Johny Cairo

liverpool les · Mar 25th, 2008, 04:49

Hi I have posted a reply on the post you sent to me photo's wanted. will copy and paste it here.

I might have afew here, from when him and luke stayed at mine for a few weeks, think jimmy fenton has got a few, brenda from Birmingham might have some also, will see what I can dig out for you, and yeah i was a good friend of your grandads, I did see him not long before he died, Is luke your mum, or are you related through franswar or stevie?

If you need franswars or lukes adress I can get them for you no probs, will just take me a phone call to birmingham

I havent been on the computer or india mikes for afew weeks, I had a bad car crash a week yesterday, in the early hours of Sunday morning, i was traveling in my van to the petrol station and some lunatic ran a red traffic light doing 60mph and crashed into me, very luckly I saw him and managed to put the breaks on, otherwise he would have hit the drivers door and that would have killed me at the speed he was going, instead with me breaking he hit the front of the van and took it off, level with the front wheels, really shook me up, bad whiplash and a few minor injuries, I was more worried about fletch, (my bloodhound) being loose in the back of the van, he was ok but it shook him up too, I'm feeling much better now though, so will start reading the posts again. best wishes Les

liverpool les · Mar 25th, 2008, 05:36

just posted a photo in "Recent Photos - People and Faces" under cairo kid, johnie and luke

machadinha · Mar 25th, 2008, 06:59

Quote:

Originally Posted by liverpool les

just posted a photo in "Recent Photos - People and Faces" under cairo kid, johnie and luke

Nice 1, here's the link to it: http://www.indiamike.com/photopost/s...0/limit/recent

And get well, Les

Kid Cairo · Mar 25th, 2008, 17:54

Hi Les, Thanks for the reply. I am the mother of the Kid (ALex)and am really keen to find out more about Johnny especially photos from his early days in Birmingham and Goa. Alex's father Paul was brought up by his mother in Birmingham and he did not meet his father from 6 years old until he was 26. His mother still won't discuss him and has destroyed all photos. You mention Brenda from Birmingham and I would like to try and contact her. The reason I am so keen to see photos is that I have been told that Paul is the image of his father and I've often wondered why his mother has difficulty relating to him. The other reason is my son has some of his genes so I'm keen to know a bit more about him as I understand he was physically quite a strong character with lots of charisma.

liverpool les · Mar 26th, 2008, 02:47

I met Johnie in Goa in November 1974, Johnie had recently lost his wife Stevie, whilst she was giving birth to Luke, Stevie,s two boys were there too, when I arrived, they stayed with john for a while in Goa before returning back to America to there father, I had travelled out to India to see an uncle of mine.

Allan my uncle had known john for years in Birmingham (when john used to do a strong mans act in the bullring (Bham city centre) he used to lie down on a bed of nails whilst having a concrete block smashed to bits on his chest with a sledge hammer, or rip phone books in half, do fire eating, put a rope looped round his neck whilst his hands were handcuffed behind his back and get men out of the crowds of people who gathered round to pull on the rope like a tug of war whilst he held them off just using his neck muscles)

John and Allan also worked the night clubs in Birmingham together, for Don Carlos who owned the “The Elbow room” night club, who was a good friend of theres, Don was also out in Goa, when I was out there.

They then got into the Gangster scene and moved to the London clubs, doing protection, that’s when the Krays were running things, that’s before they got into the hippy scene.

They moving to Spain were they had a beach bar for a while with Don, (Don had family and property out in Spain), they used to travel backwards and forwards to Morocco. Things started to change in Spain, so they then decided to go out to India that would have been round about 67/68.

So getting back to when I arrived on the scene, because of the family connection, I became really good friends with John, we travelled a lot out there together, Pakistan Afghanistan, I was only 17 when I first arrived out there, so John took me under his wing a bit, taught me how to use a whip and do the fire blowing, amongst other things.

whilst on a trip to France John met Franswar, she came out to India to look after Luke originally, I am still in contact with a lot of the Birmingham crew, so can get hold of numbers for Franswar or Luke, they would be the best people for photo's, they were recently in London.

I will be able to get some photo’s off Brenda and a few other people from B,ham, I will also ask my mum to dig out some of the photo’s she’s got of John and Allan from Spain in the 60’s.

I ended up staying in the Far East for 8 years before returning to England. I then spent a lot of time living in Birmingham, with Don and a few of the others who were out in India.

ps i think I may have met paul, in birmingham with johnie one time many years ago.

