.'
He hasn't celebrated his release but has been to Spain to stay with friends and plans another holiday before the hunting season starts. I say it's surprising that he's gone into hunting, such a solid, traditional activity, instead of music like his father. 'I don't think hunting's very solid,' he says, laughing with more genuine pleasure. 'It's very different to being a musician but you can't study to become a musician - you either are one or you're not, and I didn't think I was. But I've certainly inherited a love of music. If I'm alone in my house I'll always have music on as loud as I can.'
Will he stop demonstrating against hunting after what's happened? 'Well, this incident has nothing to do with protesting. It came about because I intervened in an altercation that was going on between pro-hunting people and anti-hunting people. Instead of pretending I hadn't seen anything, I decided to get involved. That was an error of judgement and I've paid handsomely for it.'
With special thanks to Baron and Hyde Park Stables, 62 Bathurst Mews, W2 (020 7723 2813; hydeparkstables.com).
Grooming by Liz Taw at Naked using Shu Uemura Art of Hair. Fashion assistant: Hannah Bort. A daily fashion show of Gieves & Hawkes A/W 09 collection is showing at the Bessborough Restaurant during Royal Ascot, until 20 June 2009. For tickets, call 0870 727 4321 or visit ascot.co.uk
Reader views (39)
I've heard vintage Arctic Cats are a big deal in London (UK) these days...I hope nobody's running over foxes! Yet I'd shoot a mangy fox on sight. If there's still a second amendment? Bryan Ferry has very long arms.
- Owen, MN, USA
Wow- he's just like his father. Without the talent.
- Fresh, London
I think it is a great pity that this personable, well educated and privileged young man is only able to apply his youthful energy to this one issue instead of trying to make a difference to the world and contributing to it.
- Jools, uk
Damozel, while i think kerrys comments were a bit over the top you, my friend, are deluded if you think public schools have the 'best possible standards of behaviour'!! who told you that? the prinicple who was fleecing you out of thousands of pounds to teach your kid what he/she would learn at a good state school?
- Kh, London UK
Hardworking working class dad makes good marries well and sends his kids to private school. His over-indulged kids haven't got that drive and become well-spoken snobbish layabouts.
- Sarah, London
Why are we still discussing this silver-spoon, public school, bullying buffon ? he is yesterday's fish and chipp wrapper
- Keith Price, Luton, England
Kerry of Purley. You really must stop reading The Beano - Lord Snooty and his pals havn't been around for the last 50 years. Your absurdly stereotyped views on the public school system are wildly out of date - children whose parent's have worked hard to send their children to fee paying schools have to work hard and play hard in order to survive in a very competitive and disciplined society. Frankly, the idea of sending my children to school with the likes you see in the state schools these days makes my blood freeze. Public schools have the best possible standards of behaviour and that is the way I like it. I'm afraid class envy is rampant in this country.
- Damozel, London UK
A thoroughly respectable gentlemean; a credit to his parents and his generation.
- Graham Rodhouse, Helmond, Netherlands
you are joking Graham surely?????
- Kh, London UK
I am an ex-public schoolboy but I work hard for a living and I agree totally with the comments by Kerry & Kevin. What has Otis F ever done in his life to even justify his existence. He was born with a silver spoon in his mouth & had the good fortune to be the son of an overrated Geordie crooner with pretensions to class and maaners. He therefore takes up such worthy causes as hunting with the upper classes as an antidote to his fathers humble origins. Either your correspondent is being ironic or is more likely a fawning sycophantic toady.
- D. Steen, London,UK
I don't understand why anyone has any interest in this effete, posturing ninny. he is a typical product of the Public school system and probably fatally flawed because his dad was a talentless twonk with money who sent his working class son to the sodomites heaven of a public school.
Ignore the little nonce and he might go away.
- Kerry, Purley
What surprises me, is why anyone would want to interview this guy in the first place irrespective of the rights or wrongs of his situation. Has he led an interesting life, or achieved anything of note, what was the reason for the interview?'Watching paint dry' comes to mind! I was thinking of transferring my alliegence to London's freebees, and, this article has finally made up my mind!
- Kevin Sullivan, Roehampton, London.
oh dear Tom from London - methinks you are a bitter public school boy! your vitriolic attack on Dzonu's perfectly reasonable comments show what kind of background you come from. I agree with Dzonu when he says otis has been brainwashed by the public school system - he is the son of someone who always was desparate to turn his back on his working class roots, so what do you expect? Maybe you don't like to hear what 'normal' londoners (the 95% who are not super rich or in the upper classes)think. You are probably a friend of otis and are of that ilk, as it seems to suprise you that many of us thinking killing an animal purely for sport is a bit sick (to put it mildly)...............
- Kh, London UK
What a load of sad and bitter correspondents there are on this site. Whilst I understand anti-hunt arguments, I also understand pro-hunt arguments. Irene and Dzonu - how ignorant are you both!! So we are all either toffs or Jade Goody's are we Dzonu. And what are you? Should we all be like you - or should I mock your name just because it's unusual? And what of all those lovely town foxes Irene that are now such pests. Should we all leave a bowl of milk out for them? And I'm glad to see all those who are passing judgement on a bloke they have never met and who is , as far as I know and in the eyes of the law, innocent of all charges. Great to see that everyone supports an innocent individual being locked up for 4 months. Shame it doesn't happen to a few more chippy Standard correspondents eh!!! And Ian Nicholson - yea right - I really believe your version of events....
