How long is a dead piece of String?

[Gerontophile]

Peter Stringfellow dead.

[ian.64]

A recognisable piece of 80's Tory culture at play. Self-made-man, nightclub owner, familiar face on TV and newspapers. RIP and all that, but I never, never liked him.

[beak]

One of those people most famous (in my limited frame of reference, at least) for being made to look a cunt by Chris Morris.

[Stumpy Pepys]

Sends me back to the days of Frank McAvennie, Chris Quinten and a bevy of Page 3 stunnas.

[wittoner]

My first thought was the old joke about it taking three days for them to get the coffin lid down.

[Felicity, I guess so]

Well since wittoner has lowered the tone (if not the lid)- I did crack to Ms Felicity when she told me the news this morning- 'was it the cocaine or the viagra that did for him?'

[johnr]

As an 18 year old, I was refused entry to his club; when asked by the bouncer 'where you from?', I said 'Canning Town' - and that was that.

[MsD]

If I'd participated in the dead pool thing, I'd have had him.

I've got in free to his clubs back in the 80s, female friends and I used to go in and pre-drink before going somewhere more interesting.

He was a big contributor to the pretty girls / ropey men thing; women being judged on their appearance within very narrow parameters (no "fat girls" allowed in his clubs), while all that matters in a man is his wallet. Earn enough money, and you too can have a curvy stunner on your arm. He didn't invent that, of course, but he helped bolster and perpetuate it way beyond its day.

[Jah Womble]

I'm assuming that what he was about wasn't as widely noted in the eighties.

I remember the 'fat girls' furore kicking off some time in the early nineties, when he went on t' TV to try to defend his position after a rather public exposure of this discrimination. (It was all very embarrassing, with PS thinking that offering some fairly affronted women a free night in his club would appease the dismal treatment they'd received when previously attending...)

[Stumpy Pepys]

I can't pretend I have huge wells of sympathy for anyone who failed to get into Stringfellows.

[Jah Womble]

It's more the body-fascism aspect with which I take issue.

[Stumpy Pepys]

It's more the body-fascism aspect with which I take issue.

Fine, but that applies to a lot of nightclubs. I'm sure I'd have failed to get into the Blitz Club or Studio 54. Christ, I've failed to get into Ritzy's in Bolton.

[Jah Womble]

I'm sure that's true, but, because somebody objected to this kind of b/s, it became a national story. And made Stringfellow look a tw*t.

So, more power to her, say I.

[Stumpy Pepys]

The Blitz Club is venerated for its door policy that excluded people who "didn't look right", while Stringfellows gets slagged off.

You talk as if nightclubs are providing a public service.

[MsD]

It wasn't body fascism at the Blitz, I know as went to both there and Stringfellows.

It was about keeping it to people who fitted in, and that wasn't based on narrow ideas of beauty, or class, it was more about people who didn't look like they'd ridicule or beat up people who dressed "weird", and it was a small club, so it was right to keep it to people on the same wavelength. I'm still friends with people who I met at the Blitz so it worked, really.

[Satchmo Distel]

I could imagine Bryan Ferry being a regular.

[Walt Flanagans Dog]

I could imagine Bryan Ferry being a regular.

The Blitz or Stringfellows? Or both?

[MsD]

The Blitz was a young crowd, it was run by 19-22 year olds who became famous later but weren't at the time, and there wasn't much money sloshing around. Mick Jagger was turned away. David Bowie was allowed in, but then his records were played and he was a huge influence on everyone who went.

Taboo was the one that was really hard to get into, where Mark Vaultier would be an arse on the door, and I didn't even bother with that one. I didn't want to queue and be stressed about whether I passed the grade or not. Blitz was a done deal for me as I'd known those people since we were 16 or so. I'm going to a night run by two of the Blitz DJs tomorrow night, and they ask everyone to dress up (in white, tomorrow, which will be a challenge for me), but most of us welcome the chance, as we're nearing 60 and it's nice to glam up and dance around.

[Benjm]

Christ, I've failed to get into Ritzy's in Bolton.

Didn't James Hunt get turned away from Seventh Heaven in Doncaster? It's all part and parcel of the international playboy lifestyle.

[Vicarious Thrillseeker]

I couldn't see Ferry at Stringfellows.

Stringfellow looked too much like Saville for my liking.

[Benjm]

An ex-girlfriend of one of my brothers went on a couple of dates with Bryan Ferry. When he was going to call, his PA would phone ahead to alert her and say keep the line free for the next half hour. Beneath all good veneers of lovelorn romanticism, there is a solid foundation of organisation and diary management.

[pebblethefish]

Beneath all good veneers of lovelorn romanticism, there is a solid foundation of organisation and diary management.

Hmm, don't remember those lyrics. Must have been from the difficult second album.

[Benjm]

Ha, I think that'd test even James Dean Bradfield's peerless crowbarring skills.

[MsD]

That's very In Every Dream Home a Heartache

[elguapo4]

Irish news showed footage of the time he opened a Stringfellows in Dublin,there was objections from "local residents " even though at the time the nearest residents were about half a mile away,the objectors were the same crowd putting up Vote No posters last month,anyway his venture only lasted 6 months mainly because of the location,Parnell st is at the wrong end of O'Connell street,miles from the likes of Temple bar where he'd expect his clientele to come from,he got badly burned with that one