That time I interviewed Peter Stringfellow

2-minute read • 327 words

Soho. December. 3pm. I ring the buzzer at the side entrance to Angels and get ushered inside.

As a feature writer for a Sheffield magazine, I’ve been dispatched to London to talk to one of the Steel City’s most famous sons. I’m in, now, an unlit neon sign in the window beside me.

It’s weird, walking through a strip club on a winter’s afternoon. Under the artificial glare of overhead lights, the velvet curtains and polished chrome poles make the place look almost like a textile shop.

At the back of the main floor, behind double doors and along the hallway, there’s a workspace. In the middle of it, partitioned off from the rest, a glass-walled office.

The bottom half of the glass wall is frosted. And there, right there, just above the frosting, you can see it, peeking over the top even though its owner’s face is obscured beneath:

A silver-grey mullet haircut.

Peter Stringfellow was 74 years old when I interviewed him back in 2015. Even after a lifetime in the spotlight, the so-called “King of Clubs” hadn’t changed his most recognisable feature, the one people poked fun at him for.

There’s a lesson in that.

As a business, to be successful, you need something recognisable:

🙋🏻 The way you present yourself.

🙋🏻 The things you say and how you say them.

🙋🏻 The beliefs you hold and why they matter to you.

🙋🏻 Or a combination of some or all of these characteristics.

But recognition doesn’t happen overnight. The key is to be CONSISTENTLY recognisable.

So find the thing or things that work for you. Stick with them. And reap the rewards.

Oh, and here’s a funny thing about Peter Stringfellow and his much-mocked hairdo…

Right now, if you read GQ or look at the students shopping on your local high street on a Saturday afternoon, you’ll realise something:

The mullet is back in fashion.

Maybe Sheffield’s famous son got the last laugh after all.

Until next time,

Adam