March 2021

Music, Performances, Open Mics, Jazz Workshops, Record Producer

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Weekend Warriors - How to form a live Band in Six Weeks

I had always fantasised about playing in a “live” band, and in 2001, I signed up for the Weekend Warrior course with ICMP London – The Institute of Contemporary Music Performance

The ICMP was originally known as the Guitar Institute and has modern offices with professional studio facilities and classrooms for music students, and is situated in Dyne Road London NW6

One of the courses they ran was known at the time as “Weekend Warriors”, and my fellow group of applicants included amateur singers, guitarists, bass guitarists, drummers and some keyboard players. The organisers then formed a number of complete “bands” from amongst the applicants by matching instruments and talent.

Once you had your fellow band-members. it was then up to each band to decide on four or five “numbers”, and then perform those songs in The Luminaire, a “live” venue, which was a well known music club close to the studios. Each band had six weeks to rehearse and practice, and could use the studio facilities at Dyne Road and get professional advice at any time from the resident musicians. I was on rhythm guitar and vocals

It was another very interesting experience for me, and highlighted some of the problems which can arise in music when there is a “team” situation, and differing levels of skill, but we got through to perform the numbers together at the venue, and I have a Video evidencing the performance. Let me just say that I have not played the Video for many years, and I think I could probably do a better job now! But I had crossed another “to do” item off my list, and it had been very educational!

Open Mics and Why they are Important

In my opinion, open mics are the “life blood” of amateur music, and the definition given by Wikipedia is pretty accurate in my experience.

In the SW London area, there were a number of open mics available to attend and perform at, and the venue was usually a pub. Most of the audience are either fellow musicians or friends, and generally very forgiving, and very generous – however bad the rendition – and they understand that open mic performers are not professionals!

The plus point for the performers is that it gives one the chance to perform new or old songs, with their own unique arrangement and style, and it provides the experience of, and adrenalin rush involved in, a “live performance”.

Because I had previously invested in my own audio equipment – speakers, amplifiers microphones etc. – so that I could practice at home, I was in a position to set up an independent “open mic”, and so I did, and it ran for a year or so – starting at the The Coach and Horses Pub in Barnes.

This was a very friendly pub, and had a separate private room large enough to be used for events like the open mic. Just down the road in Barnes were other popular pubs, some of whom also provided “live music” – the Bull’s Head being one example.

So I became the “roadie” and organiser for the “open mic” and invited friends from both BCP and Andy Walpole’s RACC workshop to attend. It was held once a month and great fun to organise and perform at.

A little later, I moved the venue to the Richmond Lawn Tennis Club, which was also more convenient for the guys and gals from RACC. After a year or so, I had other priorities: with no-one available to take over the organisation of the open mic, I closed it down.

One long established open mic is the Teddington Acoustic Music Club, extremely well run by Jeff Porter, and I attended and performed there on a number of occasions.

My chum David Day had his own favourite “watering holes” which encouraged live music, where he would perform Jazz songs with a group of jazz musicians in the Open Mic style, and these pubs included the Brewery Tap in Brentford. I did participate very occasionally!

Shireen Francis - Singing Classes and Workshops

Shireen Francis is an accomplished professional jazz singer who has performed regularly at London venues – quoting from her own website: “London based jazz vocalist Shireen Francis has developed her own unique blend of jazz with flavours of gospel, blues calypso and reggae.  Performing with some of the country’s top jazz musicians, the combination of Shireen’s stunning expressive voice coupled with her natural musicianship has delighted audience all around the world”.

I can confirm that she is not only a talented singer, but also a very nice person and a very good teacher. After teaching jazz singing via workshops at the RACC – I did not attend at that time but I had heard about her workshops – she started her own singing courses and workshops in 2008 using the idyllic Barnes Green Centre in Barnes as the Venue, and Michele and I started classes with her in about 2009/2010.

By this time I was a little more confident about my own singing abilities: her class consisted of mostly women who had much more experience than I did! Shireen made her courses extremely interesting: apart from the songs chosen for us to perform (mostly jazz based) – there was always a professional musician in support, sometimes a pianist, sometimes a double bass player and sometimes a drummer. At the end of the course, we had all three – a full professional trio to back our songs – just like one’s own band! 

Apart from learning more about the particular instruments and their role in a jazz trio, Shireen also explained how to “count in” the band and how important it was to discuss beforehand – as examples – the key, the tempo and the style you wanted as the singer, and how to maintain the “connection” with the musicians.

I learnt a great deal from Shireen’s workshops, and appreciated her professionalism, which undoubtedly helped me to better understand what was required in order to become a more competent musician.

How I Became a Record Producer

Some time in the early ’80s. I was on holiday in Ibiza with my first wife Rosie and my son Russ. We met another family at the time, Len and Carol Hawkes with their three children – Chesney, Jodie and Keely. Len “Chip” Hawkes was both vocalist and the bass player from 1965 for the well known Pop Band The Tremeloes, who probably achieved most fame for their UK Hit Single “Silence is Golden”

We got on well – Carol was very attractive, and I think Rosie had a crush on Len, who was most charming. After we returned to the UK, we were invited to their home in Sunningdale, Ascot, which was a very expensive house that Len afforded through the Band’s earlier success. At this time in his life, Len was out of work – in other words, not in a working Band – as we would say today “asset rich, cashflow poor”. 

Amongst his many talents, Len had a gift for songwriting, and he had recorded a few new songs in his home studio that he wanted me to hear. Amongst these new songs was a number called “Seventeen” and to cut a long story short, I agreed to finance him and try to get the new song “into the charts” as an independent label. The record was to go out with the singer as stage name or  pseudonym “Maxwell Silver“.

We formed a company called Broomfield Music Ltd, with the record label also as Broomfield Music, cut the Master Tape for the song and went into limited production with several thousand record “singles” for distribution and marketing to local radio stations etc. The printing process, where the records were pressed and labelled, was a new and interesting experience for me.

The key to the success for any new song at the time lay in “plugging” -i.e. persuading radio show presenters and other music outlets to play the “indie” record “on air” – and this area of marketing was very much down to Len’s own contacts built up through his years in the music industry.

Unfortunately, the song did not make the charts – although I did think that it had a chance: but without a very large budget for enough plugging/marketing it is rare for any song to succeed.

After this, our friendship and relationship fizzled out, although I have watched with some interest the progress of each of the talented Hawkes children, and Len’s own recent “comeback” tours.

Making Music in a Private Recording Studio

One of the things on my “to do” list was to record some songs with the help of a professional musician. After I had been in Crete for one or two years, I met up with Phil Harrison, who was exactly that – a professional musician. Not only was he living locally, but he owned a 160 Track Recording Studio, and his fees were very reasonable.

I gave Phil a list of songs that I had always wanted to record – most of them “Golden Oldies” where the instrumentation was pretty basic – and we set about recording the songs, with Phil providing the arrangement and the vast majority of the playing (he is proficient on most things including Guitar and Keyboards). After each session he would mix the tracks and add harmony and whatever else he thought necessary: if he thought I should re-record a vocal, I would do so until it sounded reasonable.

I should say again that I do not think I have any great talent as a singer, and for these particular recordings, my aim was to sound like the original artist rather than try to impose my own style.

Many many thanks to Phil Harrison for such a professional job.

