By Chris Wright
Before he was “Just sitting there thinking…” on Soccer Saturday all the live long day, Charlie Nicholas was ‘Champagne Charlie’ – one of the flashiest footballing playboys of the 1980s, with the flouncy mullet and little diamond ear-stud (which he proudly still sports to this very day) to prove it.
He was a bit of a berk, but a loveable berk and the good thing about loveable berks is that they tend to get themselves photographed while looking like berks and Champagne Nicholas was no exception!
Here are some of his finest moments, beginning with our hero posing with some of his nun friends – shortly before he moved into his leather phase.
Oh yeah, consider this your warning: You’re about to be hit with an absolute avalanche of leather…
You don’t want to know how many bottles of talcum powder it took to get that suit on…
Charlie finds a simple way to prevent the rain and the talc from creating a paste…
This would probably qualify as child abuse these days…
Wistful looks across the boating lake. Here’s where it all came together in a Shoot Magazine spread…
Here’s that classic cropped-sleeve look again, this time on the lesser-spotted Charlie Nicholas playing card…
Good morning starshine!
Just relaxing at home in the old leather kecks: making beans; watching some telly…
Quite clearly stuck to the spot…
Back to beebos (you just know he’s still wearing those trousers)…
Just two cheeky boys on a bench…
“Hello, my name’s Charlie and I’d like to talk to you about wicker furniture…”
A still from Charlie’s Miami Vice audition tape…
Yeehaw!
Denim memories…
Just sitting down and enjoying Lionel Ritchie’s latest…
That time the NME mistook him for Bono…
Or that time he and Glenn Hoddle both forgot their shorts…
It’s the flock of seagulls look, only these seagulls happen to be ones rescued from the oil-slick after the Exxon Valdez ran aground…
Charlie’s love for you will still be strong, after the boys of summer have gone…
We had no idea Charlie was an extra in Lovejoy…
Up to the present day: With our hero now looking like the sad, ageing singer in a Visage tribute band…
Nice eye shadow Charlie. Very fetching.
(Photos: Getty/Twitter)