The 2005 event was very special. Jeremy had suggested that we do “something Soho” and Janie had been very keen to try the Marco-Pierre White/Damian Hurst arty-combo restaurant, Quo Vadis. When Linda and I discovered that the palce had a private room the right size for Z/Yen (it wasn’t a club back then), the plans were well and truly hatched.
Drinks before dinner were in De Hems, in Macclesfield Street, across the road from one of my favourite Chinese haunts, Lee Ho Fook No 2 (actually the original Soho Lee Ho Fook)…
…but I digress.
The art work and the food in Quo Vadis was excellent, as was the atmosphere among the team, as the business was doing increasingly well and the fun events were becoming increasingly good fun.
The song that year was a genuinely joint effort between me and Michael, as evidenced by the document exchange between us and the tell-tale “v1.1” in the title of the version we used.
Jeremy The Red-Toed Banker
(sung to the tune of “Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer”)
You know Linda and Helen
And Laura and Lorna,
Ian and Mary
And Yeandle and Horne®
But do you recall
Z/Yen’s most famous consult’nt of all?
Jer’my the red-toed banker
Had a very shiny car
Josie was green and jealous
’though it looked like Toy-o-ta
With Italian precision
Maserati fell apart
Just fifty pounds on Ebay
Now he drives a housewife’s car
Jer’my the red-toed banker
(banker)
Had some very shiny socks
(like a light bulb)
Giles and Mark adored them
(loved ’em)
Fran would even say “they’re hot”
(like a flame!)
All the other consultants
(insultants)
Used to laugh and call him names
(******)
They never let poor Jer’my
(Jer’my)
In their methodology games
(like Monopoly)
Then one foggy Christmas Eve
Clients came to say
(ho, ho, ho)
Jer’my with your socks so bright
Won’t you print reports tonight?
Then all the consultants left him
(left ’im)
Though they charged all of their fees
(yippee)
Jer’my the red-toed banker
(banker)
Left alone beside the tree
(up the Suwanee)