Song List (also on SoundCloud under domain buddy)

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Amateur Theatre and Experiences

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Barnes Charity Players

Kitson Hall Barnes
OSO Arts Theatre Barnes
Blithe Spirit Cover

While involved with the Singing Course at the RACC, Michele and I discovered that Deirdre was also very involved with a local Theatre Group in Barnes called the Barnes Charity Players (BCP), now called the Barnes Community Players who were very active and put on two or three shows a year and a Christmas Pantomime.

Shorly after we had joined Deirdre’s class, BCP was holding auditions for their next production, and I persuaded Michele to attend and audition for a part in the play. I remember that Darrol Blake was the Director, and I went with her as “support crew” and observer, with no intention whatsoever of taking part. As it turned out, there was no role available for Michele but I was offered a minor role in the production! Although I did not accept the role – because of work commitments – the “stage was set” and Michele and I enrolled into BCP and were both involved in many of the productions over the next 10 years. 

How BCP works

In 2000, BCP was a very friendly group of players who mostly lived locally to Barnes in London’s SW13 district. The aim is to raise money for local charities through ticket sales for the various productions that BCP produce. There is a Committee who decide on the Production schedule and which Charities receive donations, and they report to the BCP members. The productions are performed in a number of local venues, including Kitson Hall and the OSO Arts Theatre – see photo – and the Barnes Methodist Church. The OSO Centre is also used for smaller productions, various meetings and parties. The favourite local “Watering Hole” in my day was the Sun Inn 

Principal Players at BCP

I cannot remember all the Players, and so my apologies for any omissions, but these BCP members were particularly important and/or memorable to me and I enjoyed their company as directors, fellow actors and socially. Some have moved on from BCP, but where possible I have included a link to their social media profile.

Fergus and Phyllis O’Kelly
– I was very sorry to hear that Fergus had died very recently. Fergus and his wife Phyllis were the beating heart of BCP in my time there, and made me feel very welcome. I shall miss his professionalism, wonderful singing and engaging acting. Sadly missed.

Deirdre O’Kelly
– Deirdre is supremely talented as both singer and actress, and also as a Musical and Stage Director. Always patient, she knew how to get the best out of her less talented colleagues.

Amanda Harker
– Amanda is absolutely essential to the success of BCP, and I am so glad to see that she is now on the Committee. A professional dance instructor, trainer, costume designer, in my view she held many of our joint productions together with immense skill and patience. Her efforts at turning a rabble into a group of passable dancers for any particular routine required in any one BCP show defy rational explanation!  

Darrol Blake
– When Darrol retired as one of the BBC’s leading Designers and Directors, BCP was fortunate enough to attract his attention and his services as Director to many of the shows. In my time, I remember him as a charming individual, although sometimes in the habit of forgetting that he was directing amateurs and not professionals.

Keith Perry
– Keith is a wonderful actor and fine Director. Quietly spoken and modest he was a teacher at the time, and no doubt used to dealing with motley crews of children, which required supreme patience. He brought this talent to BCP and I greatly enjoyed working with him.

Susan Conte
– Susan is absolutely passionate about anything involving arts, theatre, film and productions and a very nice and talented individual. Extremely encouraging, I worked with her as the Director in my last appearance at BCP as an actor. She is linked with BCP, Hampton Hill Theatre and the Richmond Shakespeare Society, and is currently the Artistic Director and Founder of her own Wild Duck Theatre.

David Day
– I have said a lot more about David elsewhere and he is one of my closest friends to this “day”! Always modest, he brought humour into every production and made the long hours of rehearsal in cramped conditions infinitely more bearable!

Marc Pearce
– When I first met Marc, he was only 24, but you could tell from his work ethic that he was determined to succeed! Highly gifted, he was interested in all forms of theatrical work, from acting and singing to stage production and directing. He had the “lead” in several shows, and we resumed our friendship at St Michael’s Players in Chiswick.

Fleur de Henrie
– Fleur is another very talented actress and singer, and at the time was very attached to Marc Pearce. It seems that they are now married – belated congratulations! Fleur also joined St Michaels Players and I remember that we were co-actors in one or two shows, where she had the starring role.

Martin Wright
– Martin is a very nice bloke, but I always had the impression that we were in some form of competition for roles in the various BCP shows! We did perform in various shows together – notably My Fair Lady as two of the four Costermongers – and he was extremely good.

Andrew Lawston
– Andrew was another “youngster” at the time I was involved with BCP and I remember him as a very talented co-actor and a bit of a “cheekie chappy”!

Patrick Van den Bergh
– Patrick I remember as a more serious individual. Another fine actor, he had a slight accent, which meant that he had an unfair advantage for some roles!

John and Chris Mounsey
– The only father and son pairing at BCP, both Mounseys were great characters. John was educated at Eton, but despite that (!) he was great fun, with a mischievous sense of humour. I was in several plays with John, and one with Chris: both are fine actors and good company.

Personal Performances and Recollections

I think that the best BCP production that I was involved with was “My Fair Lady”, starring Basil – a professional actor – as “Henry Higgins” – and Deirdre O’Kelly as “Eliza Doolittle”. The Director was Darrol Blake, and the Choreographer was of course Amanda Harker. I think most of BCP were involved one way or another, with Fergus O’Kelly as Alfred  Doolittle and Marc Pearce as Freddy and in my view it was a great success.

Some years after My Fair Lady, and with a little more acting experience “under my belt” I was very fortunate to be asked by Deirdre to be the lead in the next BCP production which she was directing. The Play was “Blithe Spirit”, based on the Noel Coward novel. The producer was Susan Conte, Marc Pearce our set designer and I had a great supporting cast which included John Mounsey as the Doctor, and professional actress Jane Sherwin as Madam Arcati. To watch our version of this story, please select Blithe Spirit by Barnes Charity Players

Private Video Recordings and Personal Problems Resulting
OR “No Good Deed goes Unpunished”

Over the years that I was with BCP, I had always thought that it was a shame that all the effort and energy that went into putting on one production which lasted only for one week would be consigned to history and not remembered. Not only that, but the actors  in the play would be the only people unable to judge and view their own performances. And so – out of my own pocket – I arranged for some of the shows to be captured on Video. The list of previous BCP shows recorded includes Peace in Our Time, Top Girls, Salad Days, A Midsummer  Night’s Dream and – finally – Blithe Spirit.

As a small personal gift to those most closely involved with Blithe Spirit, I arranged for extra copies to be printed. However, a rather unseemly squabble arose as to who actually received the Videos, and why others did not, and I was held to blame. Apparently, by not distributing the Video to the entire supporting crew, I was devaluing or not appreciating their contribution.

Nothing could have been further from the truth. At BCP we all contributed to each show in our different roles. I did not have an acting role in many of the shows – and only in one of the 5 shows that were videoed – and I often contributed off-stage in a “support” role but did not expect to receive a gift: and I had the opportunity to watch both the rehearsals and the “live” show. The gifts were meant for my fellow actors in Blithe Spirit who did not otherwise have an opportunity to judge and remember their own performances.

It seemed to me to be a totally unnecessary reaction to what was meant in the nicest possible way, and led directly to my joining St Michael’s Players, which was in any event much closer to my home in Chiswick.

