today i got a haircut

He came to London in 1968, to Soho. A 16 year old boy fresh from the village. His older brother and sister had gone to Canada and he had worked summer jobs at the local hotel, he knew he wanted to travel too, to go ‘abroad’. One of his uncles on visit home suggested he come to London, and so he did.

He had two uncles living and running businesses in Soho. One of them ran a caff on a lucrative corner in Soho; the other ran many, even more lucrative, clubs and clip joints.

By the time our boy got here the latter was languishing at Her Majesty's Pleasure - an extended holiday to the one he’d been busted on in Greece, the one he’d been enjoying with the head of the metropolitan police, a long term business associate of his.

They both got in a lot trouble over that one.

For three years our boy helped the other uncle keep all the businesses afloat.

From the moment he started working, he had his suits made on Berwick Street, he was earning 3 times as much as his peers outside of ‘the game’ and he was the pet of many whores, the focus of their denied motherly leanings.

However, he was almost beaten up by a mod gang he clipped once; his aunt’s house was raided as he hid upstairs; and he was propositioned by gay men on a regular basis. He was, quite frankly, terrified for most of the time.

So, the boy never came any more deeply entrenched in that world and by the time he was 21 he had gone east - working in a clothes shop in Ilford. He still dressed sharply and was out every night, but this time it was Ilford Palais and he was the quiet one, mostly by virtue of not many people speaking Maltese in Essex.

But someone spoke to him. He met and married an Essex girl, a hairdresser from Dagenham called Sharon no less, and after a brief stint working at Fords (of course), he trained to snip locks too.

He had his own salon in Soho for a while, lost it to bad business partner. He’s a part time senior stylist at my place now - still working in Soho and living in Essex. He still has an impish charm, now coupled with impeccable english, well, Essex english with a hint of the mediterranean about it.

He's still with Sharon and they have 2 boys. The oldest, who's at RADA, is in a showcase this week - it's a play about a real life Maltese gangster from the 60s. He told his dad that he's playing this guy, turned out his dad knew him - of course.

Today I got a haircut, today I got a story.

PS Now, can everyone try to be this interesting please? I'm listening :)