FOUNDER #46. 38 Years British Fashion Empire From Rags to Richmond Classics - Keith McNicol

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2:39What's it like working with some of the biggest brands around the world for the past 40 years? It's challenging. It's great fun. One minute you're a rock star flying around the world doing this and doing that. And the next minute they're going, sorry, we're going with Mike Ashley. So you can go from one end to the other overnight. I've worked with hundreds of clothing brands. Way back in the late 80s, it was all about the European brands. You had your chippy, you had your chevving on. The chippy was phenomenal for us. Really, really was. I had a whole store of it. So your shop, just to let everyone know, your shop is Richmond Classics.

3:09It's been there like 38 years. It has, going into our 39th now. Unreal. What's the journey been like for you? It was tricky, very tricky, because no one knew Bournemouth that I learned in Richmond Classics. Bournemouth had a secret, and the secret was the town was alive, but no one knew it. I was basically featured in a magazine, FHM magazine. My store was very photogenic, and I was travelling all over Europe buying bits and pieces. Their magazine did an article, and within a week I was snowed under with brands, offering me brands, people trying to buy product that was in the photographs and I'm like, wow, did the right thing.

3:46Hey guys, we've been running this podcast now for five and a half years. We've had some most amazing business guests on here. Simon Squibb, Daniel Priestley, Barry Hearn. The list just goes on and on from billionaires to people who've built brands. If you want to come on the podcast and talk about your business and sit here with me in the studio and tell your story, go check out dodgewoodall.com forward slash guest and check out the three-minute video. We've also left the link below as well. Keith, welcome to the show, mate. Thanks, Dodge. Nice to be here. Yeah, very much looking forward to this one.

4:16Let's roll all the way back. What's it like working with some of the biggest brands around the world for the past 40 years? It's interesting. It's challenging. It's great fun. One minute, you're a rock star flying around the world doing this and doing that. The next minute they're going, sorry, we're going with Mike Ashley. And you're like, right, okay. So you can go from one end to the other overnight, basically. What sort of clothing brands have you worked with? I've worked with hundreds of clothing brands over many, many, many, many years. Bearing in mind, we opened in 1988, before the internet, before mobile phones, almost before people walked on earth.

5:00so we were getting into brands when I first opened on Richmond Hill So your shop, just to let everyone know your shop is Richmond Classics it's been there like 38 years It has, going into our 39th now Unreal, massive respect for that by the way Thank you We've been around a very, very, very long time So basically when we first opened it was tricky, very tricky because no one knew Bournemouth that I learned in Richmond Classics Bournemouth is a little seaside town where your grandma came to die because she was 98 years old and retired. With a blue rinse. Yeah, with a blue rinse. And she had a dog that talked to her.

5:36But obviously it wasn't because Bournemouth had a secret and the secret was the town was alive, but no one knew it. So it had an underbelly, which everyone loved from Bournemouth. But outside of Bournemouth, they're like,

5:49Keith McNicol: Bournemouth, what's that all about? No one goes to Bournemouth. People got to retire. I'm like, you carry on. You carry on saying that. I'll carry on having my business. And it grew. And it literally grew from there. I was basically featured in a magazine, FHM magazine. And my store was very photogenic because it was on two floors. It was a mezzanine and it was the ground floor. So it looked really cool. And I was traveling all over Europe buying bits and pieces. And their magazine did an article, an editorial that I did with them. and within a week I was snowed under with brands, offering me brands, people trying to buy product that was in the photographs and I'm like, wow, did the right thing.

6:34And that's how it started. That's how Richmond Classic started. Yeah. Let's go through the generation of brands that you've worked with and that you've dealt with over the years. So way back in the late 80s, it was all about the European brands. So we were getting involved in the French denim brands, lots of French denim brands, which all the lads were wearing in London. It was a very gang-led product. You had your Chippy, you had your Chevingon. Chippy and Chevingon. Chippy. Chippy. I had the first Chippy shop outside of London. Yeah. And I got ram-raided within three weeks, my baptism of fire, where our little friends from Liverpool decided to drive down, drive through my windows, smash the hell out of it, take every single thing, everything, with Chippy on it,

7:23Keith McNicol: and go back to Togsteth, funnily enough, where the van was found burnt out. And I'm like, okay, welcome to retail. Thank you very much. So that was my baptism. So Chippy was phenomenal for us. Really, really was. I had a whole store of it. The store was the Chippy store. And it was the only one outside London. And I was allowed to do it because I had a passion for the brand. And I've recently found out the guy who sold Chippy JMS bought Goyard. So he's a very, very clever boy. Very clever, because Goyard is through the roof. I mean, that makes Louis Vuitton look like a beginner. Go ahead and get this going, and what was the culture like in the 90s?