St Michael's Players Chiswick

St Michael's Players
St Michael's Players

I read recently that St Michael’s Players in Chiswick have been going for 70 years, which must be some sort of record. The building shown in the photo was used as the Theatre, with a small room off to the right as the “dressing room” for the actors when a show was in progress. Next door to St Michael’s Church in Elmswood Road and within easy walking distance of the Copper Cow pub, it really is a very friendly group.

The Players had the same format as BCP – namely putting on 3 or 4 amateur productions a year – but differed in that the aim was not to raise money for Charity, but to “break even” financially and maybe have enough surplus to afford the occasional party for the members. I thought that this was an excellent ambition, and did my best to assist!  

Principal Players at St Michael’s

I cannot remember all the Players, and so my apologies for any omissions, but these  members were particularly important and/or memorable to me and I genuinely enjoyed their company as directors, fellow actors and socially. Some have moved on, but where possible I have included a link to their social media profile.

Jane Atkinson
– Jane was the Player’s Chairman when I first joined, and was not only a fine actress, she was also a most generous hostess, with parties at her home a regular feature. An extremely attractive and interesting lady!

Chris Hulatt
– I believe that Chris has been a Player longer than anyone – 30 years and counting! Another talented actor, ready to assist with whatever production task that was necessary and in charge of PR and membership, he is essential to the Players and a thoroughly nice individual.

Bryony Wilman
– I shall always remember Bryony as the very patient and long suffering director of many of the plays I was involved with at St Michael’s! She is of course also a gifted actress, but I remember her more for her generosity when she was directing, much of the rehearsal time being spent at her home. 

Paul Ritchie Tomkinson
– What can one say about this man? Supremely talented, ex-professional ballet dancer, choreographer, champion gymnast, writer, raconteur, actor and producer. And extremely nice into the bargain! It was great fun working with him in Amateur Theatre…

Elizabeth Ollier
– In my opinion, Elizabeth was one of the most talented actors I had the pleasure of working with, and has what it takes to be a professional. She was always modest and was great company with a sense of humour (often required in Am Dram!)

Alastair Dewar
– I see that Alastair has now succeeded Jane as Chairman: unlike most of us, he had a “proper job” in the Human Resources sector, but we never held that against him! I acted with him in a number of plays, and he was also great fun to be with.

Hampton Hill Theatre - Calendar Girls

Hampton Hill Facade
Hampton Hill Auditorium

In 2012, Susan Conte suggested that I might like to audition for an upcoming play to be performed at the Hampton Hill Theatre in Teddington: Susan was linked to the Theatre, and – if I remember correctly – had some influence over this new production which was to be a stage version of “Calendar Girls”, originally a novel, and then made famous by the 2003 film starring Helen Mirram, Julie Walters and a hugely talented support cast of other top English actors.

The role I auditioned for was the husband of one of the two female leading characters, and required a “Northern” accent: to my surprise, I was awarded the role, and rehearsals started shortly afterwards with an entirely new group of actors whom I had never met before. Michele and Susan Conte also had roles.

The Hampton Hill Theatre is a professional venue, and therefore completely different to the “am-dram” facilities I had been used to at BCP and St Michael’s. We had proper dressing rooms – not a crowded “free-for-all” changing area – and there was an auditorium with comfortable seats for the audience of 200 people: in other words, a proper theatre!

The play ran for a week, and involved a certain amount of nudity for the ladies concerned. This was the point of the story – in order to raise money for Leukaemia Research, and in memory of the “other” husband who dies from cancer, the ladies of the local Woman’s Institute decided on a daring scheme to produce and sell a nude calendar.

This of course made the Play more interesting! And in order to show support for the ladies in the cast, I wrote a short “Pete and Dud” type script, and persuaded the guys involved including Dave Dadswell (the other husband) – to put on a private performance for the girls, which involved a certain amount of male nudity!

I thoroughly enjoyed the experience, and it was probably my first and last time as an actor in a professional theatre: I think the show was well received, and I was particularly pleased when one of the audience complimented me one night after the show on my Northern accent! Thank you, Susan Conte, for giving me this opportunity! 

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How I started in Music

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How I started in Music - Guitars and the RACC

My parents were not what you would call a “musical” family: there were no musical instruments in any of our homes. My mother was brought up with dance as her main artistic interest, later followed by painting (watercolours) There was music in the house, and, when he was allowed to, my father played his fairly large record collection, consisting of popular music from the ’20s ’30s and ’40s – Glen Miller, Fats Waller, Louis Armstrong, Joe Fingers and other classics of the era. With the exception of Ballet Music, there was no classical music at all – no Beethoven, no Mozart, no Strauss for example.

So music for me was something which really started in the ’60s at school, with the musical revolution featuring Elvis Presley, the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, Dylan, Simon and Garfunkel to name but a few, and like many other kids I rushed out to buy the latest LP from the Beatles and the Rolling Stones. To be honest, the main attraction was not so much the music, but the allure of being a top artist or being in a famous band, with all the money and gorgeous girls that fame brought to them.

I never considered myself as having artistic talent, and had no aspirations of becoming a musician or an actor. For 30 years – the ’70s to the ’90s – my focus was on other things – like study and sport – and  business. So I was very much a latecomer to publicly Playing the Guitar, Singing and Acting, Performing and Theatre.

And, being honest, actual performing was a personal challenge: I wanted to experience it and see how and if I could handle the stress and the nerves. It was another way of testing myself, and avoiding the “if only…” 

Guitars and Music

How I started – Guitars Owned

The first guitar I ever owned was dreadful: it was a seven string Russian style guitar, with steel strings and was (I know now) extremely dfficult to play. However, it did not cost me anything and I came by it when I was living in my cottage in Norfolk and still serving at RAF Marham. 

At this point in my life, I had time on my hands, and no-one living nearby to complain, so I decided first to educate myself musically and buy a number of classical LPs featuring the works of the top composers (Beethoven, Mozart, Tchaikovsky, Strauss, Berlioz etc ) but to be honest, apart from some of the better known symphonies and musical arias, I was not terribly enthuiastic.

So I decided to teach myself how to play the Guitar. I bought a number of books on the subject – “Bert Weedon” for example – and a number of magazines showing “chord” finger positions. I purchased song books which contained the lyrics and guitar chords from some of the artists, bands and songs I was familiar with – which I still have to this day. I also handwrote a lot of the songs with chord changes and breaks, and set up a very basic recording system (one hand-held tape recorder) so I could hear just how bad my singing and playing actually was! 

The second Guitar I bought for £25 was a Kimbara acoustic guitar, with nylon strings, which I still have. This was so much easier to play than the first guitar, although now I know that the “neck” is a little too wide, but with this guitar I started to make some progress – with folk music and Simon and Garfunkel songs suited to the acoustic guitar style.

Once I started working in London – first with Merchant Investors in 1975 – the time for music was more limited, although I did purchase my third guitar – a classic Fender Telecaster electric guitar – for £200 from a colleague Bob Patmore, who was a professional musician. I did not really take advantage of the opportunity to play it – leisure time was more limited and my first wife was not that supportive – and so I sold it after some months, something I now regret very much!

