David Parkin on a Leeds legend and going to the MOBOs

THE word legend is bandied about too much these days.

But I was lucky enough to be in the presence of one yesterday.

Former Leeds United great Norman Hunter was the guest at our lunch at the Foundry restaurant where we ‘celebrated’ the 40th anniversary of his infamous fight with Francis Lee of Derby County.

Hard as nails as a player, Norman is a humble and charming gentleman who told our audience that he isn’t proud to view the dramatic footage of his Baseball Ground battle with Franny.

He said that the Leeds manager at the time, Jimmy Armfield, was attempting to clean up the club’s image and so had instructed him to keep it as clean as possible on the pitch.

But that was before his fiery team mate Billy Bremner started whispering in his ear, winding up Norman that the “fat, little ****” Lee had got the better of him.

Norman sat next to Rodney Dalton, the Lupton Fawcett Denison Till property lawyer, once also described as a “local legend” by the Chambers legal bible.

Rodney did a great job of priming Norman for his Q&A after lunch by asking him questions about his playing days and wanting to know which of the stories that have gone down in the Leeds United annals were true and which were apochryphal.

I told Rodney later he’d done a great job and it was a bit like in racing when they put a donkey in with a thoroughbred racehorse to calm it down before a big race.

I think Rodders thought he was the racehorse.

Someone pointed out that today Norman’s famous nickname, ‘Bites Yer Legs’ would have been trade marked and used as a brand, a bit like Cristiano Ronaldo has the CR7 brand.

It was nice to see a few familiar faces at the lunch.

Darren Allison, of Bathroom Brands, has just returned from Morocco, where his son Ross played in a Leeds Schools FA under-11s side which represented England in the Nations Cup against junior teams from Borussia Dortmund, Paris St Germain and Deportivo La Coruna.

That was made even more impressive because Leeds Schools FA, unlike many others, have a policy of not allowing academy contracted players in their team.

Richard Gibson, the entrepeneur that runs Marpak, was a guest of Yorkshire Bank at the lunch and I reminded him of a story I’d written about him when I was at the Yorkshire Post.

After Ken Bates sold Chelsea to the Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich, the club were dubbed Chelski and Richard decided to secure the rights to produce bed and bath linen, alcoholic and soft drinks under the Chelski name and planned to launch a blue vodka-based alcopop called Chelski Blue.

But Bates, who stayed on as chairman for a while after the Abramovich takeover, filed an opposition to the trademark application accusing Richard’s Beeston-based firm of “passing off” and making the application in “bad faith”.

After two years of legal wrangling, Richard won and Chelsea’s claim was thrown out with the club ordered to pay his costs.

Richard reminded me yesterday of what he said at the time: “Chelsea nil, Chelski one.”

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DID you read the news that about 2,000 Morrisons’ employees are planning to sue the company after their personal details were leaked online?

I suppose those staff now suing their employer might see it as an opportunity to make up for the dramatic collapse in the value of the shares they hold in their company sharesave scheme.

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I MANAGED to wangle myself an invite to the MOBO Awards at the first direct arena in Leeds this week thanks to the generosity of Reward Finance’s Karen Paige.

Whilst after a couple of drinks I convinced myself I was a fan of rap and grime music, I was more interested in experiencing one of the biggest music events to come to Leeds.

If the city is to firmly put itself on the map internationally then it needs to grab the opportunity to host events like the MOBOs.

The awards, which stand for ‘music of black origin’ cover a wide range of music, from hip hop, reggae, soul, RnB, jazz and gospel.

The two words I said most on the evening were: “Who’s that?”

Whilst I take my hat off to winners such as Stormzy and Krept & Konan, I worry about the long term sustainability of their business plans given both took entourages of 20-plus people on stage when they collected their awards.

FKA Twigs showed intelligence and humility when accepting her award for Best Video but I do worry about the hepatitis c risks from all those piercings.

When I pointed this out to my neighbour, she just said: “She’s engaged to Robert Pattinson, he’s gorgeous, lucky mare.”

I enjoyed the performances of Lethal Bizzle and Fuse ODG, but probably because both were backed by teams of raunchy (does that word date me?) dancers.

In terms of the packed audience, I’ve never seen so much bare flesh on show outside a sauna. I felt a bit over-dressed in my Austin Powers velvet jacket.

My view of the stage was obscured from the point when a Weather Girls tribute act sat in the seats in front of me and danced to every performance.

Go girlfriends.

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I must offer a profound apology for the sign off in last week’s column which said: ‘Have a great Halloween weekend’.

It was added by a colleague who said she was trying to make my blog “topical”.

Fair enough, but I hate Halloween and idea of dressing up in ridiculous outfits and having to placate trick or treaters.

We are clearly going down the route taken in the US.

Americans spent an estimated $7bn on Halloween this year, including $364m on outfits for their pets.

Scary.

Have a great weekend.