Last week's speaker: Julian Price, Man behind the Badge

"I am the real Andy Bell - Undercover", Julian, our man with the perpetual friendly smile and sunny disposition, declared in his opening statement. [Personally, even though he is no a Kiwi, I'd classify Julian as the only genuine 'All Black' I know in my circle of friends.. ☺ Ed.]  Not long after he was born in St Lucia, West Indies in 1960, Julian's father moved his family (mum, Julian, two brothers and one sister), to London - Hammersmith.

 

Julian's father was a Policeman, mum did "everything" to help make ends meet. "We were the only black family that didn't have any altercations with Police".  

 

"My focus was on music" Julian declared: at the tender age of 14, he played the lead in "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dream Coat".  Julian performed in front of the Queen Mother, was in Motown at age 17, sporting a big Afro Hairstyle... [See photo on left with President Paul Seymour. Yes, try to imagine it!].  He had his own band "JC Price - The Love Crowd"...

 

Julian has a daughter from a previous relationship who lives in the UK, and in 2000 he married his wife Donna [we understand Donna comes from Collingwood - therefore without doubt obviously a lady of distinction.  Assumption is that, like your Editor, she is also a fellow sufferer, supporting the Magpies... Ed.] They have a daughter (15) with a serious leaning towards drama and a son (11) who is very strong in Hockey. 

 

But, one needs to generate some real income...  meanwhile, in Australia, in addition to his family, Julian has a very busy life indeed: he runs an organization named 'The Startup Club, "a place where passion meets perfection". It is a mentoring organization where members can pitch ideas to their fellow members. More details on their website. Julian works with a company called Belocal which specializes in the development of websites that indeed will attract some visitors. "A lot of people get ripped off by website crooks... " Having experienced receiving the promises but no tangible results whatsoever, I definitely concur with Julian: Don't they ever need an honest son of a Policeman to clean up that industry a bit!