Who Am I & What Am I Doing Here?
A Brief History of Soo Catwoman by Soo Catwoman


Born in 1954 in West London I was the 10th child in a male-dominated family. As I was a girl among so many boys and due to the inequality of the sexes at that time life was not always easy – but was often interesting. In my early twenties I was invited to a club in London’s West End where I met a bunch of people, many of whom would go on to change the world in some way. Below is an account of my first night at Louise’s Club...

“When I arrived in Poland Street, Central London, I looked for a sign for ‘Louise’s’ but couldn’t find one. Most of the clubs I had been to had signs outside, or at least some indication that they were in fact clubs. Poland Street was very quiet that night and I barely saw a soul wandering through. It was lucky that I had the full address, including the door number, or I don’t think I would have found the place at all. I remember wondering if I had been led on some wild goose chase as I could hear no music and there was no sign of life in the street outside. I found the street number and decided to try knocking on the door, even though I had my doubts that anyone was there. It had been quite a trek into town, and it couldn’t hurt to double check before heading off somewhere else. For a while nothing happened, a couple walked by giggling and holding each other very tightly, my eyes followed them down the road until they were out of sight. I was about to walk away and head back home when I heard movement behind the door. Soon after, a small shutter opened and I could see there was a man inside looking me up and down. I asked for Sharon, as she’d told me to and my ‘password’ seemed to literally open doors. The door opened, although initially not enough to let me inside. The doorman looked off to the right for a split second as if waiting for a sign from someone else. He was burly and strong looking but not a regular bouncer type at all. Before I knew it he held the door open fully and motioned for me to enter.

Once inside the door I saw a handful of people in the lobby standing around chatting to each other, some smiled and some just ignored me completely. I noticed an elderly lady seated very upright and it occurred to me that there was something very classy about her. She was well dressed, graceful and seemed controlled but with a personable and friendly demeanour. She had nodded to me, closing her eyes briefly, which I took to be a welcome so I nodded and smiled back to her.

Sharon, the girl who had invited me there was suddenly standing in front of me, looking pleased that I had accepted the invitation and she asked me what I would like to drink. We went to the bar and she wanted to know if I liked the place, which I said I did. Sharon explained to me that the woman sitting by the door was ‘Madam Louise’, apparently she had once been a real madam and it was her club. I found out that she would not allow entrance to anyone unless she thought they looked interesting, different or unusual. For once, I had stumbled upon a place that not only did not ban ‘freaks’ - but that actively encouraged them. Now it made sense why Sharon might think I’d fit in there, although of course appearances don’t always tell the whole story about a person.

Louise’s was apparently a lesbian club, although there were quite a few men there too. As we went into the next room I could see a well-stocked bar on the right of a small room that resembled a cafe. There were chairs and tables and each of the tables had a clean linen tablecloth with an ashtray on it, very civilised and a nice touch I thought. Most of the chairs were populated but the place wasn’t overcrowded, it had a very relaxed feel to it and a good atmosphere. When I looked around, it seemed that everyone was happy and relaxed and it was quite different from some of the places I was used to going, more intimate and conversation friendly, at least upstairs.

After a while, I went to explore where the music was coming from and found a very narrow staircase going down to the area below ground level. As I reached the bottom of the stairs, I could see that there were at least two small recessed areas. Both were in use, one on each side of the stairs and they contained tables with seating around them. The DJ booth had a glass front and was up ahead to my left as I stood at the bottom of the stairs. In front of it was a small square wooden dance floor that appeared to be bouncing up and down from the half a dozen or so people dancing on it. The music was Bowie, Lou Reed, and such like, all the stuff I listened to at home and it was nice to hear it so loud and through such good speakers. One of the tunes they would play often during my future visits was ‘Walk on the Wild Side’ by Lou Reed, which seemed to sum up the place perfectly.

Sharon introduced me to a few people, including the DJ who was a beautiful girl with flame red hair, porcelain skin and a big smile. I stood at the side of the dance floor for some time, happily listening to the loud music and leaning against the wall for fear of toppling over when people were dancing. The dance floor was bouncing so much it resembled a trampoline at times.

At the end of the evening when I put my coat on and was about to walk upstairs I heard someone say ‘Oi! Can you play bass?’ I turned around and saw two young men around my own age standing there grinning at me. The taller one was talking to me and was standing a few steps in front of the other; he had black spiky hair and towered over my 5 foot 1 inch frame. I politely said I was sorry but that I couldn’t play bass and he then said ‘That doesn’t matter; you look good, do you wanna be in a band?’ I was lost for words and had never been asked such a thing before, although I wasn’t sure that I did want to be in a band and just said what I was thinking, which was ‘I don’t know’. He seemed unperturbed by my reply and added ‘We’re called The Flowers of Romance’ almost as if the name might change my mind. I smiled at him and started walking up the stairs and he called after me ‘Phone me at ‘Sex’ - or I’ll push your face in’. I laughed, especially since it was obvious that it had not been something said seriously but more in a playful, light-hearted way. I really liked this guy – his cheek – his humour – everything about him. He called after me again when I was halfway up the stairs ‘I’m Sid Vicious and he’s Johnny Rotten’ he said pointing to his friend. I smiled and said ‘I’m pleased to meet you both’ and then left.

On the way home I was puzzling what ‘Sex’ was, with regard to the conversation with Sid as I honestly had no idea what he was talking about. I asked Marco Pirroni who explained to me that it was a shop in the Kings Road. I had been to the Kings Road once or twice with Marco when he went shopping but avoided actually going in the shops he went into – preferring instead to wander around Beaufort Market or look at window displays. Anyone who knows will tell you that it isn’t fun to tease yourself by looking at things you can’t afford, let alone watching someone for whom money is no object buying whatever they want. Not that I was green-eyed jealous but I just didn’t like to put myself in that position. Who wants to be reminded that they don’t have the money to spend in the first place? At least I’d found out what Sid was talking about and that he worked in the shop on Saturdays.

I have said elsewhere, I hadn’t known any of the people who went to Louise’s club before going there that night. I knew Marco, who to my knowledge also went there for the first time when he accompanied me to Louise’s that night. I had known him for about a year, after meeting him at a Soul club in West London - the area where we both lived. The world didn’t know any of our names at that point and to borrow a phrase from Monte Cazazza we were all ‘very widely unknown’.

I was glad I went to the club that night as meeting Sid and John had an effect on me. I knew a couple of other women who expressed themselves through their appearance and even a few gay men who were very creative with their dress sense but at that point in time it was nigh-on impossible anywhere I went to see straight men looking so different. It was as if the two of them had been put into a melting pot of clothes from decades past and yet to come and I totally approved of the result. Sid was the first man I’d ever seen with such unkempt hair and yet it only added to his character and style. He wore a Teddy boy type drape jacket and tight Levi jeans with brothel creeper shoes with a thick crepe sole. He would have looked quite smart apart from the dirty ripped t-shirt he wore that was full of moth holes. John was equally as unique with his red jumper that had split by the seam on one side and was held together with safety pins over a pair of baggy cotton trousers, which had a vertical silver or gold stripe running through the fabric. The minute I set eyes on them I felt like I’d found my peers, something moved inside me and I was very aware that this meeting was important, perhaps fated. Just as a chance meeting with Sharon in Kings Road had led to the invitation to Louise’s, which seemed like a great club - meeting Sid and John was the icing on the cake. “

© Soo Catwoman / March 2010