Kid Cairo · Mar 27th, 2008, 03:09

Hi Les
Sorry to hear about your car crash, I hope you are on the mend.
Thank you for this enlightening info about Johnny in his early days. I think your uncle Allan must have know Paul's mum Maureen as she went out to Spain for a few months with Paul when he was quite young. It would be great if you could get some photos especially prior to Goa.Johnny sounded like a very unusual character with a great deal of physical strength and energy. He obviously had quite an impact on you. We are going to meet Luke in May and that should be quite an interesting trip for all of us. Thanks again for taking the time to share your experience and look forward to seeing some more photos. Sylvie

liverpool les · Mar 27th, 2008, 04:51

Hi just got off the phone, spoke to a good friend of mine, Jean in Birmingham, (Jean was married to Barry, "barry died last year sadly") they were at Johnie's funeral, Jean said she spoke to paul for some time at the funeral, Jean knew pauls mum, Maureen said she went to spain with johnie.(if so thats a good reason why she didnt speak about him much), but will send you details of that if you private message me.

Do you still live in Plymouth? if so Jean has still got pauls phone number, said she would call and speak to paul if thats any good, she's got a few photo's of john, does paul know preba?

best wishes. Les

SitaParityaga · Mar 27th, 2008, 08:12

Sorry to break in for a moment.....

Such a sweet story!

But I'm starting to lose track of who is looking for who, who knows who, who's the mom of who

Love it!

I started to pen a diagram of who's who, because the story is so damn cool! And I got a little lost!

And yeah, I'm bumping up the thread because I like the story..........AND I want to hear the end of the story as well

PS: Les ..GET WELL SOON!

liverpool les · Mar 27th, 2008, 15:42

Maureen met Johnie (Johnie Cairo) had child to him = Paul
Paul met Sylvie they had a child = Cairo kid Alex

Les was friend of Johnie

Kid Cairo · Mar 27th, 2008, 23:43

Hi Les
Thanks again for all this info. Would love to know the story about Spain but haven't had enough posts for this facility. We are in Plymouth but I doubt whether Jean has Paul's current phone number. Paul has been in touch with Preba but not recently. He says he will reply to you himself as soon as he can.
Sylvie

liverpool les · Mar 28th, 2008, 01:41

may be one of the moderators would be kind enough to send you a private message for me giving my other email address, failing that think you need 10 posts. or you could post another email address on here, where I can contact you.

liverpool les · Mar 28th, 2008, 05:30

You should receive message with my other email address attached,thanks to nick.
When you do, just send me a message to it and i will get in touch.les

kristinm · Mar 28th, 2008, 05:33

I love these stories too - combine this with Dad Hunter's thread and you have the makings of a great book or film... hmmmm best shut up now before someone else does it!

Kid Cairo · Mar 28th, 2008, 22:25

Paul here. I think its time I wrote my story. Been thinking about what to say for a few days now or even whether to say anything. I think the "kid" and the rest of the Cairo's have a right to know about their roots. Who your parents / grandparents are and your ancestry is important to everyone. So maybe the pages of this forum are a good place to start.
I was born in Birmingham in 1959 to a wild father and a young and naive mother. I was of course an "accident" but somehow my mother persuaded my father to marry her. The marriage lasted 6 years, though he wasnt around much during these years. His comings and goings did neither my mother or me any good at all. I guess she had her heart broken by it all and at the end of it she destroyed all the photos and never talked about him again. I was left in limbo, with a bunch of fading memories and a huge sense of loss. It hurts now just thinking about it.
Time moves on and my mother remarried a few years later and left all this behind her. She had another child and moved on refusing to look back. I can understand that, ..if you have been hurt you have to pick yourself up and move on. I still remembered too much of Johnny and it played on my mind all through the rest of my childhood. I rebelled, left home as soon as I could and tried to sort things out in my head. I wasnt sure if he was dead or alive, my uncle had told me he was almost certainly dead, but after finally confronting my mother about him she came up with some information. Someone had seen him in a bar in Goa.
I wrote to the bar and after a couple of months got a letter back.. Im going to dig it out and have another read soon, but I want to get this posted. He told me I had a sister, and that he had brought her up since her mother died in childbirth. She was about 9 then and drew a little picture of the 3 of us holding hands saying how much she couldnt wait to meet me. He said he was off to make some money and he would write as soon as things worked out.
A few months went by with no contact, so I made plans to go to India and find out what was going on.
Kind of wierd. Imagine after 20 years of no contact, thinking he was probably dead, to get on a plane and head off in search of him with only the name of a bar to go on.
I went straight to the bar, to be directed to Anjuna.
Unfortunately the story doesnt have a happy ending here.
Anyone looking for a lost parent beware. Things are not always as you expect them to be.
Johnny had an addictive personality and a long history of heroin abuse. He was clean during his time with Stevie, my sister's mother, but when she died he took it badly and ended up back into his old habits. These habits took their toll on him physically and he ended up in bad shape.
When I arrived in Goa he was in Bombay with my sister trying to get out of the country. Next thing I knew they had gone.
So I set about finding out about him. Rented a house next to La Frenza and lived the life for a few months. Spent a lot of time with Mark (Anjuna Mark) and found out all I could about Johnny.
Left Goa and travelled some before getting a letter from home telling me to come back quick. Johnny was at my house in Plymouth!
So after 20 years we finally met up. Vivid memory of the meeting. He was as nervous as I was.
I suppose you all want to know what its like, meeting up after so long.
I remembered his "vibe" he was very familiar to me and yet talking to him, he was a complete stranger.
In a lot of ways we are completely different. He was a showman, "front" was all to him. I'm not and I think he expected me to be more like him.
We played around for a while in Plymouth while he got well again. Then he was off again. Kept in contact, sometimes we got close other times I wouldn't see him for a while.
Things went tits up in 89, enough said. After that we kind of drifted apart. Johnny even made it back to Anjuna for a couple of seasons before he died.
He died Feb 96 after coming back from India really sick.
His last ever words to me (just before he left for India that time) were, "If I knew I was going to live this long I would have taken better care of my body"
Strangely enough after all the abuse he had dished out to himself over the years the thing that finally killed him was emphasema caused through a life time of smoking. He was 59.

