Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
The scandal & shock photos
HE was a working-class lad who graduated from stealing carpets to becoming the King of Clubs – making and losing fortunes with his lap dancing venues.
To many, Peter Stringfellow –who has died of lung cancer aged 77 – led and promoted a scandalous lifestyle of boozy decadence funded by men who should know better.
With his unapologetic mullet hairstyle, he adored leopard print and thongs (for himself as well as his dancers) and would shower his friends with champagne.
An admirer of Margaret Thatcher and the Tories, he was an emblem of everything that was unacceptable to millions thrown on the dole in the 80s.
He claimed to have slept with 2,000 women, was good friends with Princess Diana and partied with everyone from Sir Tom Jones to Professor Stephen Hawking.
But the party ended early yesterday when he died after a second secret battle with cancer.
TRIBUTES
Few had any idea how ill he had been. But the tributes flowed.
Sir Rod Stewart tweeted: “So long pioneer Pete. Thanks for the good times.”
Tony Blackburn added: “He was a wonderful person to be with. He was always full of fun.”
And Boy George said: “R.I.P. Peter Stringfellow. A big part of our lives and one of Sheffield’s finest. What a character. He introduced me and my mum to Princess Diana.”
Born in 1940 during the Sheffield Blitz, he was the eldest of four boys. With his steelworker father James in the Royal Scots Greys during the Second World War, he was raised by mum Elsie.
He left school at 15, travelled the world in the Merchant Navy for two years at 16, then took sales jobs.
But at 21, and already married to Norma, he was caught trying to sell carpets stolen from his boss.
The magistrate made an example of Peter, who served two weeks in Armley Prison, Leeds and six weeks in open prison. He emerged a changed man – vowing to do everything by the book. Struggling to get a job, Peter promoted bands in Sheffield. His big break came in 1963 when he booked the Beatles at the city’s Azena Ballroom. He paid them £85, hired them from a pay phone near his office, and interrupted the show with a telegram congratulating them on new album Please Please Me. Success
followed success across the North. And then, in 1980, he opened the club that made him a household name.
Stringfellows in London’s Covent Garden featured topless girls, table dancing, and lavish late night entertainment – including turns by Prince, Stevie Wonder, and Marvin Gaye.
But he attracted protests from campaigners against sexual exploitation and sexism. He had managed to get around strict nudity laws by making it a private-members club.
He later won the first licence from Westminster Council for a completely nude lap dancing club in 2006.
Peter said: “I have all the toys. A club full of beautiful girls, I eat and drink what the hell I want, go where the hell I want, when the hell I want.”
He opened clubs in Paris, New York, Miami and Beverly Hills but was hit by a US recession and declared bankrupt in 1992. But he bounced back.
Peter’s love life was equally chequered. After marrying Norma in 1960, he had a daughter Karen, but they parted five years later. He wed second wife Coral in 1967 and they had a son, Scott but divorced 17 years later.
He dated pop star Frizzby Fox and actress Helen Benoist but in 2009, aged 68, settled down with former Royal Ballet dancer Bella Wright, 41
ON SUCCESS AND FAME
years his junior. They had two children Rosabella, four, and Angelo, two.
His love affair with the Tories only ended when, as a firm remainer, he left them recently over Brexit.
He had first beaten lung cancer in 2008 but the lifelong non-smoker ordered a total press blackout because he didn’t want any sympathy.
“There were moments of humour, though,” he said. “I’d shuffle around the ward with a catheter, a blood bag and a drip and I’d say to Bella, ‘I don’t want people to recognise me’.
“She’d say ‘It might help if you didn’t wear a leopard skin dressing gown’.”
His publicist Matt Glass said: “The last time we saw Peter, he’d invited us to dine with him at Stringfellows. He was still cackling with laughter and had the energy of a teenager.”