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Sport-loving David Knibbs of His Knibbs is hanging up his scissors after 52 years

All Areas > Sport > General

Author: Roger Jackson, Posted: Tuesday, 30th July 2019, 09:00

David Knibbs David Knibbs

The year 1967 was a memorable one for so many reasons.

It was the year 100-1 outsider Foinavon won the Grand National, the year when then UK prime minister Harold Wilson applied for European Economic Community membership and the year that The Beatles released Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.

It was also the year that a then novice barber – David Knibbs – got his first job as a hairdresser.

Fast forward more than five decades and David Knibbs is one of the best known hairdressers in Cheltenham having set up his own salon His Knibbs in 1972.

His shop has been part of everyday life in Albion Street for 47 years but sadly it’s an era that is drawing to a close because the 76-year-old has decided that now is the time to hang up the scissors and enjoy retirement with his wife of 54 years Judy.

“Yes, it is sad,” admitted David, “but I can’t go on forever. I won’t know what to do with myself. I’ll go on holiday and then I’ll enjoy retirement.”

And Gloucester born and bred David, he lives near Robinswood Hill today, will have a life full of achievement to reflect on as he enjoys his well-earned free-time.

David, who played a lot of rugby as a youngster – he was also a member of North Gloucester Sub Aqua Club and played squash at the Gloucester Country Club in Matson for 30 years – hadn’t planned on becoming a hairdresser all those years ago.

He was good at art when he was at school and wanted to go to art college.

But his parents couldn’t afford for him to go so that was when he decided to train as a hairdresser and as it turned it out it was right up there with the best decisions he ever made.

“My first job as a hairdresser was working in a boutique called Anthony Dee,” recalled David.

“It was above the Chicken Inn on the corner of Albion Street and Winchcombe Street in Cheltenham. It was run by Tony David Mandall who changed his first name to Anthony, shortened his second name to Dee and called the business ‘Anthony Dee’.”

That was a clever move on Mandall’s part because there was a famous guy on the television at the time called Simon Dee, a DJ who hosted a twice-weekly chat show on the BBC.

The name ‘Dee’ was obviously well known as were many of those from the world of music who were turning up to perform at the newly opened Blue Moon club in Cheltenham some 50-plus years ago.

Blue Moon was the vibrant Cheltenham nightspot in the Swinging Sixties where the great and good gathered to sing and dance the night away.

The venue, which was located above Burtons in the High Street and later went on to become the Spa Lounge and then the Night Owl, hosted live music as well as being ‘home’ for a team of DJs on other nights.

Among the up-and-coming artists who performed there and went on to become household names were Jimi Hendrix, The Who, Rod Stewart, David Bowie, Elton John, Eric Clapton, The Small Faces, Fleetwood Mac and many, many more.

“The Blue Moon was just 100/150 yards away from where we worked,” remembered David.

“A lot of the people who went there came to us to have their hair cut, including one of the owners of the club.

“In those days they all had Mod haircuts, I was a Mod.

“They were very smart in the 60s, a lot of people had Italian cut lines. We used to go down to Vidal Sassoon’s salon in Sloane Square for inspiration.”

David has always taken his job very seriously – you don’t survive in an industry for five decades if you don’t – and used to compete in hairdressing competitions in London and all over the South West.

“I did a lot of competition haircuts, I did okay,” he said modestly.

Haircutting and hairstyles have changed greatly from those days of course.

“After the Mods, you had the long hair and then the Kevin Keegan perm,” said David, who admits he is not a fan of today’s styles.

“Very short on the sides and long on the top, I can’t think of anything worse,” he said. “Putting clippers on a kid’s head and then stopping, there’s no skill to that.”

In recent times David has been ‘an appointments only’ hairdresser and visitors to his salon will know from some of the memorabilia on show that he has a keen interest in Southampton Football Club.

“That came about through my oldest son James,” said David. “He was in the Royal Navy for 27 years and when he was based on the south coast I’d go and watch Southampton play.”

David is also a big Gloucester rugby fan and like Southampton they have had some big-name players in their ranks over the years.

Ask David who has been his most famous customer and he pauses for a moment before saying “Dave King”.

Readers of a certain age will remember King as an actor and a comedian in the 60s and 70s who is probably best remembered as the corrupt policeman Parky in the British gangster film The Long Good Friday.

“Michael Howard, the politician, came into the shop once although I didn’t cut his hair,” added David, who is also dad to Christian and Louise and the uncle of Steve Knibbs, a reporter for BBC Points West.

And while David is obviously sad at the prospect of giving up something that he has devoted a lifetime to, he is typically very grateful too.

“I want to thank all my customers who have faithfully supported me through 50 years of business,” he said. “I’ve been very lucky to have such faithful and nice customers.”

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