Thanet’s Greek community is this week in mourning at the death of pop superstar George Michael.

And one man, George Fellas, knew the singer’s Greek Cypriot father when they both worked in the clothesmaking trade in north London.

Mr Fellas, owner of the Delphi Restaurant, in Harbour Parade, Ramsgate, said: “This has been a terrible shock. I didn’t hear about it until Boxing Day morning.

“I was a fan and I have his records from both his time in Wham! and as a soloist. I have still been listening to his records. We were all proud that he was from our community.”

Michael, 53, died fo suspected heart failure on Christmas Day and the news was announced late that night.

It has plunged his millions of fans around the world into grief.

There was a vigil outside his north London town house in Highgate on Boxing Day while floral tributes were left outside his Oxfordshire home where he died.

Areas like Birghington in Thanet have a high proportion of people of Greek heritage.

Mr Fellas, 53, was born just five months after Michael and both grew up in north London the 1970s and 1980s as part of the area’s large Greek Cypriot community.

Mr Fellas, who was born in Cyprus and came to Britain in 1974, personally knew Michael’s father, Kyriacos Panayiotou in the early 1980s.

He says: “We were both in the rag trade in Camden Town. He was the owner of one small clothes factory and I was in another family business.

“We were not that close, he was more of an acquaintance. But I knew his son was trying to make it in the music business. We lost contact just before George became famous.

“George and I were both children in north London, I was in Cockfosters, so we may well have met each other a couple of times but I don’t remember.

"Young members of the Greek community used to meet in school clubs and discos in the late 70s and early 80s.”

George Michael was born Georgios Kyriacos Panayiotou in East Finchley on June 25, 1963.Michael, whose mother was English, spent most of his childhood in Kingsbury, north west London.

He moved with his family to Hertfordshire while in his teens where he met Andrew Ridgeley, his bandmate in the duo Wham!

The pair shot to fame with the single Young Guns (Go for It) in 1982 and had number one singles such as Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go and I’m Your Man.

Last Christmas, from 1984, is one of the standards played every festive season.

Michael was a writer, arranger and producer from his late teens and already by 21 was producing mature ballads such as Careless Whisper.

This was a departure from the frothy and fun sound of Wham!

He later became a successful soloist with albums such as Faith and Listen Without Prejudice Vol 1.