Scantily-clad women, posh hotels

AS challenges go, this was was one of the most formidable I have faced in 60 years knockin’ about on this green and pleasant land that is Oldham.

Being asked to help set up and launch a Women in Business Club was one thing, being asked to MC the inaugural dinner at the Clough Manor, Denshaw, was something else again.

For starters, the event was a sell-out — well, at £10 for a three-course meal and the promises of luxurious lingerie and clothing, not to mention chocolate — does have an affect on most women, in my humble and inexperienced opinion of the fairer sex. It’s a bargain as my dear old mum would have said — therefore, a “must have”.

Ostensibly, the evening was about determining if there was a demand for a regular gathering of women in business. The answer was a resounding “yes”. But what happens from here on in I will have to report on from afar. I was happy to help out at the launch, I was there as the token male, but as women’s empowerment took hold (not to mention pink Champagne and wine) I was increasingly marginalised, not least when the scantily-clad beauties in skimpy lingerie took to the floor.

Purely for journalistic research reasons you understand, I was invited to observe. However, in the best journalist traditions, I made my excuses and left. Not sure my old ticker could have taken it . . .


Twenty-four hours earlier, I was at the Hilton Hotel on Deansgate, Manchester, for the Manchester branch of the Chartered Institute of Public Relations annual awards dinner. Oh boy, what a splendid affair.

For reasons best known to the organisers, I was asked to host the event and I have to admit that I got in lots of mentions for Oldham as I held the rapt attention of the audience of 380.

OK, so those listening were actually interested in their particular award — there were more than 40 to get through — and the rest had a party. Fair enough, at £100 a ticket they were entitled to enjoy themselves.

There was something of a controversy at the end when the Gold Award for PR Consultant of the Year went to Koan PR, who had actually filed for administration only days before the gala dinner.

How this particular contretemps will pan out we shall have to wait and see, but I can point out that the judging was carried out in London, several months prior to last week’s awards dinner, and took into account work for the previous three years.

Still it did add a strange feeling to an otherwise fantastic evening.


And so to my final night out of the week, back in Manchester at the glorious Midland Hotel (what a magnificent contrast to the classical modernity of the Hilton) for the BAE Systems Chadderton site long-service awards.


Eighty-three people had an evening they will never forget — a look at three decades, for the celebrants were being recognised for 20, 30 and 40 years’ service to the defence business — in the form of a “Top of the Pops” evening.

The host was Sir Jimmy Savile, aka Robin Colvill of The Grumbleweeds, and each set of presentations was prefaced by music from decade in the form of a Tom Jones tribute, followed by a homage to Diana Ross and a sensational Freddie Mercury tribute set.

The whole wondrous evening concluded with all four artistes joining the now deliriously relaxed audience for a rendition of Queen’s polemic “We Are The Champions”.

BAE do do these things exceptionally well.