As many amateur musicians are aware, learning to play an instrument and the hours of practice involved to reach any reasonable standard does require both time and – if you are married or with a family – support. Unfortunately, my first and second wives were not that patient or supportive of my musical endeavours: my first wife Rosie had no musical talent and my second wife Michele had the talent, but was a bit of a musical “snob”. To be fair, I was not that good, and since I had other business and sporting interests, it was not until the late ’90s when I was working from home that I began to revisit “music”.

Sometime earlier this century – does that sound weird? – I took the decisive step into the arena of Performing Arts and Music by joining the RACC . One of the courses I enrolled in was a Guitar course Acoustic Guitar Blues and Beyond Workshop run by Andy Walpole  and as a direct result of that course, I added three more guitars to my collection.

My fourth guitar was a  Takamine which is a hybrid guitar, meaning it can be played accoustically or “plugged in” as an electric guitar, and as a steel stringed guitar, was better suited to the different types and styles of music played in Andy’s workshop. If I was performing at an open mic for example, this is my guitar of choice.

The fifth guitar was an inexpensive and basic electrical guitar which was rarely used but I had it in mind to practice with the special effects accessories and foot pedals that made such a difference to the basic sound of an electric guitar.

The sixth guitar was the most expensive at £500, and was an acoustic steel string Martin which I actually found quite difficult to play, and so it spent most of its time in the case! If nothing else, it is an investment…..

The Richmond Adult Community College (RACC) - Courses and Workshops

I became a member of the RACC in approx 2000, and as explained previously, the main reason that I joined was actually to encourage my second wife Michele to resume her interests in singing and acting, and there were a good number of courses available for “mature students” in the College .

The College is situated in Richmond, close to the Town Centre and not far from my favourite tennis club in Old Deer Park, with easy access and with a very large car park.

At the time it was the hub of a huge amount of artistic talent, talent which was provided by both the teachers and some of the “students”, many of whom were very experienced in their particular art. The first course Michele and I joined was an evening Singing Class, and our teacher was the wonderful Deirdre O’Kelly. 

The class included learning the correct techniques for singing, the breathing required, and enunciation. The songbook was classical, and designed to be with piano accompaniment, normally provided by one of the professionals at the College. We were given songs to learn which we then had to sing in front of our fellow class members – a great learning experience and possibly more challenging than the Public Speaking course I had done some years previously.

Deirdre was also running a Musical Theatre course, which combined both acting, singing and some dance, and so I bravely joined that for one season. Our production was “Cabaret”. I remember that my character as the show’s Impressario had one particular number “Money, Money, Money” We all did our best but in my opinion Deirdre deserved a much more talented cast!

There were other Singing Courses and opportunities at the College, notably the Jazz section, which had very able teachers (including Shireen Francis) and students, amongst them my good friend David Day

But the most important Course for me was the Acoustic Guitar Blues and Beyond Workshop run by Andy Walpole.

The 2 hour evening course was held weekly starting at 8 p.m. which helped those of us in the class who were working in “proper jobs”. Andy was a great teacher, very knowledgeable and very patient, and the “Class” had approximately 15 regular attendees, some of whom were themselves immensely talented and professional guitarists and songwriters (for example the very modest and talented songwriter/musician John Carter and also the artist Catherine Paver) – which was a little off-putting for the less accomplished, like myself.

Andy covered just about every style of play, and usually had a particular song to demonstrate the theme or technique which we then tried to emulate – with varying degrees of success. We were also strongly encouraged to perform our own songs, or versions of other established songs in front of the class. Since there was such a good rapport between everybody whatever the level of experience or talent, this was not as terrifying as it could have been, and this was down to Andy’s unique style and character.

I remained a member of workshop for 10 years or so, and genuinely miss the guys and girls and the social life that was part of that scene.

Justin Sandercoe

Another very important influence on my guitar playing was Justin Sandercoe 
Justin is a professional guitarist and teacher, and at the time (2003 +) was living in Chiswick close to my home. Much as I appreciated the Andy Walpole RACC course, I felt that I needed more “one on one” teaching to improve my basic skills.

Justin is a great teacher – very friendly and encouraging – with written courses and songs prepared for learning and practice. I first saw his advertisement through the Internet, and see now he has a very strong “on-line presence” with his own You Tube channel  I wish him all the very best – he certainly helped me – and recommend any aspiring guitarist to “check out” his website 

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Domain Buddy on Public Speaking and Performing

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Domain Buddy on Public Speaking and Performing

As an entrepeneur, there will be occasions where public speaking is necessary. In my case, this happened first in the RAF and then later on when I had to address sales teams.

Without doubt the most difficult public speaking experience for me was in 1994 when I talked to a room full of potential investors at Telehouse, first with the aim of persuading them to invest in my new telecoms business, and then again six months later with the different aim of supporting me in a Boardroom battle. 

Public speaking is not easy: firstly, there is no-one else on the stage or at the lectern or microphone, and one is aware that all the attention is directed towards you, and what you have to say, and how you say it. For the most part, audiences are friendly and want you to succeed, but this can be difficult to appreciate if you are new to Public Speaking. 

Some time in the ’70s or ’80s I had enrolled in a course designed to teach the basics of Public Speaking, and within the course, given by a professional speaker, I learnt several valuable lessons which were important later on in life. And naturally, during the course, one was expected to give a number of speeches on different subjects to other “students”.

Acting is most closely related to Public Speaking where a monologue is delivered – or put simply, there is only you to take the attention of the audience. When you are part of a group of actors involved in a scene together, or part of a musical band or group, it is a little easier on the nerves. Some people thrive on the attention of being the focus for an audience, but most, including myself, are more comfortable within a team and with colleagues close at hand!

Solo musical performances are also a challenge, particularly when – as in my case – it involved both singing and playing the guitar at one of the “open mics”. This leads to two possible disaster scenarios, which are either forgetting the lyrics, or forgetting the chord sequences and the musical score.  In my case, I have trouble remembering the lryics in just about any song, but as any musician will tell you, you just have to cover your mistake and carry on – which can be easier said than done!

Is there a Solution to Performance Nerves?

I think that performance nerves are natural and to be expected. As a performer, you should possibly be more worried if you do not have them!

To reduce performance nerves when acting, I always tried to make sure that I was as confident as possible before “taking to the stage”. This involved preparation – for example, with acting, I would make sure that I knew the entire play and would memorise the “lines” and go through the scenes in my head every night before sleeping. Only when I was confident that I knew the script “inside out ” could I then concentrate on other important facets of any Play, which would include “stage positioning” and the Director’s specific requirements for my role.

For any music performance, my experience is that there was nothing better than practice, even when that practice takes place shortly before any performance.

Alcohol And one final piece of advice I am happy to pass on – do not take refuge in alcohol in the mistaken belief that this will “help”. In my experience, it never did! Save the celebratory drink for after the performance!

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Nationwide Power Communications Ltd

Leave a Comment / 1991 to 1995, Business, Nationwide Power Communications Ltd 1993 to 1994 /

Nationwide Power Communications Ltd (NPC)

How I Started in Telecoms

In 1993/1994 I formed a new Telecoms company, using my investment knowledge and expertise, to raise approximately £400,000 from professional investors.

I presented the business to potential investors at one of the meeting rooms available in the large building known as Telehouse based in London’s new Docklands area.

