The Soho hobo – Filming of ‘Manners On The Manor’ at Ronnie Scott’s

Although I’ve been knocking around the streets of Soho most of my life, hanging on to homes and jobs by the skin of my teeth, I always felt I was slipping between the shadows, whispering my way through life, minding my own business, while quietly writing down everything I saw.  That all changed for a day last Saturday when I found myself in a room with as many old friends as new ones, all gathered in Ronnie Scott’s for the simple and beautifully shared celebration of this extraordinary area and its extraordinary heroes.

Manners On the Manor is one of the songs on my next album.  It was originally inspired by my experience of the August riots last year.  In the midst of hearing about the fracas kicking off around London and the rest of the country, I observed this community’s camaraderie as I rushed up the road to charge my phone at The Pix Bar (We also had a powercut in Soho, the second one that week).

I heard the story of several hooded youths getting baseball bats out of the boot of their car on Dean Street, but they were scared off by some locals.  You felt quite protected here, cordoned off by The Four Highways (Oxford St, Charing Cross Rd, Regent St and Shaftesbury Avenue).  After the phone had enough power to check the riots spreading in Google Maps, I couldn’t help but notice how we were all safe here in Soho as one more location after another popped up with a little ‘Riot’ symbol on the web.

Whilst interviewing Trisha Bergonzi of The New Evaristo Club for my book ‘Soho Heroes’, I couldn’t help but cling on to something she said: “Soho gets a bad reputation sometimes, but the troubles here are never home grown”. Every establishment in Soho is a theatre of sorts.  Michelle Wade puts on one show at Maison Bertaux, the staff at Bar Italia put on another.  It’s the same with every single place in the area, tailors, restaurateurs, pub landlords (and ladies), barbers, optical designers, silversmiths and even some beggars, they all raise the curtain at the start of the day before final encores at closing.

Manners On The Manor is about giving respect to those people (or performers), and giving those sometime hecklers who visit Soho a friendly reminder to enjoy themselves, but behave. Debauched Soho is necessary as well to a certain degree, and that also must be protected, but as the song says, there’s no excuse for lack of etiquette.

Anyway, many of my Soho Heroes were in the audience on Saturday and it was both thrilling and humbling to finally entertain them as they have entertained me and countless others for so many years. That was what it was about for me.

It was great to give something back to my community with the help of some of my dearest friends, a stellar cast of musicians, an incredible cast of actors, a dream team film crew, and at the helm there was my big brother Toby directing the film.

There’s a book and an album to follow, but we’ll start the ball rolling in celebrating Soho by releasing the song and the video for Manners On The Manor this summer.  If you’ve frequented Soho, it should put a smile on your face.  If you haven’t been here, maybe it’ll make you want to join the hunt!

I must thank the following people for making it such a special day (click on the names to discover more about their talents!):

Anita Coppins, Judy Mercer, Tony Micallef, Tony Saccomani, Lesley Lewis, Steenie, Bela Paztor, Colin Allen, Aldo Mariotti, Sam Shaker, Mandy Fuller, ‘Sweety’, David Newell, Greg Payne, Soho Pam, Polly Perkins, Bernie Katz, Andy Fallon, Gary Sangha, Tamara Van-Manen, Marcelo Anciano, Graziana Testa, Paul Wilkins, Suzy Korel, Phil Parker, Dean O’Toole, Frederick Sandy, Anna Coultas, Chrissie Lawson, Nick Shaw, Helen Doyle, Dave Levinson, Nej Adamson, James Pearson, Simon Cooke, Miles Ashton (Everyone at Ronnie’s!), George Muranyi, Simone Marie-Butler, Pete Radcliff, Hugo Degenhardt, Nina Kristofferson, Kate Flowerdew, Kit Mlyner, Nicki Hutchins, Karen Straw, Nim Arnold, Jake Mann, Jordan Mifsud, Cass Pennant, Samantha Joanne Penman, Fawn James, Jud Charlton, Tabitha Doyle, Katie Swain, Fran Weston, Bethany Whatling, Felicity Wright, Michael Chapman, Paliev Lonut, James Waterhouse, Nick Goulden and Toby Tobias.

With much love and admiration,

Tim Arnold, The Soho Hobo