WE all need some constants in our life to reassure us that all is well in the world. We need these so we may sleep safe in our beds with the knowledge that everything is as it should be.

BBC Radio’s Shipping Forecast is a common one, the chimes of Big Ben, drinking tea, red buses all help. One of my personal touchstones for sanity and stability is Mick the Hippy at Colchester Arts Centre.

In the 25 years I’ve worked in our little town, much has changed. People have come and people have gone, buildings have leapt up whilst others have disappeared, the winds have change have blown this way and that but in amongst the ever-evolving turmoil of life, Mick the Hippy at Colchester Arts Centre has remained a constant. In all the time I’ve known him, I swear he hasn’t changed even the slightest wisp.

Gazette:

His long, brushed hair, centre parting, magnificent beard, carpet bag, desert boots, the distinctive aroma of patchouli oil, all exactly the same. Not similar, not slightly aged, not alike, but exactly the same. Mick the Hippy is pure hippy. Cut him through the middle and you find naught but hippy.

My theory, although his mother may disagree, is that Mick the Hippy came into being as a fully formed being in 1971. And has remained unchanged, unsullied and unbowed ever since.

Over the years I’ve been on many a course and been given many a lecture on the value of customer care. It’s very involved. My answer has always been that’s it’s all very well but what do you need customer care training for when you’ve got Mick the Hippy on the box office or cooking his legendary veggie chilli for the bands. He has been an invaluable and treasured member of the arts centre team for many a long year.

I am convinced that long after I join the cast in the graveyard show outside the door here, we can relax in the knowledge that the legend that is Mick Newman will be safely ensconced at the arts centre. The world is safe.