Telehouse is a Data Centre specialising in providing secure and essential facilities for bespoke servers, such as internet access and power supply, with back up facilities to ensure  maximum “up time” or uninterrupted service – particularly important for a telecoms business. It also provided easy access to other telephone networks.

NPC Rationale – Business Opportunity with Phonecards

At this point in time, the telecoms market in the UK was dominated by two companies – the long established National Telecoms Operator, British Telecoms (BT) – and the relatively new Mercury Communications part of Cable and Wireless. BT had effectively had a monopoly for many years, and Mercury was formed to break that monopoly. However, both companies charged high prices for phonecalls, particularly to international destinations,

Many calls were made using a payphone or phonebox  which accepted coins (cash). However a new telecoms product had been developed some years earlier which was the Telephone Card, or phonecard, as it became widely known. Of particular interest to me was the prepaid phonecard using a remote memory system, which could be used in Payphones – or from any other telephone – by first dialling a Freephone or Toll-Free number. 

Requirements

In 1993, to be able to offer a phonecard service, there were three major requirements.

The first was to have our own “telephone exchange” or telephone “softswitch” and the most important feature of the “switch” – or computer software – would be the Billing system, which would ensure that the correct charge would be made for any call, and the credit balance on the prepaid phonecard carefully monitored. This crucial software solution was produced by Gideon Goldschmidt – see below for more info on Gideon.

The second requirement was to obtain the Toll-free numbers that would be promoted on each card, and would carry the incoming call to the server hosting our telephone softswitch, which would be situated at Telehouse.

The third requirement was to be able to connect the customer’s outbound call to the required destination, which meant that we needed agreements in place with Telecoms Companies (Carriers) who could provide such a service, either for national or international calls.

There were several businesses in the UK offering to produce or manufacture phonecard products – basically credit card sized plastic cards – which could then be branded, and carry the PIN (secret password under a “scratch-off” panel) together with the appropriate Freephone or Toll-Free access number.

The Unique Selling Point (USP) for the new business was that we could offer telephone calls far more cheaply than the established UK Telecommunication Networks – BT and Mercury – particularly calls to international destinations. 

Our potential UK market included Tourists, Students, small businesses, anyone who did not have a landline available at home or indeed anyone who needed to make cheaper international calls. Two of our early customers were the Royal Air Force and the Royal Navy, for whom we produced special telephone cards depicting stirke aircraft and the famous carrier the Ark Royal. This of course pre-dated by 30 years the Mobile Phone, and Communication Services via the Internet widely available today (2021).

The new company’s offices were on the top floor of 63 Duke Street London W1, the offices I had taken over following the demise of Noble Warren Investments Ltd.

How I raised the Necessary Venture Capital

In the early ’90s, to encourage Investors and to help new businesses attract the start up capital  or venture capital they needed,  the UK Government had developed the Business Expansion Scheme (BES) – later known as the Enterprise Investment Scheme (EIS) .

For investment into new businesses that met the criteria, there were several important and generous tax advantages available to the investors, in particular, relief from Higher Rate Tax in the year the investment was made, and the removal of Capital Gains Tax on any subsequent sale.

I structured first Nationwide Power Communications Ltd, and some years later easy-dial Ltd, as BES companies. Another example of a startup business that later operated under the BES scheme was the RIverside Racquets Club.

Once I had decided on the structure of the new company, the bigger problem was one of where to find the potential investors and how to persuade them to become shareholders.

Matrix Securities Ltd

Matrix Securities Ltd was a company formed in 1986 and trading out of Vine Street in London. I believe the business was first drawn to my attention by my good friend Charles Sayer: it was of interest to me because it was linked to raising Venture Capital, and other ways of finding startup funding for small businesses, such as the new Telecoms business I had in mind, which was Nationwide Power Communications Ltd.

Matrix had accumulated lists of “professional investors” potentially interested in investing in “start-up” businesses where the risks of investing were obviously higher than average but conversely the potential rewards of owning shares in a business that went on to become successful were also higher. Potential investors on the Matrix lists were ideal prospects for me, particularly where the unique BES tax advantages would apply.

Matrix Securities Ltd offered an in-house service, which included mailing the names on their private contact lists with details of a new business: at the time, there was no email listing, which would have made the process a good deal simpler and less expensive!

I put together a Prospectus, detailing the company business plan and the members of the management team, which was proofed and agreed by Matrix, and this was mailed out to a suitable list of prospective investors in 1993/1994. The Prospectus contained a postal “reply slip” with a FREEPOST envelope to indicate further interest, and any responses were sent to me.

Management Team

Because my own expertise was at the time related to running financial businesses, I realised that a Team was needed with sufficient expertise in Telecoms to persuade investors that the new company had a chance of succeeding.

Gideon Goldschmidt – Technical Consultant
Gideon is a very talented software programmer and was the designer of the bespoke software that was used to provide the company’s unique telephone service. At the time he was involved with another entrpeneur, Adam Toop, who ran a business called Adam Phones, based in Chiswick, London, close to my home.
Gideon and his son – another talented software engineer – worked together as a team on various software projects.

Russell Mcanulla – Managing Director
Now apparently working in a small family business called Sheldon Reed, I have no recollection as to how we met. I see from Companies House records we were both directors in a company called Telefriend, but I have no idea why, or what it did. I remember meeting his wife Dianne and being invited to their home in Fleet. He obviously impressed me, because I offered him the job of Managing Director in my new company, only to be well and truly shafted after six months. 

Gary Sheppard – Director
Again I have no clear recollection of how I met Gary Sheppard, except that he was working with BT at the time and had the requisite experience in the Telecoms business. He may even have been one of my customers from Merchant Investors. Suffice to say that he was eminently fogettable, but fulfilled a role briefly as our Telecoms Director.

Ken Orrell – Sales Director
I cannot even now remember where and how I met our sales director: he was ex-army and a good salesman, and I offered him a job when he badly needed it. 

Jacqueline Peat – Office Manager
The one good thing to come out of NPC was Jackie Peat. Born to Jamaican parents and brought up in Lewisham London, at the time Jackie was unmarried with one daughter. With strong opinions, and an equally strong work ethic, she ran the office administration extremely well, and was very loyal. She later moved with me to the next telecoms company I formed which was easy-dial Ltd and carried on in office administration and customer relations. I owe her a great deal.

So What Went Wrong? Betrayed by "Little Shits"

After six months or so trading from 63 Duke Street, and starting to market the products and form the customer base for the new Company, Messrs Mcanulla Sheppard and Orell, the three musketeers – or “little shits” as I refer to them now – decided that the Company did not require my services, and they launched a Boardroom Coup

To be fair, Jackie Peat had tried to warn me on several occasions, but I had not heeded the warnings, and had assumed that there was not a serious problem. Of the three, I was the most disappointed in Ken Orrell, who seemed to me to be a decent bloke: they owed me a great deal, and all three were drawing generous consultancy fees from the new business.

I was of course very angry and disappointed: this was a major betrayal of trust. In truth, none of them were necessary to the Company, and I had only appointed them to strengthen our Board of Directors in the eyes of the Investors – our Shareholders. The only essential member of the Company was our technical Consultant, Gideon Goldshmidt, who developed and maintained our Telephone Exchange, or SoftSwitch. Unfortunately, they had “got” to Gideon, and I could not rely on him for support.