machadinha · Mar 28th, 2008, 22:53

That's brave to write it all down Paul. Hats off.

I'm not gonna get into the why's and how's here, but suffice it to say I empathize.

Best to you and your kids (I think? I, too, have trouble keeping track of who's related to who here -- never mind, it doesn't matter and there's no need to specify) and family and all those related in piecing it all together & coming to terms with the whole story.

I hope you and your sister are in touch now? No need to answer. I just hope so.

Mar 25th, 2008, 17:54	#19
Kid Cairo Member Join Date: Mar 2008 Location: Plymouth, England Posts: 11	Photos of Johnny Cairo Hi Les, Thanks for the reply. I am the mother of the Kid (ALex)and am really keen to find out more about Johnny especially photos from his early days in Birmingham and Goa. Alex's father Paul was brought up by his mother in Birmingham and he did not meet his father from 6 years old until he was 26. His mother still won't discuss him and has destroyed all photos. You mention Brenda from Birmingham and I would like to try and contact her. The reason I am so keen to see photos is that I have been told that Paul is the image of his father and I've often wondered why his mother has difficulty relating to him. The other reason is my son has some of his genes so I'm keen to know a bit more about him as I understand he was physically quite a strong character with lots of charisma.

Mar 26th, 2008, 02:47	#20
liverpool les Member Join Date: Feb 2008 Location: liverpool england Posts: 53	I met Johnie in Goa in November 1974, Johnie had recently lost his wife Stevie, whilst she was giving birth to Luke, Stevie,s two boys were there too, when I arrived, they stayed with john for a while in Goa before returning back to America to there father, I had travelled out to India to see an uncle of mine. Allan my uncle had known john for years in Birmingham (when john used to do a strong mans act in the bullring (Bham city centre) he used to lie down on a bed of nails whilst having a concrete block smashed to bits on his chest with a sledge hammer, or rip phone books in half, do fire eating, put a rope looped round his neck whilst his hands were handcuffed behind his back and get men out of the crowds of people who gathered round to pull on the rope like a tug of war whilst he held them off just using his neck muscles) John and Allan also worked the night clubs in Birmingham together, for Don Carlos who owned the “The Elbow room” night club, who was a good friend of theres, Don was also out in Goa, when I was out there. They then got into the Gangster scene and moved to the London clubs, doing protection, that’s when the Krays were running things, that’s before they got into the hippy scene. They moving to Spain were they had a beach bar for a while with Don, (Don had family and property out in Spain), they used to travel backwards and forwards to Morocco. Things started to change in Spain, so they then decided to go out to India that would have been round about 67/68. So getting back to when I arrived on the scene, because of the family connection, I became really good friends with John, we travelled a lot out there together, Pakistan Afghanistan, I was only 17 when I first arrived out there, so John took me under his wing a bit, taught me how to use a whip and do the fire blowing, amongst other things. whilst on a trip to France John met Franswar, she came out to India to look after Luke originally, I am still in contact with a lot of the Birmingham crew, so can get hold of numbers for Franswar or Luke, they would be the best people for photo's, they were recently in London. I will be able to get some photo’s off Brenda and a few other people from B,ham, I will also ask my mum to dig out some of the photo’s she’s got of John and Allan from Spain in the 60’s. I ended up staying in the Far East for 8 years before returning to England. I then spent a lot of time living in Birmingham, with Don and a few of the others who were out in India. ps i think I may have met paul, in birmingham with johnie one time many years ago. Last edited by liverpool les : Mar 26th, 2008 at 04:58.

