December 31st 1999, the turn of the millennium, a very special occasion indeed, the turning of a thousand years. So special that Raffles, now in private ownership, decided to open for an extra two hours until 5.00am.
I thought this was wonderful as they also paid me an extra £500 for the two hours. We all started work with great anticipation of the crowds of people about to descend upon us. Well they did all FIVE of them, everyone had been made aware by the great British press that drinks and food were going to be astronomically priced, and they had all decided to have house parties, of the five people who did bother two tipped me £50 each so it was a most profitable evening for myself. Outside the crowds were thronging the Kings Road on the way back from watching an enormous firework display.
Talking of fireworks reminds me of a job I had done in August 1989, myself and Joe had the pleasure of doing the security for the 200th anniversary party for the Savoy Hotel, the guest list was a real who's who of politicians of the day and the directors of the Savoy. Among them were
Margaret Thatcher,
John Major,
Geoffrey Howe,
Nigel Lawson,
Paul Channon,
Kenneth Clarke and interestingly
Adam Faith, Adam Faith as you know was a 50s British pop star turned actor, his real name was Terry Nelhams and he was a director of the Savoy Hotel. They all had a champagne reception and a fine dinner and we then had to escort all of them around to the pavement in front of the savoy, whilst two motorbike policeman stopped the traffic for a better view, for them to watch £30,000 worth of fireworks launched into the skies from on board the Hispaniola that was moored up on the Thames. Can you imagine that, just the two of us and the majority of the British Government traipsing round the streets for a firework display, once again I had no police checks and I very much doubt that Joe did either. At the end all the guests were given a gift, I asked if myself and Joe could have one and was pleasantly surprised to receive a ceramic plate with a painting of the savoy in 1789 on it, I reckon it is possibly the only thing I own that is worth more than two bob, I often wonder if Joe still has his. Ironically this event took place on the same night of the Marchioness disaster on the River Thames.
