02 Apr 2025
We ask a different figure from the local community to choose 10 questions to answer from a list of 50. This week: After asking him for two years, we’re delighted to finally be able to feature the legend behind EYES on St Albans, local councillor Jez Levy.
Where do you go to listen to music?
I think that should be ‘where do you go not to listen to music?’. Pretty much the only place in my world that’s music free is when I’m on the Vespa. In the shop and at home it’s on all the time.
What object would you save first if your house was on fire?
Would the keys to the Vespa and my new yellow hat be the wrong answer??
Were you well behaved at school?
Not in any way, shape or form. It was ‘suggested’ that school wasn’t really for me – Mr Hawkes at Verulam was absolutely right.
What super power would you like to have?
I don’t need any more…
How many pairs of shoes do you own?
Not quite as many pairs as I have hats.
And probably more than I have optical themed shirts. The quantities of all three of these are on a ‘need to know’ basis and quite honestly, I don’t need to know.
Which three people, living or dead, would be your ideal dinner party guests?
Bob Golding, Elvis and Jon Bon Jovi. So many possibilities for great music, great conversation and stories that would see us still having dinner a week later.
What was your first job?
I started out as a petrol pump attendant at the garage that used to be at the bottom on Holywell Hill and was also working on an electrical stall on St Albans Market. The job
at the petrol station led to my first job in the optical industry (my dad thought I was going to be selling ‘optics’ for pubs) and 40-something years later, the rest is rock and roll.
What’s your favourite hidden gem in the district?
Hidden in absolute plain sight – having a pint at The Boot in the sunshine with blue sky, a view of the Clock Tower and watching St Albans just do its thing.
Have you ever been arrested and if so for what?
Not quite arrested. But it was close. Mainly due to my discovery of some ‘adult’ magazines that were adult enough for CID to be called. When I was 13.
What’s your favourite St Albans pub?
Duke of Marlborough. They served me when I was 12.