Mar 28th, 2008, 22:25	#29
Kid Cairo Member Join Date: Mar 2008 Location: Plymouth, England Posts: 11	Paul here. I think its time I wrote my story. Been thinking about what to say for a few days now or even whether to say anything. I think the "kid" and the rest of the Cairo's have a right to know about their roots. Who your parents / grandparents are and your ancestry is important to everyone. So maybe the pages of this forum are a good place to start. I was born in Birmingham in 1959 to a wild father and a young and naive mother. I was of course an "accident" but somehow my mother persuaded my father to marry her. The marriage lasted 6 years, though he wasnt around much during these years. His comings and goings did neither my mother or me any good at all. I guess she had her heart broken by it all and at the end of it she destroyed all the photos and never talked about him again. I was left in limbo, with a bunch of fading memories and a huge sense of loss. It hurts now just thinking about it. Time moves on and my mother remarried a few years later and left all this behind her. She had another child and moved on refusing to look back. I can understand that, ..if you have been hurt you have to pick yourself up and move on. I still remembered too much of Johnny and it played on my mind all through the rest of my childhood. I rebelled, left home as soon as I could and tried to sort things out in my head. I wasnt sure if he was dead or alive, my uncle had told me he was almost certainly dead, but after finally confronting my mother about him she came up with some information. Someone had seen him in a bar in Goa. I wrote to the bar and after a couple of months got a letter back.. Im going to dig it out and have another read soon, but I want to get this posted. He told me I had a sister, and that he had brought her up since her mother died in childbirth. She was about 9 then and drew a little picture of the 3 of us holding hands saying how much she couldnt wait to meet me. He said he was off to make some money and he would write as soon as things worked out. A few months went by with no contact, so I made plans to go to India and find out what was going on. Kind of wierd. Imagine after 20 years of no contact, thinking he was probably dead, to get on a plane and head off in search of him with only the name of a bar to go on. I went straight to the bar, to be directed to Anjuna. Unfortunately the story doesnt have a happy ending here. Anyone looking for a lost parent beware. Things are not always as you expect them to be. Johnny had an addictive personality and a long history of heroin abuse. He was clean during his time with Stevie, my sister's mother, but when she died he took it badly and ended up back into his old habits. These habits took their toll on him physically and he ended up in bad shape. When I arrived in Goa he was in Bombay with my sister trying to get out of the country. Next thing I knew they had gone. So I set about finding out about him. Rented a house next to La Frenza and lived the life for a few months. Spent a lot of time with Mark (Anjuna Mark) and found out all I could about Johnny. Left Goa and travelled some before getting a letter from home telling me to come back quick. Johnny was at my house in Plymouth! So after 20 years we finally met up. Vivid memory of the meeting. He was as nervous as I was. I suppose you all want to know what its like, meeting up after so long. I remembered his "vibe" he was very familiar to me and yet talking to him, he was a complete stranger. In a lot of ways we are completely different. He was a showman, "front" was all to him. I'm not and I think he expected me to be more like him. We played around for a while in Plymouth while he got well again. Then he was off again. Kept in contact, sometimes we got close other times I wouldn't see him for a while. Things went tits up in 89, enough said. After that we kind of drifted apart. Johnny even made it back to Anjuna for a couple of seasons before he died. He died Feb 96 after coming back from India really sick. His last ever words to me (just before he left for India that time) were, "If I knew I was going to live this long I would have taken better care of my body" Strangely enough after all the abuse he had dished out to himself over the years the thing that finally killed him was emphasema caused through a life time of smoking. He was 59. Last edited by Kid Cairo : Mar 30th, 2008 at 21:17. Reason: spelling

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Mar 25th, 2008, 04:49	#16
liverpool les Member Join Date: Feb 2008 Location: liverpool england Posts: 53	Hi I have posted a reply on the post you sent to me photo's wanted. will copy and paste it here. I might have afew here, from when him and luke stayed at mine for a few weeks, think jimmy fenton has got a few, brenda from Birmingham might have some also, will see what I can dig out for you, and yeah i was a good friend of your grandads, I did see him not long before he died, Is luke your mum, or are you related through franswar or stevie? If you need franswars or lukes adress I can get them for you no probs, will just take me a phone call to birmingham I havent been on the computer or india mikes for afew weeks, I had a bad car crash a week yesterday, in the early hours of Sunday morning, i was traveling in my van to the petrol station and some lunatic ran a red traffic light doing 60mph and crashed into me, very luckly I saw him and managed to put the breaks on, otherwise he would have hit the drivers door and that would have killed me at the speed he was going, instead with me breaking he hit the front of the van and took it off, level with the front wheels, really shook me up, bad whiplash and a few minor injuries, I was more worried about fletch, (my bloodhound) being loose in the back of the van, he was ok but it shook him up too, I'm feeling much better now though, so will start reading the posts again. best wishes Les

