Nutty Nigel: Newbury's most famous man
He was called Nutty Nigel and we think he used to live in Vicky Park. Some of the tramps there were alright; they used to ignore us. There was me and her. We'd skive school and sit in the park and drink K Cider to try to make me happy and rum to keep us warm. The tramps would come up and bum the odd fag (amusing how in america the phrase 'to bum a fag' is totally different eh?) and they were alright. When some of them looked at us there was a deep sadness, with most of them there was nothing in their eyes, there was nothing at all. Nutty Nigel was different. He was edgy. He used to wander up and down the highstreet with a plastic bag over his head, looking for laughs. He'd try and jump on the cars in the gridlocked high street. That sort of thing.

There were all these rumours around him. I heard that he was an eccentric millionaire from several people, enough to almost believe it. It was said he had rolls of twenty pound notes strapped to his legs and that he was from one of the big country houses nearby. I saw him the last time I went home, over 15 years now, I guess. I was a better class of drunk by then, so I didn't drink in the park; I drank in the hire car. But I parked the car next to Vicky Park, for old time's sake. I was thinking of her, and how the way her tights went up past her hemline, and how it used to look when I saw him. He was puking into a Woolies bag, and I watched as he put it on his head. Then I watched him psych himself up and jiggle his shoulders as an actor would. Then I watched as he wandered around the park with his bag on his head. It was really cold, I remember. The cold was like an iron grip around me, even though the car had a heater and I had rum.

I saw him, and thought 'At least he's got his money to go back to'. Later I told my mum about him. She said she knew his parents, they were just as poor as us. They'd tried everything to help him, but nothing had worked. Now he was the most famous man in Newbury.

I thought he'd be dead now, but I googled him and here he is: www.newburytoday.co.uk/News/Article.aspx?articleID=6547

Edit: and a facebook group: www.facebook.com/pages/Nutty-Nigel/12084371339
(sirolimus, Tue 4 Nov 2008, 12:00, 4 replies)

Nutty
is indeed alive and, well... alive.

You don't see him around Newbury as much as you used to, but his presence can still be felt. He's certainly a one off.

Did you ever meet 'Elvis' in nearby Reading? A stick-thin man in red shoes and an Elvis T-shirt, carrying a bag of Elvis memorabilia. I saw him not an hour ago, telling a random woman how he "keeps trying to be like the King". Good old Elvis.
(MiscellaneousFiles, Tue 4 Nov 2008, 14:44, closed)

never saw Elvis
There was a cowboy in Wolverhampton though.

There used to be an ace club in Reading, I used to go to the Goth night. There was a woman used to go in a wedding dress.
(sirolimus, Tue 4 Nov 2008, 17:03, closed)

See
Newbury's Nutty Nigel is different to Hungerford's Nutty Nigel.

He used to work in Gateway 20 odd years ago and was more than a little strange. There was the same rumour about him having millionaire parents though.

And how come it is I can spend over 20 years of my life living in Hungerford/Newbury/Reading and miss this guy? Goddammit!
(Pirate Monkey is not the goddamn Batman, Wed 5 Nov 2008, 14:38, closed)

you haven't missed much
everyone else was like 'oh, nutty nigel went into whsmiths and pissed everywhere, but ha ha it is only nutty nigel.' I always thought he was a twat.

Maybe there was one millionaire family in Kintbury which churned out mental kids which they let roam loose?
(sirolimus, Wed 5 Nov 2008, 21:51, closed)