8:00So the culture in the 90s was very sort of gang-led by what you wore. You were a pack mentality. Obviously, I think you said you were in London. So you had certain parts of London wearing Chippy, certain parts of London wearing Neff Neff, certain parts of London wearing all these different brands, liberto chippy chevignon diesel and it was all very territorial in fact i've still got the magazine um and i kept it i managed to get a copy of it which is like 35 years old now and it shows all the gangs in london wearing those brands it's so cool such a there was a chip a guy in the magazine holding two knives and he was wearing a chippy jacket and chippy went mental because they didn't understand the UK the UK is unique in fashion always has been and the French they're not into that at all so seeing a guy with two knives in his hand wearing a chippy jacket and mummies and

9:00Keith McNicol: daddies who are very wealthy going I'm not having my child wearing chippy anymore because it looks like a gang yeah and so it rocked a little bit but uh phenomenal so we had all that so the early days was all about denim. We had ball jeans from Italy. So we had all the Italian brands as well coming through, which was from the football hooligans going to Europe. Again, our Liverpool friends going on the Euro tours and coming back with bags of gear that they'd acquired back into Liverpool. And then that got through the UK. So you got your Lacoste, you got your Sergio, you got your Fila you got your LS etc etc so it was all coming at the same time one from France and the other from Italy you have to be obviously owning a shop and owning a really cool shop that everyone wanted to come to on the south of England what's the journey been like for you?

9:56the journey when I opened in I mean before I worked in there I worked for Discus Ashes and Gemini which was a middle market retail i mean ashes are still going now in a different genre the sun's taking it over now luke um and so therefore when we opened it was only the early days of when independence was starting to do brands and my competitor was john anthony but because of the look of my store and because of my passion for what i was doing i was getting brands so we were building brands i was out and finding things and bringing it in i was going to paris every two weeks and buying from the marais district which is like a wholesale district and bringing it back bin liners selling it going back selling it it's great yeah really really good fun what were you when you were when you were looking at your business model back then were you looking at going right i'm going to go and buy it for x i need to double that or triple that what were you working on i wasn't well there's any industry margins are there because obviously you've got your overhead you've got your wages you got your rent you got your rates blah blah blah blah blah so obviously back then the margin was a lot smaller because we didn't have the overheads that we've got now which i'm sure we'll talk about later um so as long as you were making money and you had no internet so you had no one else so your customers were coming to you for your advice as to what they should wear and where I was on Richmond Hill every Friday you'd get flatbeds parked outside the shop where all the labourers had been working all week got their money together come into the shop on a Friday covered in whatever they were working in dressed head to toe out on a Friday night getting into a fight coming back on a Saturday and buying another lot it was brilliant

11:45Keith McNicol: it was brilliant Bournemouth was so good because everyone was making everyone was making money everyone was passing money around Everyone's passing. Yeah, it was great. I remember going into a shop and going, this is packed. Yeah. When would you normally go into a clothing shop when it's like, this is packed, two floors of people packed buying. I think at one point you must have six, seven, eight staff just sorting one out. Yeah, yeah, yeah. James, God bless him, the whale, said to me, this is like a nightclub. This is a nightclub. In the day. In the day. Yeah. And because I love my music, so I'm probably the only person or the only boss who tells them to turn the music up, not turn it down.

12:21Because I love music. So music and fashion together just work so, so well. And we became a destination. Everyone loved to come down there. I even had DJs like John Digweed used to come in all the time. Or people like that used to come. Sasha used to come in all the time. We used to get people from, literally come down from London and go, this is amazing. Absolutely brilliant. Well, it was special. It was good. It was good. And the venue was good. It had that mezzanine floor, which was, when I first went into this store, when I first took it in 88, I looked up and it wasn't even being used. And I'm like, why are you using that mezzanine floor?

