THIS blog is a weekly fount of wit and wisdom.
And if you believe that, you are dafter than I look.
But if there is one thing I know readers like, it is interesting stories about unique businesses and the entrepreneurs behind them.
Take last week’s piece about the Lowy family.
Australian-born and now American-based businessman Peter Lowy’s recent investment in Leeds United saw him join the board of the Premier League club.
I recounted some of the phenomenal and inspiring story of his father Frank’s life and career thanks to Edward Ziff of Town Centre Securities.
Now Edward has kindly followed this up by loaning me his copy of Frank Lowy’s biography, ‘Pushing the Limits’.
I can’t wait to read the book, which was published in 2001 and tells the story of how a one-time refugee became a multi-billionaire.
At the time it was published, Frank Lowy, the founder of the Westfield property and retail empire, was Australia’s second richest man.
He had also made plenty of his fellow Australians wealthy too.
An investment of $1000 in Westfield shares when the company went public in 1960 was worth £133.2m (assuming all dividends and benefits were reinvested) at the end of 2000.
Not surprisingly that kind of financial performance was unrivalled in Australia at the time and also outstripped the the growth offered by internationally renowned investment figures such as George Soros and Warren Buffett.
I have to say while his business success is fascinating, I’m even more intrigued by Frank Lowy’s early life which the book also charts, described as “the gripping account of a Jewish Slovakian-Hungarian boy whose character was forged in the fire of the Holocaust”.
Another thing I’ve learned since last week is that Frank Lowy’s eldest son David has had a pretty eclectic career.
Thanks to reader Sian Christmas (no I didn’t make the name up) for the insight.
David, now aged 66, worked for the Westfield Group from 1977 to 2000 as executive director and managing director and was non-executive deputy chairman until 2011 when he retired from the business.
He established the Lowy family’s private investment firm, Lowy Family Group and has a deep interest in aviation.
He is the former Australian Aerobatic Champion and has performed at air shows flying a Second World War Spitfire and Vietnam War era Dragonfly.
Not bad for a man whose interest in flying began after his mother gave him a balsa wood glider at the age of five.
After he left Westfield David Lowy also fancied indulging his love of music.
Now I know plenty of middle-aged men who play the guitar and aspire to perform a gig in the back room of a small pub.
However David Lowy, perhaps not surprisingly given his family background, didn’t settle for that.
He founded the rock supergroup The Dead Daisies.
I have to admit, I have never heard of them, but I’m mightily impressed all the same.
The Dead Daisies is a musical collective featuring a rotating line-up of famous rock musicians with current members Glenn Hughes of Deep Purple and Black Sabbath and Doug Aldrich of Whitesnake and Dio.
Since the band was formed in 2012 they have released three albums and toured alongside rock acts including ZZ Top, Aerosmith, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Bad Company, Judas Priest, KISS, Whitesnake, Def Leppard and the Hollywood Vampires.
They have toured Europe, the USA, Japan and South Korea and South America and even headlined Poland’s Woodstock Festival, performing alongside Gorzow Philharmonic Orchestra and watched by more than a quarter of a million people.
Back in America they took part in the ‘Dirty Dozen’ tour, joining forces with 12 of the country’s biggest Harley-Davidson motorcycle dealers.
How do you top that?
I know.
If he is as big a Leeds United fan as his brother, then it has to be an open air gig at Elland Road.
Or I might pitch an idea to Edward Ziff that the Dead Daisies perform on the roof of the Merrion Centre shopping mall in Leeds.
It would certainly drown out the tramp who plays a penny whistle on Park Row.
:::
MY mention of the 50th anniversary of the classic British gangster film Get Carter has earned me entry into the broadcasting pantheon.
Well, a mention on Tameside Radio.
Which is the same thing, really.
If you were listening to the Manchester station just after 10 o’ clock last Friday evening then you’d have been tuned into the Music Therapy show co-presented by Michael Taylor and Neil Summers.
Michael is an old friend and one-time business journalism rival, the former editorial director of Business Insider magazine.
Prior to playing the theme from Get Carter, that haunting instrumental Carter Takes a Train by Roy Budd, Michael kindly gave me what in radio parlance is known as a “shout out”.
“This is a bit of a shout out to my mate Dave Parkin, who always keeps us entertained with his Friday newsletter,” Michael told his listeners.
“He listens to the show over there in Harrogate.”
I daren’t tell him I’ve now moved to Leeds on licence.
Well they didn’t have enough electronic tags available to allow me to reside in the environs of the verdant North Yorkshire spa town.
But Michael is absolutely right, I am an avid listener to his show on Tameside Radio.
On catch up, every time I get a mention.
Michael’s fellow presenter Neil Summers wondered if Get Carter was originally set in Manchester rather than Newcastle.
I can settle that debate.
Get Carter was based on the novel Jack’s Return Home by Ted Lewis.
And it was set somewhere much more glamorous than Manchester or Newcastle.
Scunthorpe.
Jack Carter may have visited Doncaster in the novel, published in 1970, but I’m not so sure.
You see, author Lewis wanted to keep the story gritty and grimy and so inclusion of the bright lights of Donny would have provided far too much glitz.
So he stuck to the hood he knew – North Lincolnshire.
Michael rightly said that the film became an icon of the North East.
“In fact, whenever I get off the train in Newcastle, I hear this next track in my mind,” he told his listeners.
I’m the same, but I used to hear the theme tune of Get Carter every time I got on any train.
It gives you a brash swagger reminiscent of Michael Caine in his three piece navy blue suit in the title role.
The world is your oyster, you can achieve anything you want to and no one can get the better of you.
I say I used to hear the Get Carter theme in my mind every time I got on a train.
Sadly that is no longer the case.
Not since a troop of Brownies pushed in front of me in the queue for the Scarborough North Bay miniature railway.
Have a great weekend.