An EGM was called, with Telehouse as the venue, attended by a large number of Shareholders, who were faced with a simple choice – to either support myself or “the others”. I addressed the meeting, and warned them that, in my opinion, leaving the business in the hands of the little shits would have disastrous consequences for the Company and their investment. Unfortunatley, the Shareholders were persuaded otherwise, and in a vote, I was removed from the Board of Directors and effective control.

Some six months later, I was proved 100% correct: the company was milked dry of funds, and wound up, with Investors losing their money. As far as I know, there was no subsequent investigation of malpractice or negligence, but in my opinion, the little shits were no better than opportunistic thieves, and should have been prosecuted.

For me, this betrayal had serious consequences: apart from the damage to my own reputation, and losing my consultancy fee from NPC, the principal tenant at 63 Duke Street had disappeared overnight, which led directly to major difficulties with the Landlord and my subsequent Bankruptcy.

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63 Duke Street London Offices

Leave a Comment / 1991 to 1995, 63 Duke Street London W1 /

63 Duke Street London W1 1991 to 1994

63 Duke Street London W1

Foreword

Following the closure of Noble Warren Investments Ltd it was no longer viable for me financially to maintain the Offices at 50 Maddox Street, and so I terminated the lease as soon as was possible.

I wanted to stay in the same area of London with which I was familiar, and was not ready to leave the office environment. For me, working from home was a last resort and would not encourage entrepeneurial activity. It was important to have an office, where meetings with potential customers and colleagues could be held while I looked for the next business opportunity. And – more importantly – this was before the widespread availability of Broadband and high speed internet which would make running a business from home that much easier.

Through my previous connections, I discovered that the existing tenant and owner of the lease on 63 Duke Street, part of the portfolio of UK Property Company Land Securities Ltd, was looking to surrender the 15 year lease and was willing to pay a reverse premium.  This was a commercial property and it was also a good address in London’s West End within easy reach of the Central Line and Jubilee Line underground stations of Oxford Circus and Bond Street respectively.  The rent was reasonably low and the property in reasonable condition. There were two or three sub-tenants in the building at the time who I hoped would remain, and from whom I would collect rent which would contribute towards the amount payable in the lease agreement. I made the commercial decision to take over the lease – I had office furniture and equipment from Maddox Street that I could transfer to the new offices, and the Reverse Premium I received was enough to cover the payments due under the terms of the lease for a couple of years. 

As with the previous offices in Maddox Street, I started with the top floor of the building, which was essentially a house in the period style with 3 floors and a large basement used at the time for storage. The ground floor was not part of the lease, and was a fastfood restaurant. The first second and third floors consisted of one large room overlooking the street. There was no lift – again a slight drawback – and stairs connected the first and subsequent floors via a secure front door, with an intercom system for each floor. 

The top floor started as my personal office, and  was “open plan”, with an interesting feature which was a small roof garden accessible by ladder! As before, I used the Panasonic telephone system to interconnect between floors and make outside calls.

Close by were Portman Square and Manchester Square,  pleasant places to have a walk or relax, and Oxford Street, with Marks and Spencers and Selfridges, was two minutes on foot. 

Activities, Businesses and Personalities

Companies Formed

When I moved to 63 Duke Street in 1991, the first order of business was to find an alternative source of income which would replace Financial Services and to create new trading Companies as vehicles for any new enterprises.

I first formed Mayfair Mortgage Service Ltd in July 1991 as an umbrella company for any current or future property dealings or interests.

Marketing Companies.

The obvious place to start was in Sales and Marketing, and over the course of the next few years I formed three UK companies which were Marketing companies. I liked the word “Power” and used it as part of each of the names.

Powerpen Ltd. This company was for once not my brainchild, and was the first “power” company formed in March 1992. The products were different types of Pen from the most simple to the more expensive which were marketed by a form of MLM which encouraged the sale of the “powerpen”. The pens were despatched to customers from the offices.

Powerhouse Marketing Ltd. This company was formed in September 1992 with the intention of using  the name for any general marketing projects.

Power Communcations Ltd was also formed in September 1992 with the purpose of  focussing more on business linked to products or services related to telecoms and communications. 

New Companies, Officers and Duke Street Personalities.

All the Power Companies had Directors in common – namely myself, Paul Hesling, William Welch and Martin Hopper. I first met all three at 63 Duke Street, although I cannot remember the exact circumstances.

Paul Hesling was a tall “larger than life” character with a great sense of humour and personality, and I am certain that he would have been successful at GCP or Merchant Investors or any other sales oriented business. He worked very closely with best friend Will Welch, and they were both involved with various marketing schemes before I met them. Martin Hopper was a quieter more serious personality, and he also had experience in MLM Sales and Marketing. Powerpen was the first and last project that we were all actively involved with, and Paul’s idea, and unfortunately it was no more than modestly successful.

I have since tried to “track them down”, hoping that I would find them on LinkedIn or Facebook, but without success. The information available from Companies House does mention a Paul Philip Hesling as a Director for a company called Energy7 Ltd but I am not certain that this is the same Paul Hesling.

They were all talented marketing consultants, and – importantly for me – possessed the “entrepeneurial spirit”. They were also great company, and it was a pleasure for me to be able to focus on new ideas with them. They moved on to other marketing businesses as my attention turned to another opportunity – in the UK Telecommunications Market – but the parting was wholly amicable.

The next chapter in my entrepeneurial journey was about to start with Nationwide Power Communications Ltd

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Domain Buddy on Global Financial Scandals

Leave a Comment / Domain Buddy Opinions and Comments, Global Financial Scandals /

Financial Scandals and The Role of the Institutions.

Foreword

I would not say that the general public is gullible, but much of our money is tied up in “fund management” without our express knowledge or permission – for example our pension fund, or any credit balance we may have in our Bank Accounts. 

Bank Liquidity.

It is a well-known fact that any major Bank faced with a requirement to return all funds and/or deposits owned by customers would not be able to comply.
Why?
Because Banks and other financial institutions are run as profit making businesses – their shares are quoted on the relevant Stock Market. Success or failure depends on their Share price: and, more importantly, the huge salaries and bonuses paid to the people at the the top of the “tree” are also geared to Share Price, which in turn depends on “profits” and “performance”. And this inevitably encourages risk taking or, better still, insider trading – if they can get away with it – using the funds they control, which are of course provided by the public.

Assets

At any one time, the assets of any financial institution or Bank will be “tied up” in  loans and other “money making activities” such as hedge funds: some of these “assets” may well include dubious investments or unwise corporate lending or second mortgages on dodgy properties as happened recently in the USA. When the money making activities turn out to be too unwise or negligent, then the sort of Banking collapse witnessed in 2007/2008 occurs. 

Were there any Consequences for the Financial Scandals and  Banking Collapses?

Did the guilty parties in the Financial Institutions who really made and were responsible for these negligent decisions suffer financially or were they held to account?
NO 
There were of course some “scapegoats” or other “sacrificial lambs” who appeared before the public and Investigatory Committees to be castigated, but the real culprits continued in charge, fortunes and power intact. These people are smart, and they are surrounded by the best legal and accounting advice that (our) money can buy. Any money- making schemes that potentially have a risk of failure are set up in such a way that the bosses are fireproof, and the finger of blame can be pointed elsewhere.

