David Parkin on ABBA, a unicorn and a big organ

I TOLD you I would.

Last week I tantalised with the story that I was off to the Far East to see ABBA.

Well I’m back with all the news from Bridlington where I was working at The Business Day conference.

The annual event at Bridlington Spa attracts a high level audience of business leaders from Hull and East Yorkshire to hear from an eclectic group of speakers.

The headliner last Friday was Björn Ulvaeus, co-founder of Swedish pop supergroup ABBA.

Looking slim, fit and trendily dressed in T-shirt, jacket and trainers without socks, the musician looked 20 years younger than a man pushing 80.

Host Giles Brandreth pointed out that Björn was a similar age to US president Joe Biden which provided something of a contrast given the Swede’s wit and easy conversation compared to Biden’s recent rather stilted appearances.

Brandreth, a highly accomplished public speaker, was an interviewer who asked rather eclectic questions.

If it was me in the chair, I’d have asked more questions about ABBA’s heyday and what they have been doing since stepping back from super stardom.

Giles chose to ask Björn about his earliest memory.

It was two lobsters racing across the kitchen floor of his childhood home in Sweden (his father ran a shipyard and the fishermen used to give him lobsters from their catch).

He also asked about his happiest and saddest memories from growing up.

When we got onto the ABBA story Giles pointed out that Sir Mick Jagger is still bopping about on stage at the age of 80 to bring home the bacon whereas Björn and his colleagues have recreated themselves as digital avatars in their pomp for the sold out hit show ABBA Voyage in London.

Having co-written Chess with Sir Tim Rice, the Swede also created the stage show Mamma Mia!, which later was made into two popular films.

He lives a relatively quiet life in Sweden with his girlfriend and admitted to Giles, that even at the height of ABBA’s fame, was able to live normally in Sweden, walking his children to school and going shopping, something he never could have done if he lived in the UK or US.

It was a fascinating conversation with a man, who as Brandreth pointed out, is perhaps the most successful person in popular music in the world.

What he was doing in Bridlington on a Friday afternoon in June is anyone’s guess, but a coup all the same.

I WAS hosting one of the breakout sessions at The Business Day conference, sponsored by Hull-based property businesses Wykeland and Beal.

Entrepreneurs Dominic Gibbons of Wykeland and Richard Beal of Beal Homes have asked me to compere these sessions for the last three years and what is most impressive about them is that Wykeland Beal (a joint venture between the two companies that has created wonderful living, working and socialising space on Humber Street in Hull) sponsors the sessions but always donates them to charities and community organisations to help them promote what they do.

This year we heard from Deputy Lieutenants of East Yorkshire, Andrew Horncastle, Deb Oxley and Christopher Oughtred about the King’s Awards for Enterprise and from the charity CatZero Humber.

The charity is dedicated to the support of people of all ages, helping them into employment or training.

It focuses on confidence-building activities including trips on a 72-foot Challenge yacht and has helped hundreds of people back into education, training, or simply on the path towards their goals.

We heard the wonderful and inspiring story of entrepreneur Milly Rose who was a single mother who escaped an abusive relationship, was supported by CatZero and who has since founded her own business, Fantastic Faces.

The business does face painting for children’s parties and festivals and is now the biggest firm of its kind in the UK.

I said to Milly that my face needs some improvement and asked her what I should have painted on it.

She said she could definitely see me as a unicorn.

Now, according to my research a unicorn is a legendary extremely wild woodland creature which is a symbol of purity and grace.

I can get on board with that.

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FAREWELL then Martin Gerrard.

The former president of Harrogate District Chamber of Commerce who worked at Barclays Bank for 49 years until his retirement two years ago, died last week.

Martin, who was certainly one of the best known and well liked figures in the Harrogate business community, was diagnosed with cancer earlier this year.

He was only 69 and his former colleague Caroline Pullich told me that he had many exciting plans for his retirement after such a phenomenal career at Barclays where he had been a premier relationship manager.

In the times when I met Martin he was genuine, warm and funny company with no ego.

My experience of the man was reflected in the tributes from those who knew him well.

On Linkedin people reflected on a “great man” with a “big heart” who was “caring”, “generous”, “warm” and “kind”.

Many people described Martin Gerrard as a “true gentleman”.

And he was.

Harrogate, Yorkshire and life in general is worse off without him.

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I RECENTLY caught up with entrepreneur Richard Jackson who ensured himself a mention in the blog with several good stories, and, more importantly, becoming a paid subscriber.

When it comes to those making a modest financial contribution to support my scribbling efforts, it is definitely about quality rather than quantity.

But when I can find the perfect balance between the two, I’ll be writing this on a sun lounger in Palm Springs.