Mar 25th, 2008, 05:36	#17
liverpool les Member Join Date: Feb 2008 Location: liverpool england Posts: 53	just posted a photo in "Recent Photos - People and Faces" under cairo kid, johnie and luke

Mar 27th, 2008, 03:09	#21
Kid Cairo Member Join Date: Mar 2008 Location: Plymouth, England Posts: 11	Hi Les Sorry to hear about your car crash, I hope you are on the mend. Thank you for this enlightening info about Johnny in his early days. I think your uncle Allan must have know Paul's mum Maureen as she went out to Spain for a few months with Paul when he was quite young. It would be great if you could get some photos especially prior to Goa.Johnny sounded like a very unusual character with a great deal of physical strength and energy. He obviously had quite an impact on you. We are going to meet Luke in May and that should be quite an interesting trip for all of us. Thanks again for taking the time to share your experience and look forward to seeing some more photos. Sylvie

Mar 27th, 2008, 04:51	#22
liverpool les Member Join Date: Feb 2008 Location: liverpool england Posts: 53	Hi just got off the phone, spoke to a good friend of mine, Jean in Birmingham, (Jean was married to Barry, "barry died last year sadly") they were at Johnie's funeral, Jean said she spoke to paul for some time at the funeral, Jean knew pauls mum, Maureen said she went to spain with johnie.(if so thats a good reason why she didnt speak about him much), but will send you details of that if you private message me. Do you still live in Plymouth? if so Jean has still got pauls phone number, said she would call and speak to paul if thats any good, she's got a few photo's of john, does paul know preba? best wishes. Les

Mar 27th, 2008, 08:12	#23
SitaParityaga member in the forest Join Date: May 2003 Location: California Posts: 797	Sorry to break in for a moment..... Such a sweet story! But I'm starting to lose track of who is looking for who, who knows who, who's the mom of who Love it! I started to pen a diagram of who's who, because the story is so damn cool! And I got a little lost! And yeah, I'm bumping up the thread because I like the story..........AND I want to hear the end of the story as well PS: Les ..GET WELL SOON!

Mar 27th, 2008, 15:42	#24
liverpool les Member Join Date: Feb 2008 Location: liverpool england Posts: 53	Maureen met Johnie (Johnie Cairo) had child to him = Paul Paul met Sylvie they had a child = Cairo kid Alex Les was friend of Johnie

Mar 27th, 2008, 23:43	#25
Kid Cairo Member Join Date: Mar 2008 Location: Plymouth, England Posts: 11	Hi Les Thanks again for all this info. Would love to know the story about Spain but haven't had enough posts for this facility. We are in Plymouth but I doubt whether Jean has Paul's current phone number. Paul has been in touch with Preba but not recently. He says he will reply to you himself as soon as he can. Sylvie

Mar 28th, 2008, 01:41	#26
liverpool les Member Join Date: Feb 2008 Location: liverpool england Posts: 53	may be one of the moderators would be kind enough to send you a private message for me giving my other email address, failing that think you need 10 posts. or you could post another email address on here, where I can contact you.

Mar 28th, 2008, 05:30	#27
liverpool les Member Join Date: Feb 2008 Location: liverpool england Posts: 53	You should receive message with my other email address attached,thanks to nick. When you do, just send me a message to it and i will get in touch.les

Mar 28th, 2008, 05:33	#28
kristinm Member Join Date: Feb 2007 Location: Beautiful Bondi (not Bundi!) Posts: 1,110	I love these stories too - combine this with Dad Hunter's thread and you have the makings of a great book or film... hmmmm best shut up now before someone else does it!

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Mar 28th, 2008, 22:53	#30
machadinha Not Your Guru Member Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: yörp Posts: 8,531	That's brave to write it all down Paul. Hats off. I'm not gonna get into the why's and how's here, but suffice it to say I empathize. Best to you and your kids (I think? I, too, have trouble keeping track of who's related to who here -- never mind, it doesn't matter and there's no need to specify) and family and all those related in piecing it all together & coming to terms with the whole story. I hope you and your sister are in touch now? No need to answer. I just hope so.