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MARION singer Jaime Harding was a big deal in the 90s – but you might not recognise the star these days.
He’s best known for his hit single Sleep released in 1997 – which they performed at Glastonbury that year.
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Sleep appeared on their album This World and Body, released one year earlier, and the band were swept up in the Britpop scene.
But Jaime said “we weren’t really a Britpop band”.
He added to the Guardian: “Glastonbury 1997 was the high point. We were third on the bill. People come up to me and say: ‘That was the greatest festival of my life!’ You’re somehow in people’s lives without even realising it.”
He recently opened up about his wild life and the moment he swiped a pair of ornamental swans and sold them to buy drugs.
He told GavBasically: “In 20 odd years of drug-taking, and drinking, one of the ‘worst things’ I’d done was steal two swan plant pots from someone’s garden.
“That was in 2001. My girlfriend was dragging these swans across the lawn with me and ran off with them, then we sold them for £20, scored some drugs…but we got caught and the police came knocking at our door.
“I took the wrap for it, as I didn’t want to get my then-girlfriend to get in trouble … she’d had a run-in with the law before… so I was charged.”
He continued: “The press kept saying it was garden gnomes that I’d stolen! I would never do that! Even the most awful people in the world would not steal a garden gnome.
“That’s against the laws of nature! [laughs] I’d never be able to look gnomes in the eyes ever again. I’d never have done that. Gnomes are a quintessential ingredient for the perfect English country garden.”
Jaime’s drug addition casused the band to split in 1999.
However, he reunited with guitarist Phil Cunningham seven years later and they started gigging again in 2007.
But things went downhill for the star when his manager died, and he was overcome by grief and turned to drugs again.
He ended up in prison in 2016 when he set fire to his girlfriend’s clothes and the fire engulfed their flat, after she refused to pick up the phone to him.
He said: “Let me tell you this…you can do 25 years of any hard drugs you want and the worst thing you’ll do is move garden swans around, but if you do gas, you’ll go to prison.
“That is how it happened with me. I was on gas for three months after Joe died.
“I didn’t know how to cope with the grief. My girlfriend Vicki had been driven out of my flat because she needed space from me with everything that was going on.
“At one point I was trying to call her, I called 58 times… and I was getting no answer. I knew it was mum telling her not to answer… I ended up angry and frustrated and set fire to the corner of one of her work dresses.
“It went whoosh in flames so I put a damp towel over it. Little did I know that it was still smouldering. I ended up having to ring the fire service and as you probably know, ended up in jail.”
Jamie had open heart surgery a few years ago, but is determined to get back to gigging again.
He admitted: “I’ve been through so many health struggles which has held me back, but I definitely want to get myself into a good place and get touring and recording again.
“Music has been a part of my every day life, and it is who I am. I can’t imagine doing anything different … it’s helped me to get through everything.”
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