Are some International and National Banks too big to be allowed allow to fail?

YES is the simple answer. 

Has Regulation Been Effective? Can Future Reglation be Effective?

No – Regulation and Regulators are simply Useless.
As an example, in the UK in 2012 as a direct result of their failure to prevent the financial scandals and resulting fallout, the Securities and Investment Board (SIB) and the FSA (Financial Services Authority) were axed, and regulatory control passed to the Bank of England. 
Did the incompetent regulators suffer in any way for their failure?
NO
In truth, the people who work for Government Regulators are just not competent enough to do the job: they are mostly career politicians, with no experience of how big business operates. To catch a wolf, it is not a good idea to employ a sheep: and – in an effort to be fair to them – it is difficult to regulate an industry which is too large and important to fail, and where that Industry has access to the best possible legal and financial advice.

So is there a Solution?

Probably not. The entire global financial system – for better or worse – holds the world economy together. One possibility is to remove Banks from the “equation” by altering their licences so that they are no longer Quoted Companies, and can only carry out the business of supplying normal banking facilities to their clientele.

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Domain Buddy on Insider Trading

Leave a Comment / Domain Buddy Opinions and Comments, Insider Trading /

Insider Trading Explained

My Definition.

Insider “trading” or Insider “dealing” is the possession of certain advance knowledge about an event not commonly available that allows one to unfairly or illegally profit from that event. It is often specifically associated with financial markets.

Examples

A well quoted example happened 200 years ago, when Rothschilds Bank had advance knowledge of the outcome of the Battle of Waterloo thanks to their investment in new technology – the Telegraph – and they proceeded to profit hugely from the rise in stock prices that occurred once Wellington’s victory was common knowledge.

Was this a crime, or just good business?

Another couple of examples of Insider Trading are featured in two of my favourite films from the 1980s – the comedy Trading Places and the drama Wall Street.

In “Trading Places” the bad guys are a couple of brothers running a Commodities Brokerage, and they rely on making their fortune by illlegally obtaining advance knowledge of production figures affecting Orange Juice Futures.

The film Wall Street is primarily about stock price manipulation, arising from “inside knowledge”.  Another great film is “A Good Year” with Russell Crowe. In the first few scenes of the film, Russell Crowe’s team of salesmen (or traders or dealers) demonstrate exactly how stock price manipulation works.

Of course, advance knowledge of events does not always only profit one party – for example today’s weather satellites can provide early warning of major storm systems that often saves thousands of lives. 

Insider Trading is prevalent in all industries and business in one form or another – sometimes in an obvious way and other times more surreptitiously. The Domain Name Industry as an example, is controlled by a number of large institutions. Where a valuable domain name is being sought by a large company, and one individual or business has prior knowledge of this, that domain name can be safely acquired in the knowledge that a guaranteed profit will arise.

Can Insider Trading Be Prevented?

Absolutely not: everyone wants to be “ahead of the game” especially in Business. Where it could apply in financial trading, techniques to protect firms and individuals from this potential claim have only become more and more sophisticated and so it is much harder to prove.

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Domain Buddy on Fund Management

Leave a Comment / Domain Buddy Opinions and Comments, Fund Management The Perfect Business /

Fund Management - The Perfect Business

Win Win


There is nothing complicated about the reasons for the existence of the Fund Management profession: it is really very simple. The more money an individual or a firm have under management, the more money they will make. And best of all, it is not their money. If things go wrong, the customer – normally the general public – takes the loss. It is a perfect risk free business for so-called fund management professionals.

How Institutions Profit From Fund Management.


As one simple example, consider a fund of £100 million (small by stock market standards) where the fund manager is tasked only with “beating the returns” of, or outperforming, one of the leading UK Stock Market Indices – for example the FTSE 100: in this simple example, the fund would not be allowed to invest in any financial derivatives or other instruments, international currency variations would not be an issue, and the only permitted trading would be in the blue chip Company Shares that make up the Index.

The first decision would be as to how much liquidity (univested cash) should be in the fund: after all, if the fund is 100% invested, and no buying or selling takes place, then the result should be identical to the FTSE annual growth – or fall – and so how can a management fee of 0.75 per cent or £750,000 be justified? Of course, the actual trading that takes place in any fund is a closely guarded secret, but the reality is that the “experienced” Fund Manager if he is to outperform the Index will need to “take a view” and alter the liquidity in the fund over a period, maybe for example through profit taking, or possibly for the avoidance of further losses on certain stocks.

Here is where it gets interesting. Every time stocks are traded, this involves a commission – the difference between the buy price and the sell price – also known as the “spread”. This commission – which can be anything from 0.25% and upwards – will be debited to the Fund, and of course the more active the Fund Manager, the greater the commissions generated to the advantage of the market makers concerned, who are aften linked with or associated with the Fund Manager. And it is not uncommon for such a fund to generate far more in dealing commission “earnings” than the basic management fee, which in this example is £750,000 annually.

Of course, if the Fund Manager gets the investment strategy right (or guesses correctly, however you may view the process) then everybody is “happy” – meaning that there are no apparent victims. 

Churning If however, the fund performs below expectations, the fund manager may be accused of “churning”  or “over trading” with the purpose of generating extra commission. This really is difficult to prove one way or another, as the Fund Manager may argue with some justification that he is “only doing his job” and each trade was a judgement call at the time.

Scratching the Surface But this example of how one simple fund can provide far higher returns than the “management fee” is only scratching the surface. In reality, funds under management are massive – hundreds of billions of pounds or dollars: think of mutual funds, insurance and pension funds. And all the “sophisticated” trading and financial instruments available in use – with  hedge funds for example.

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Jarretts Bond Management Ltd

Leave a Comment / 1977 to 1991, Business, Jarretts Bond Management Ltd 1978 to 1991 /

The Jarretts Rationale

In the late ’70s and ’80s UK Inflation was at record highs, and there were not many investments producing real returns i.e. a return more than the devaluation caused by inflation. For example, if one “invested” in a UK Building Society or Bank Deposit Account with a one year return of 8%, but inflation was at 15% for the year in question, the result was a guaranteed loss of 7% – not to mention any tax that may have been levied on the “profit”

An example of a national economy doing well at this time was Japan: another international growth area was the resurgent USA technology sector. Significant real growth could also be achieved in natural resources (oil) and other commodities, and some of the Unit Trust funds available provided opportunities for investment in those sectors, with a good chance of achieving “real” returns.

The new Unit Linked Insurance market gave policyholders the chance to link their funds to these higher performing economies and sectors via specific Unit Trusts, and this could be achieved not only with Single Premium Investment Bonds (minimum investment at the time of £250) but also for savings plans with premiums of only £10 per month.

When one added in other benefits – namely the Life Assurance Premium Tax Relief at 17.5 % and the taxfree status on the returns after 10 years – the 10 year Savings plans that we sold at Merchant Investors, and then through NWI, offered an attractive investment product to customers.

The customer could choose his own funds, and independently switch his investment as the premiums paid increased the value of his holdings. If the customer was not confident of managing his own money, or did not have the time to do so, and the sum involved was large enough, he could appoint a professional fund manager. However, “professional fund management” was not available for relatively small sums of money – for example amounts of less than £100,000 – and I recognised an opportunity to offer customers a management service for their unit linked portfolios. 