In the meantime I’m sitting in a tracksuit in my home office sipping a luke warm cup of tea while the dog barks at the postman who is delivering a speeding fine after I was caught on camera doing 10 mph above the interminable 50 mph limit imposed on what feels like the entire length of the M1 between Yorkshire and the Midlands.

Rant over.

Anyway, Richard, who only speeds when he races his cars on a proper race track, is a former High Sheriff of West Yorkshire and long-serving Deputy Lieutenant.

He concurred with my comments last week about the emotion surrounding the 80th anniversary of the D-Day landings.

“I was equally touched by the coverage both here and in France.

“The nonagenarians and centenarians were inspirational and, although not surprising, how lucid they were. We certainly do know how to deal with such occasions.  

“In my role as a Deputy Lieutenant, I had the privilege of attending a ceremony in Clifford, near Boston Spa, reading the National Tribute and lighting the beacon.

“It won’t have got the same amount of coverage as Sir Winston Churchill’s great grandson, who carried out the same duty in Ripon! 

“Emotional as it was I did feel proud to do that duty.”

Richard told me he has recently returned from the wedding of a fellow racing driver in the Alps.

The ceremony was in a mountain top venue that featured in a James Bond film.

After the nuptials the bride, in white wedding dress and groom and groomsmen, all dressed in kilts, skied down the mountain to the reception at a hotel at the bottom of the slopes.

That certainly sounds very James Bond.

But I couldn’t help wondering if it was windy in the Alps that day.

TO Crafthouse and Angelica for lunch with some lawyers.

When London-based restaurant chain D&D opened its first restaurant and bar in the then new Trinity shopping centre in Leeds several years ago it created quite a buzz.

Indeed they became quite the destination for the city’s glitterati for a while.

That was probably the time I stopped going.

Well, I’ve never looked good in glitter.

Invited for lunch by law firm Addleshaw Goddard, I was interested to experience the venue with sweeping views of the city’s skyline.

It was a Tuesday lunchtime and Crafthouse was closed so lunch was being served in Angelica upstairs.

Midweek lunchtimes are no longer a time when many business people choose to meet these days.

Times have clearly changed in the restaurant game.

The good thing for Addleshaw Goddard is that it can trace its roots in Leeds back to 1775 and it has gone from strength to strength ever since.

Christian Collinson, the firm’s long-serving head of communications invited me to meet the new head of the Leeds office Lucy Sturrock and her predecessor Pervinder Kaur, who has just completed a three-year term in the role.

I’ve known Christian since he was a young PR man with Clarke & Company in Leeds.

Since he joined AG 25 years ago the firm has gone from having three offices in the UK to 20 around the world including the most recent opening in Madrid.

It is an impressive recent expansion for a firm which first opened its doors in Leeds in 1775 when Nicholas Smith launched a solicitors office in the city which went on to become Booth & Co, later merging to become Addleshaw Booth & Co and is now known as Addleshaw Goddard.

To be fair to Christian he isn’t claiming credit for all of this growth.

I first met Pervinder Kaur three years ago at the start of her term as head of the Leeds office.

Head of its private capital group, she advises high net worth individuals on tax planning.

Thoughtful, engaging and driven, she took over at the firm during the pandemic and has helped steer it successfully through what were uncharted waters presenting many challenges to businesses.

The pandemic may be over but Lucy Sturrock has stepped into the role at a time when there are still many uncertainties for business.

She is a commercial property specialist with a particular interest in the hotels sector with long standing clients including Travelodge, Primark and Sainsbury’s.

Significant recent deals include advising British Land on its sale of a 50% stake in Meadowhall shopping centre and working with Asda on its plans for a giant store and 1,500 homes on a development in Park Royal in London.

Bright, sharp and easy to chat to, Lucy is relishing the opportunity to lead the Leeds office after almost 30 years working at AG.

As we looked out onto the city’s skyline I commented that the many cranes in view all seemed to be part of the building work on blocks of student flats.

I wondered whether the city centre would suffer with more student accommodation being developed on the site of the former House of Fraser department store on Briggate and the upper floors of the old Debenhams building nearby.

Lucy’s belief is that all of this investment is positive and as long as the projects create a sense of “place” within the heart of the city they will add value.

Cities thrive on change and businesses must embrace it to survive and grow.

AG has certainly seen plenty of that during its two-and-a-half centuries in the city

I WENT to London for the day this week and as I boarded at Leeds I was surrounded by men of a certain age in black jackets and striped trousers carrying large cases.

More got on at Wakefield and then Doncaster and the person I was meeting in London confirmed that her train from the home counties to the capital was also full of Freemasons.

There must have been some kind of gathering of the clans in London but when I Googled it all I could find was an organ recital taking place at the vast art deco Freemasons’ Hall in the West End.

The concert was by someone called D'Arcy Trinkwon.

With a name like that you need a big organ.

Have a great weekend.