Chatting to Shropshire’s Colin McCormack called to mind the opening lines of a Beatles hit from 40 years ago.

‘In Penny Lane there is a barber showing photographs, of every head he’s had the pleasure to have known.’

The owner of Colin’s Barbers is something of a showman, who displays pictures of customers on his own website.

And they include The Who’s former drummer and rock wildman Keith Moon, pop singer Johnny Kidd, crooner Matt Monro and World War Two hero Field Marshall Bernard Montgomery – Monty.

“I never thought to get pictures taken of me with them at the time – but eBay weren’t invented then,” said Colin with a gravelly London accent and a blast of raucous laughter that put me in mind of the late actor Michael Elphick, of TV’s Boon fame.

“Bit late now – they’re all dead,” he added with a twinkle in his eye, more infectious laughter and a drag on a cigarette.

He has, mind you, cut the hair of celebrities who are very much still alive, including actor Todd Carty, of television’s Grange Hill, EastEnders and The Bill fame, and Telford’s former world boxing champion Richie Woodhall.

One-time amateur boxing coach Colin still cuts Richie’s hair, though the former fighter turned BBC television pundit doesn’t live too far from the shop in Madeley, Telford.

The larger-than-life scissors man – rings, bracelets, plenty of bling – is celebrating 10 years at his business with a string of special offers and discounts. For instance, every customer gets a free a glass of bubbly throughout May.

That seems in keeping with Colin’s showbiz persona and the party atmosphere in the shop where a team of pretty girls help with the hairdressing and styling.

Colin was born in Middlesex nearly 60 years ago, the son of a Jarrow marcher who settled in the capital. He lived in the Wembley area and first met Moon at school, where he was in the same year.

“He was always being bullied and me and my friends, basically, stopped the bullying. We never got rid of him after that,” he said, with another peel of throaty laughter.

He started cutting Moon’s hair in the mid 1960s, when The Who were still called The Detours and the drummer was playing with them and The Beachcombers.

“His hair was a bit long and very unruly,” Colin said.

Kidd, who had hits like Shakin’ All Over and Yes, Sir, That’s My Baby, with his group The Pirates, used to pop in for a trim.

“Johnny lived at Perivale, which is next to Wembley. He used to come into the shop when I was an apprentice.”

Matt Monro, whose many hits included Born Free, From Russia With Love, Mona Lisa and Portrait of My Love, was a regular when Colin worked in a small shop in Ealing.

“Again Matt lived just around the corner. We were his nearest barbers so it was natural for him to come in. He was a gentleman.”

Colin first worked in a barber’s shop at the age of 13, working Saturdays and evenings.

“I was what they called an old-fashioned lather boy, doing the shampooing and so on,” he explained.

After an apprenticeship in London he moved out to work for King’s of Farnham, Hampshire, in 1966 – and found himself giving a military back and sides to one of Britain’s most inspirational war-time leaders.

Monty was the hero of El Alamein, who, after the war, served as Chief of the Imperial General Staff and, from 1951 to 1958, as Deputy Supreme Commander of NATO forces in Europe.

“Frankly, he was a miserable old so and so,” said Colin, with rasping laughter.

“We used to have to travel out to his house, he wouldn’t come into the shop. And we didn’t even get the money, he had his own account. He wouldn’t talk to you. ‘Kingie’, who ran the shop, used to do it but I think he got so fed up of him that he started making one of the staff go.”

By this time was Colin was married to Pat and they moved back to London and into their own place at Wembley Park. They then moved to Harrow and met a famous neighbour.

“Around that time we used to run a youth club. We put a lot of effort into getting it started and we wanted someone famous to open it. Someone mentioned that Todd Carty lived in Harrow. He was about 14 and it was around the time he was playing ‘Tucker’ in Grange Hill, who was a very popular character,” said Pat.

“So we just went round and knocked on his door. He said ‘yes, it’d be my pleasure’ and it went from there,” chipped in Colin. “He was really lovely and we became like surrogate parents to him,” added Pat.

They stayed in touch until Colin and Pat’s move to Shropshire – though they met up in 2004 when Carty was in Oswestry to open a supermarket extension.

“We decided to move because of the recession in the 1990s,” Colin explained. “We sold our house and had six months’ holiday in a static caravan in Stratford-upon-Avon. Shropshire was recommended to us by someone there. We had a look around and loved it. It wasn’t dying like everywhere else in the UK.”

Colin managed John Benton’s shop in Wellington before opening his present business in 1997.

“We never planned to come to Shropshire but we’ve never regretted it,” he added.

“It has taken a lot of care, hard work and dedication by those involved, especially our hard working staff, to build up our business over the last 10 years and that is what we are celebrating.”

By Neil Thomas