- Tom, london
Oh goodness, this man comes off as a complete spoilt brat. "Poor poor innocent me"? Give me a huge break.... He needs to get some serious PR help, he does. Get a real job, and do a serious reality check, is my advice!
- Juma, london, uk
Poor little naive rich boy! Welcome to the real world.
You make out this kid as such a hero. He's a wally who stuck his nose in where he wasn't invited and expected to be listened to 'cos of who he is. I hope he realises now that he's just a nobody like everyone else and that money, when you get down to the nitty gritty does not make the man...just character.
- Nick, London
Think about the poor foxes he likes to kill
- Millie, wales
Go out into the Shropshire countryside on Saturday with a video camera Marianne Macdonald and see the lovely Otis change! He is a bully!
- Hunt Watch, norfolk
Being on remand is not the same as being in prison. Prison is after the conviction so you know where you stand in terms of how long you'll be there. Remand is up to the police or prosecutor and it could be weeks, months or years before your case comes to court and bail is rarely an option. On remand, you're in limbo existing in a room around 10ft square for most of the time - in Japan, you're in that cell all the time except for 20 minutes exercise twice a week and two showers a week. You can only do a few things - sleep, read or try and keep a diary.
- Victhebrit, Nara, Japan
What the hunt does to foxes is nothing compared to what my little moggie does to the local sickly and mangy fox that hangs around our garden. Does my cat need to go to jail too? Whatever happened to fair play in this country? Or is my cat forgiven simply because she is not rich?
- Delia Hake, Waltham Cross
And now he cashes in by moaning and posing as a martyr. Disgusting - why give him the publicity?
- Leonard C., York
Funny that... I just can't bring myself to feel sorry for the vicious little coathanger.
- Penny, Putney, London Britain
He wasn't being punished for breaking the law, he was imprisoned, before trial, for charges that were subsequently dropped. As for the so-called victims, that's not the first time this stunt has been pulled. Members of that group earlier accused another rider of attacking them and that case was only dropped when video evidence showed they had all lied.
- Sarah, Surrey
A arrogant Hooray Henry who should still be in jail
- Micky, London N4 UK
What an utterly spoilt brat. You would think he spent 40 years in prison. It sounds like he doesn't realize or understand he was being punished for breaking the law. How precious, he seems to think he is above the law and the victim. Could he not be a man and acknowledge he did something wrong.
- Helene Doutre, United Kingdom
So what if he has a famous father? He has a passion and believes strongly about something which is quite rare in this apathetic society these days. He has as much right to do what he is doing than drinking designer alcohol in Essex! Keep it up Otis.
- Nigel L, Fulham, London
spoilt
- Neil, London
So Mr Ferry rode to the support of his friend Mr Deutsch How very noble. That would have been the same Mr Deutsch who had just broken the car window of the two female hunt monitors, not saboteurs. That would be the Mr Ferry who was given a conditional discharge for causing fear, stress and upset. Despite the puff piece nature of the article I can feel nothing but contempt for the arrogant little bully.
- Ian Nicholson, London, England
So apart from being the son of Brian ferry, what has he ever done other than living off his fathers name ? If he was John Smith from Nottingham, nobody would care less about him.
- Graham, Fleet, Hampshire
Otis, don't try to regain credibility when you continue to mention your love for hunting. The year is 2009, hunting should be consigned to the past now, unless it is to cull and done quickly and without bloodlust.
- William Ear, Waltham Cross
The man is a total waste of space. Shame he's out - the world is a better place without fools like this around.
- David Ross, London
I don't think the ritual of fox hunting is very pleasent and it is just a reminder of how arogant the upper middle classes are.
Having said that the poor man has gone through the whole brainwashing process of public school. Some make it out that world and are able to see that they are no different to the rest of us.
Most sadly continue to believe that they are a superior breed so the class system that produces toffs at one end and Jade goodies at the other continues to blight this land and make us a mockery.
- Dzonu, London
Otis isn't so much a credit to his parents as the obvious result of the two of them having children( what a mistake). If this is a bid to win hearts and minds he can forget it , he is indeed a spoilt brat. He'd never be chosen to model anything past Gorringes 1958 catalogueif he wasn't his parents son.
- Angie Cox, Reading .UK
A thoroughly unrespectable gentlemean; no credit at all to his parents and his generation
- Keith Price, Luton, England
Shame, he should have been jailed for much longer. Leave the foxes alone.
- Irene Rybinska, London UK
A thoroughly respectable gentlemean; a credit to his parents and his generation.
- Graham Rodhouse, Helmond, Netherlands
I agree, a toffee nosed prat who should have been jailed for a lot longer. These rich kids with famous parents should shut the hell up and join the real world.
- Adam, London, London
You went through nothing to what those poor animals go through when you hunt them with your mob of arrogant oiks.
- Dc, Ealing, London
The man is a toffee nosed prat who should have been jailed for a lot longer.
T H Leeds
- Thomas Hayes, Leeds UK
One feels very sorry for the lad, and what makes it worse is, that he is right in his beliefs.
A Parliament Act on banning hunting was a stupid thing this goverment did amongst other things.
- Mario Kempe, london
