More from our exclusive serialisation of Major General Fred Stanton's autobiography "Let's Talk About Me" (Nubis Books, £17.99).
"Through my long and distinguished musical career I have obviously earned a lot of money. However, I have also travelled all around the world sharing my musical expertise and one such time was when I visited Zimbabwe. Robert Mugabe had engaged me to take the Harare State Orchestra in a recording session. We were to put down the theme music to a new Zimbabwean soap opera called Mboto Ba Ba Mbongo".
"The day before the session I was invited by Mugabe to play a round of golf at his private club. All was going well and Mugabe was nodding appreciatively as I gave him my musical CV in a nutshell. However, things took a turn for the worse on the 7th when Mugabe hit his tee shot out of bounds".
"He couldn't find his ball so took a relief drop. However, when we finished up on the green (I remember I had made a rather handy birdie), he failed to note the penalty stroke on his card. I suggested that he perhaps pay a little more attention to the strict rules of golf, upon which the mad mullah threatened to have me shot!"
"Anyway, I won 3 & 2 and also produced a fine performance with the orchestra the following day. The trip netted me £4,000 plus expenses, which is the most the important thing, but to this day I remember my death threat from Robert Mugabe!"
