Peter James Stringfellow is a British businessman and nightclub owner.
Early life Peter was born in the City General
Hospital, Sheffield, South Yorkshire, on 17 October 1940, to Elsie Bowers and
James William Stringfellow, a steelworker who served in the Royal
Scots Greys during World War II. He is the eldest of four, his three brothers
are Geoffrey, Paul and Terry. The family lived in Andover Street,
Pitsmoor, Sheffield until 1948 when they had moved to Marshall Street, Pitsmoor.
Peter attended Pye Bank Church of England Primary School. Peter failed his
11 plus and so attended Burngreave Secondary School for one year. He then
passed the exam for Sheffield Central Technical College and he left three
years later at the age of 15 with a 4th grade Technical Diploma.
Career When Stringfellow was only 13 years old,
he worked at the Wicker Cinema but his first job after leaving school was as an
assistant tie salesman at Austen Reed for three weeks. This was followed by
half a day as an apprentice car mechanic. He then spent three days as a
trainee Barber before finding work as a trainee projectionist at the Regal
Cinema in Sheffield. Under pressure from his father, he left the cinema and went
to join his father an apprentice turner. He stayed six weeks then enrolled as an
apprentice in the Merchant Navy, at the age of 16, as a trainee waiter, and a
kitchen hand galley boy. His sailing career lasted two years and took him to
Philadelphia and New York where he celebrated his 17th Birthday. From there
he visited various Caribbean Islands and finally Venezuela, returning to Tilbury
Docks, England. He decided the sea life was not for him and he returned to
Sheffield. On his return to Sheffield, he worked
briefly, at least one matinee show, as a curtain boy at the Lyceum Cinema. He
finally settled as a van boy for Gillott's Bakery where he met his first
wife, Norma Williams. After passing his driving test at 18, he had several jobs.
He worked successively as a travelling photographer, in Sutherland’s potted
meat factory, and at Nova Sewing Machines and Dobson’s Furnishings
Company. At Dobson’s he was accused of selling stolen carpets and sentenced to
two weeks in Armley Prison, Leeds in June 1962 and 6 weeks in Ford Open
Prison. After his brief incarceration, he was
unable to find regular work and this led to the beginning of his career as a
nightclub owner. = Nightclub management=
In 1962, Stringfellow rented St. Aidan's Church Hall in Sheffield every Friday
night, also known as The Black Cat Club. Several bands played in the club like
the Pursuers, Dave Berry and the Cruisers, Johnny Tempest and the
Cadillacs and from London, Screaming Lord Sutch, the Savages, Count Lindsay,
and Gene Vincent. His fortunes changed when The Beatles played on 2 April 1963.
The demand for concert tickets was so great that Stringfellow was forced to
rent a larger venue, the Azena Ballroom in Sheffield. On that night he sent The
Beatles a telegram congratulating them on their first album, Please Please Me.
In 1963 Stringfellow began another club, The Blue Moon, at St. Johns Church Hall
in Sheffield. The opening act was the Marauders who had a record in the
British top 30. More bands followed such as the Kinks. Other bands that played at
the club and who later became famous were Freddie Starr and the Midnighters,
the Searchers, Shane Fenton and the Fentones, Wayne Fontana, Long John
Baldry and the Hoochie Coochie Men, Rod Stewart and the Soul Agents, Vance
Arnold & The Avengers, Dean Marshall and the Deputies. Also in the same year,
Stringfellow's Theatre promotions at Sheffield City Hall were a big success.
They featured acts such as the Rolling Stones, the Big Three, Fleetwood Mac and
the Nice. In 1964, Stringfellow opened another
club called King Mojo Club in Sheffield. During its three and half years of
business, many bands played at the club, including the Who, Pink Floyd, Long John
Baldry, Rod Stewart, Elton John, the Mersey Beats and the Hurd, the Spencer
Davis Group, the Pretty Things, Manfred Mann, the Small Faces, Jimi Hendrix.
Other American acts who played in the club, included the first Tamla/Motown
acts to play in the UK, Ben E. King, Sonny Boy Williamson, Tina Turner, and
Little Stevie Wonder. Peter Stringfellow is 1 of 16 Nightclub
and Bar Professionals to be listed in the Nightclub Hall of Fame
In 1968, he went into another business with Down Broadway. It was the first
proper premises for clubbing. It was just below the Stylo's shoe shop in the
centre of Sheffield.On the 4th November 1968 Jethro Tull was the first act to
play at Down Broadway and John Peel was booked to play as the Star DJ. Super
group Yes also played at the club. In 1969, Stringfellow acquired the first
alcohol licence for another of his clubs called the Penthouse – Sheffield. The
club only lasted for a year due to trouble with overcrowding and objections
from the local police. This prompted him to sell it and move to Leeds.