And so I formed Jarretts Bond Management Ltd (JBM) which started trading in 1978.

Company Formation 1978

The company started with five individuals – John Elderton (formerly at Merchant Investors) and working at the time with my brother, myself, Peter Coast and Alistair Binning. I have no idea what happened to Peter and Alistair in later life – I can only find a record of John, (see LinkedIn profile above) who I remember as a friendly and charming individual, and who describes himself now as a Financial Planning Professional: he appears to have had a successful  career in the same industry.

Peter and Alistair were also pleasant positive personalities, and at the time we each had a common  goal which was to provide a professional management service to our personal clients who had invested in Single Premium Investment Bonds and/or Unit Trusts.

Unfortnately, as with many projects involving independent thinking characters and entrepeneurs, the “partnership” did not last, and within six months or so, I was the sole director and controller of JBM, operating out of 50 Maddox Street. 

How Business Was Done

In my opinion, JBM offered an essential fund management service to customers. There was no “selling” at JBM: it was purely there as an optional extra – mainly for unit-linked clients of NWI – and if customers were happy to either manage their own plans or contracts, or stick with the initial fund chosen at the beginning of the contract, then this was fine.

However, in my opinion, it would have been verging on irresponsible for me not to have offered some form of ongoing management advice,  and this opinion was shared by many of NWIs customers. It was important for them to have the choice, and since fund valuations were transparent with daily unit prices published in the Financial Times and elsewhere, they could easily monitor the value of their unit holdings.

Professional Qualifications In brief, there were no professional qualifications available for this type of fund management. In 1978 JBM was not buying or selling stocks or Unit Trusts, which would have required the appropriate licence to operate as a stockbroker: it was not responsible for choosing the underlying securities or shareholdings within the various funds. At the beginning, and as the CEO of JBM, my task was to identify promising sectors available for our customers, and switch their holdings accordingly, and hope that the “professionals” actually running the funds or Unit Trusts did their job in choosing the right mix of underlying securities or shares in that sector. This was the route taken by Hargreaves Lansdown as a good example.

After some years, and with the experience gained in fund management, JBM successfully applied to become a Licensed Dealer in Securities, which gave me the ability to deal directly through registered stockbrokers and financial institutions.

Fees The annual management fee was the greater of £25 or 1% of the value of the “portfolio” – so unit-linked customers would normally have unit holdings to a minimum of £2500. Where savings plans were involved, for most customers it would take some years before the funds would reach a value of £2500, so most of the early JBM customers had single premium investment Bonds or a holding of Unit Trusts. JBM also later developed a fee based upon profit sharing, where an annual return or fund growth greater that an agreed amount would result in a larger fee if successful, or a nil fee where unsuccessful.

How Jarretts Developed

Initially, my time was mostly spent managing NWI, but by the early ’80s more and more time was devoted to following the financial press, monitoring investment trends globally, and reading journals like the Financial Times – which I would in any case monitor daily for the unit prices published which were linked to our modestly sized customer portfolios. It seemed to me that Fund Management should have been a logical business, and not one that required any great skill – there were plenty of underperforming Unit Trusts in all sectors, and no way of knowing which would do consistently well.

I started to study the stock markets, and examine how business was really done in the financial institutions that control the process. I began to understand what other instruments were available to stockbrokers and dealers – not only the sale and purchase of quoted company shares but also financial derivatives and traded options for just about anything – commodities, currency futures etc. I also began to understand how much money was being made by the intermediaries who made the decisons as to buying and selling.

Jarretts Own Funds

After some years, in approx 1985, I decided that I could do the job of managing unit linked funds better than most of the professionals I had contact with over the preceding 7 years, and with the help of Skandia Life, who performed the adminstrative and legal functions necessary, I set up three new Jarretts Single Premium Investment Bond Funds – Conservative, Realistic and Speculative. The Jarretts funds were valued by the Insurance Company and the prices were published weekly along with their other unit prices for other funds. I managed the funds as a Licensed Dealer, buying and selling through Stockbrokers and Unit Trust Managers. The holdings for each fund consisted of authorised stocks or Unit Trusts or other quoted funds: the Conservative Fund was primarily invested in the Property Sector and Fixed Interest securities, the Realistic Fund had more of an international flavour and the Speculative Fund was designed to profit from Special Situations, and the new trading instruments and derivatives available.

There was no “hard sell” with the Jarretts Funds – NWI clients could choose between no management service, a fixed annual fee of 1% for non Jarretts funds or an investment into the appropiate Jarretts Fund with no management fee: we obtained dealing commissions in the same way as other fund managers, which more than compensated for the absence of a management fee.

Our funds under management were modest – no more than a £1 million or so – and the Jarretts funds performed better than average over the remaining five or six years that we were allowed to trade. 

JBM Personalities

There were two individuals who were important to me as regards JBM, and for entirely different reasons.

Peter Jeffries

Peter was a Canadian in his ’50s or ’60s at the time I met him in about 1985, and he was running a fund called the Growth Strategies Fund, from a small London office, which appeared to be doing extremely well. Peter was very knowledgable about the Securities Market, and produced a weekly newsletter which I found very interesting.

In his newsletter, he described how one could make money with derivatives even when the price of an underlying security fell – his favourite vehicle was traded options. He also described at some length how he made his investment analysis – he was basically a chartist who used methods such as the Gann theories  to make his buying and selling decisions.

He was also an exponent of the major USA stocks that were driving the technical revolution of the time. I invested a modest amount of money from our Jarretts Speculative Fund into his venture, but – as my second wife Michele will confirm – I had my doubts about his integrity, and after a few months, I sold the holding at a profit, much to Peter’s annoyance. As it turned out, his fund was closed by the authorities some months later, and it transpired that client’s money had not been invested and the fund pricing was artificial to say the least. Stealing client’s money is a crime under any circumstances, even for a fund manager……

Richard Furber, Dean Witter Reynolds

As a Fund Manager, I had become very interested in the new investment vehicles available, and needed to find a Broker who could provide an international service. The obvious choice was an American company as the USA was both a market leader in trading derivatives and methods, and also could provide access to some of the most interesting growth stocks of the time, which were in the high tech industry.

Richard Furber was the management contact or Account Executive I worked with at Dean Witter Reynolds and for the next five years or so we developed both a business relationship and a friendship. Richard had a splendid house in the Surrey Stockbroker Belt and was married to Meg, an extremely nice girl and they had one daughter. Michele and I were often guests at their house which boasted a pool and a tennis court. In a previous life, Richard had been a seriously good tennis player, and was on the American College circuit, and was a member of the Queen’s Club. His appearance was very similar to the well known actor Ben Stiller .

When Jarretts was put out of business, we lost touch, but I note that he went on to do exceedingly well in his personal career at Dean Witter until 1998. He has kept a low public profile subsequently.

So What Went Wrong?

Unfortunately, because I was linked to Noble Warren Investments Ltd, when that company became a victim of the Regulator, it was inevitable that JBM would also fall foul of the “system”, and so it turned out. 

Jarretts Bond Management lost its License to Deal in Securities and was closed down within a matter of weeks in 1991. Another baby thrown out with the bathwater, and customers left without management advice for their investments, that I am sure they had appreciated.

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