I was walking through Chelsea late one night when I saw a sign saying basement restaurant. I had enough money for a small snack so I went down the dingy stairs into a small room with about ten tables various people eating and drinking – candles in wine bottles on the tables – nice enough atmosphere but nothing special, until … on a stool sitting smoking a large cigar a swarthy individual started playing a guitar and wow ! could he play – and sing – he was part Greek, part Italian with a great voice and he played song after song for the next three hours – I was entranced – I mean this was terrific!
To me this was what it was all about. This guy , I tell you – he had a toupee glued to his head hadn’t had a shave for at least a couple of days and had blackened finger nails because it turned out he was a mechanic during the day – did that matter – No way – around three of the tables were great looking women and they couldn’t take their eyes off him – believe me he was magic!

It was London 1959- I had come down from Yorkshire and was finding life very hard to survive in this great Metropolis.
I had got a job washing up at Annies coffee bar in Knightsbridge – half a crown a lunchtime – not much but it allowed me to pay my rent on my bedsit and to go down to the bistro have a coffee and listen to this great guy with whom I had become friendly.
One night he said to me “ Hey Mike do you play guitar?” . “No No “I said “I only know four chords and one old song”
“ Come on “ he said “try it” and someone else shouted “Come on Mike give us a song”
Well, I gave it a go, staring at the floor as I sang because I was so nervous.
I finished – a strange thing happened – everyone burst into applause – I felt like – great – absolutely marvellous – Wow! – then , a man came over and shook my hand and gave me a shilling, someone else gave me a shilling and the owner asked me if I would like a drink maybe a spaghetti? I was so elated! Hey, this was better than washing up! The great moment had come – my great career had arrived – there I was singing for my supper I loved every minute of it.
I went down there every night for a year and during the afternoons I would practise with an old guitar that I had acquired I managed to make just enough money to scrape by and on a good night someone would buy me a meal. Even so I was always hungry and broke but I persevered and at the end of that first year in London I could confidently play several rhythms and sing songs in different languages.

In those days for a restaurant to obtain a late night licence they had to have live music, so now was the time to try my luck. I remember the first restaurant I found was a quality Chinese restaurant back of Kensington High Street but I don’t think they understood my music – not much money but I fell in love with “Hey Mikey ya wan spling loll ?“
I moved from restaurant to restaurant every night because if you could do three a night you could earn more tips – until one night I met an agent and in 1963 I was offered a job as singer in a Jersey hotel bar for thirty pounds a week – great! but four hours every night, seven nights a week non stop was really hard, however, I finished the season in one piece.
I had saved a hundred pounds, so when I got back to London I thought I would try to open my own place and one morning I saw a working café in Belsize village Hampstead and persuaded the owner to let me rent it. Two or thee pals helped me to stick hessian on the walls and build a fireplace and we had great fun putting it all together, I called it ‘The Strolling Guitar’ and luckily found a marvellous cook called ‘Mama’ she was Russian but spoke mostly French – no one really understood her and she just did her own thing – one day she arrived with a pile of tablecloths that we discovered later had belonged to a Bistro that she once owned in Paris she spread them out for us with the immortal words “Voilla” She was quite something and would arrive every day by taxi with food bought from the North End Road market in Fulham and her cooking and my music brought rave reviews, people would queue on the stairs or sit by the log fire clutching their booze waiting for a table.
A lot of Stars lived close by and we fed most of them – I remember well Rita Moreno and the two Patricks – McGoohan and McNee all of them most charming as indeed was the famous Keith Michel he of Henry the eighth fame and it was here that I was offered the film title song to ’High Wind In Jamaica’ and was signed for EMI by agents that were dining there.
The atmosphere was terrific, but it was difficult to make a profit without a drinks licence which was impossible to get for legal problems so sadly after a year I chose to close it. At the same time the record with EMI didn’t sell, I think it was the only Burt Bacharak song in the UK that didn’t, Oh well! so they let me go.
I was a bit devastated and retired to Chelsea to lick my wounds and returned to the old routine of working the restaurants and yet again singing for my supper at least I was becoming well known in Chelsea, people used to rap on the tables chanting for me to sing when I arrived but even so life was still a struggle mind you, I wouldn’t have had it any other way.

One day I got a job singing in a Hotel basement restaurant called Chez Cleo near Gloucester Road run by a wonderful woman called Bertha Meyer who was very kind to me – and every night I used to go there before the restaurant opened and eat with her and her husband – it was there that I discovered gourmet French food and fine wines.
THEN tragedy struck for my wonderful lady got cancer and died .
I left with sadness as the business faltered to play various other restaurants but then I was asked by the hotel owners of Chez Cleo to return and sing again on New Years Eve 1968.
During January 1969 with all my experience I helped the hotel run the restaurant,following which I was asked if I would like to rent it with all the stock including wines and spirits thrown in for me to repay over a period of time – what a great opportunity for me and I grabbed it with both hands, changed it from Restaurant to Bistro with a simpler menu and easier pricing – put in a small dance floor, found a great French Chef and all the countless friends and clients that I had known over the years came – you couldn’t get a table at weekends without booking!
It was there that I met Cilla Black with Mu Young the TV producer who gave me some TV spots. As they dined that night, I told Cilla her fortune that she would have a boy [she did] and some nights every other table was occupied by a Star or Celebrity – we had great publicity and at that time I was discovered by the famous Deke Arlon of April Music and given a contract to record for CBS.
Great French food was produced by my chefs and the ambience was terrific, some nights when I sang you could have heard a pin drop – truly it was a wonderful time.

I thought it was the culmination of my career in owning the famous restaurant I used to sing in, but little did I know that it was only the start of my adventures.

I remember Franco my Head Waiter coming to me one busy night and saying “ Mike there’s a guy at the bar who is asking if we have a job for a singer”
I glanced over to see a tall guy in a threadbare suit with an old guitar in his hand standing forlornly by the bar – I looked at Franco, smiled and said
“ Tell him he’s welcome to come in and sing for his supper”