In 1970, he opened Cinderella's in Leeds. This was Stringfellow's first
super club, mixing recorded music and live bands. In 1972, Stringfellow
acquired a space next door to Cinderella to create another club called
Rockafella's. This was the first and last of his super cabaret and super
clubs. Comedy duo Mike & Bernie Winters and magician Paul Daniels performed at
the club. The two clubs were combined in 1973 and given the name Cinderella
Rockafella's, and Stringfellow dropped the cabaret and put in full-time DJs
such as Chris Crossley and Peter Tyler. He and his brother, Paul Stringfellow,
also served as DJs. In 1976, Stringfellow and his then
business partner and brother, Geoffrey Stringfellow, sold the Cinderella
Rockafella's to Mecca and moved to Manchester, where they opened The
Millionaire Club. There were no live bands in The Millionaire Club. However,
the Stringfellows hired named DJs including Peter Tyler and Brett
Sinclair. In 1980, he sold The Millionaire Club to
Granada Ltd. and he then moved with his whole family to London. There he opened
Stringfellows Covent Garden. It was an immediate success as a night club in
London, where celebrities, international film stars, TV personalities, rock
stars, models, paparazzi photographers, and national newspaper journalists
partied for the next 15 years. In 1983, Stringfellow took over the old cabaret
club, Talk of the Town, which had been closed down. He re-opened it with its
original name Hippodrome and it became the "World's Greatest Disco". The
Hippodrome introduced its first gay night at the venue under his management.
In 1986, he opened Stringfellows – New York which was successfully frequented
by New York celebrities, rock stars, and other personalities. In 1989, he opened
Stringfellows – Miami, and this was followed by Stringfellows – Los Angeles
in 1990. He had huge financial losses due to the American economic recession
in 1989. In 1996, Stringfellow's autobiography,
King of Clubs, was published by Little Brown. It was serialised in the
Baltimore Sun newspaper and became a best-seller.
In 2005, political blogger Guido Fawkes launched an online campaign for
Stringfellow to be knighted. Adult clubbing
In 1990, Stringfellow introduced table dancing to his New York Club with a
licensing deal with Michael J. Peters. This became Stringfellows Presents Pure
Platinum. In 1996, Cabaret of Angels, a table-side
dancing club was opened for three nights a week at Stringfellows Covent Garden.
In 2006, Stringfellow opened his second adult entertainment club called Angels
in Wardour Street, Soho. He was the first club owner to gain a fully nude
licence from Westminster City Council. In 2009, he criticised the Policing and
Crime Act 2009, saying the licensing changes with regards to lap dancing were
"unnecessary” and he would be appealing to the European Court of Human Rights if
his current licences were not renewed. In 2012, he was granted the necessary
SEV Licence for Stringfellows Covent Garden and Angels Soho. and has been
able to successfully market Angels as providing rooms for the entertainment
"in privacy" of young women in lingerie. Television
Stringfellow first appeared on television as a warm-up act on Ready
Steady Go! in 1964. He has contributed to numerous programs, both radio and
television, over the last 50 years. He appeared on the celebrity edition of
Come Dine with Me, with the first broadcast on 17 September 2008. He also
appeared in season 15 episode 1 of Top Gear, which was broadcast on 27 June
2010, where he had to help Jeremy Clarkson when he was stuck in a rolled
over Reliant Robin. He has declined offers to appear on I'm
a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here!, Celebrity Big Brother and Strictly Come
Dancing. Personal life
Stringfellow, at age 68, married 27-year-old former Royal Ballet dancer,
Bella Wright, in Barbados on Valentine’s Day 2009. He was previously married to
Norma Williams in 1960. They had a daughter, Karen who was born in the
1960s, now a successful restaurant owner in Florida. After they divorced, he
married Coral Wright in 1967. They have one son together, Scott, a racecar
driver. They divorced in 1984. He also had a 12-year relationship with Frisbee
Fox, which ended in 1996, and then with model and actress Helen Benoist, with
whom he lived until 1998. In early 2013, he and his wife announced she was
pregnant with their first child together. On 1 August 2013, it was
announced that Stringfellow's wife had given birth to a daughter, Rosabella.
The couple's second child is due in September 2015. He lives in London and
in Mallorca, where he kept a boat for many years.
He is a supporter of the Conservatives and UKIP.
References External links
Angels Club – Soho Official Website Stringfellows Covent Garden Official
Website