All Yiddley in town

MIDEM, the 42nd annual music business gathering starts in Cannes this evening with the NRG awards, a French TV equivalent of the Brits, except it is terminally boring. I was unlucky enough to be able to secure tickets a few years ago and promptly took the opportunity to leave half way through. MIDEM is much more interesting for us old music business veterans because it gives us chaps of a certain the age the chance to get together in a nice environment to reminisce and to remember how important we once were until the infernal digital world came along and downloads destroyed the business as many of us old codgers remembered it. However, it is still a rich hunting ground for new customers for Currencies Direct. I hesitate to think of how much money is being paid or retained by the banks from royalty payments throughout the world in the form of poor foreign exchange rates and also fees for the transfers, something that Currencies Direct does not impose.

I shall be entertained to dinner this evening by the alter ego of my lawyer whose name in costume is Al Yiddley, the Jewish lawyer from Yorkshire. When in London he is a partner in Davenport Lyons, one of the leading London litigation lawyers who will be extracting monies from me in the coming year in a High Court action but when in Cannes and fuelled by the alcoholic delights of the Cote d’Azur comes over all Jewish and Yorkshire. We will start as is the tradition at The Carlton for a glass of champagne or two and head to the old town of Cannes, into le Suquet for dinner, a full report tomorrow probably.

He will no doubt be staying in a suite at The Carlton or The Martinez probably with its own jacuzzi and I imagine that the supply of bath mats will be included in the price, which was not the case when I was staying at a hotel in Earls Court recently where I took this picture. I think it sums up the client lawyer relationship where the client pays the lawyer all his money and leads the life of a comparative pauper as a result, whilst the lawyer lives in the lap of luxury, feeding on the customer, literally. The word parasite comes to mind.

Obviously not included in the price of the room. What does this say about the quality of the hotel?

I say I will be entertained to dinner, but what I probably mean is that I will be entertained at dinner. Nominally, he will pay the bill but these things have a nasty habit of turning up in disguise as “a disbursement” on my bill, effectively recharging me for the dinner which one can be forgiven for thinking is a nice gesture for a client.

Today is a significant birthday for the renowned writer of this column (at my age they are all significant – it means I made it through another year) and it was very thoughtful of sprog 2 to ring the house at 1am this morning to sing Happy Birthday to me accompanied by a number her friends, oblivious of the fact that from England she could have called an hour earlier when I was still awake.

Today has also dawned cloudy and wet, something of a surprise considering the two months of sunny weather we have enjoyed. I blame all the Brits flying in for MIDEM for bringing the dodgy weather with them, but at least if it is wet for a few days we may get some snow and then some skiing in next week.

Chris France