12:59And the first thing I did is get a load of students from the college at the time and said, you can have the mezzanine floor and do what you want. Here's your wardrobe. Gave them a little wardrobe each and said, do what you want and we'll sell it for you. Some of those are now designers. Some of those are graphic designers. Some of those work at Bournemouth University now. So it's great that it's nurtured all the way through. Really good. And doing what you've done, has it allowed you to travel the world? Yeah. James used to say to me, you're like a rock star. You just do whatever you want. Go wherever you want.

13:31And you can do it under the guise of I'm buying from my store. I went to Vegas. I went to LA. I went to New York. I went to Paris. I went to Berlin. Everywhere. Florence, Milan, parties. I mean, I took James with me, which was great fun. Very, very dangerous. Very dangerous, but good fun. Jimmy Bronson, absolute legend. He is a god. He was the top boy. Rest in peace. We had fun, but I worked. Don't get me wrong. I didn't just go out and play all the time. I'd sort of go, right, I've got to go do some work now. So I'd vanish for like seven hours working and work. When you say working, when you're travelling to Vegas and stuff, what were you actually doing out there?

14:11So basically Vegas, twice, sometimes three times a year, is the hub of the world of fashion. So I went to Vegas, I found Von Dutch. I went to Vegas, I found Christiane Digier, Ed Hardy, True Religion, Juicy Couture. So, you know, all these American brands. Because America and the UK were so poles apart. And what we do is we go to America, bring things back, and we restyle it because, no offence if you're American, but the Americans don't have the style that we have. We turn things around very quickly. And I've always done that. And going to America was great. And obviously with the dollar being two for one, it was a no-brainer.

14:57I was living the dream, properly living the dream because I knew that all my exes would be covered by what I bought back. Have you had any trouble owning a shop over the years? I've had loads of trouble. I had a situation in Bournemouth. I got turned over, I think, five or six times. I had people offering me all sorts. They broke the windows and they took the door off and they did this and I found out where it was. And I spoke to the police and they did, they're useless, they're always useless. And I carried on and people offered me various things, as I'm sure you're aware you get offered, from Rottweilers through to illegal things.

15:38and one day someone went past and he was wearing a piece of stock that I knew had been pinched through the windows, broken into and I lost my temper because I'm very passionate about my business so I crushed in my hand six of the ink tags that we used, so the ink was all over my hands and he was wearing a white Henry Lloyd jacket and he was in the central bars with all his crew and I walked straight up to him in central bars and I went, I've had enough now

16:07Keith McNicol: I went hello mate how are you hugging him and grabbing him and I covered his jacket in blue ink and I stood back and I went oh my am I allowed to swear I went oh my god I fucked your jacket up mate have you got your receipt come back in the shop now and I'll give you another one and he just looked at me and of course he knew and I was like I've had enough and it properly kicked off and then funnily enough the old bill turned up and it stopped and it was the only way I could stop it because it was doing my heading I was like I can't keep putting up with this broke through this window broke through this window and then taking the door off I mean that was taking the piss it's like really so you would turn up the next morning bang window smashed everyone's robbed the front the door's gone through yeah I had the guy across the road the old boy across the road like his own Netflix series he would film it every night and tell me and I'd be like right okay and he went yeah I got the plate and I'm going and the old build did nothing, nothing.

17:05Because they didn't care, really.

17:08Keith McNicol: And, yeah, you just take the law to your own hands. And once people know that, you know, you know they know, it stops. And, obviously, the ram raid that we had with the chippy was the baptism of fire, which I already said to you. So, yeah. So, how long were you in that shop for in Richmond Hill? The double floor? We were in Richmond Hill for 28 years. 28. And then the last 10 years, Westover Road. And the last 10 years, we were in Westover Road. So the landlord of mine in Richmond Hill was a really nice old Jewish boy, as they all are in all the properties in Bournemouth. And he treated me like a son.

17:44And we got on really well. He got his rent. He was happy. The shop was good. Everything was really good. And then I think the bank foreclosed on him and some guys from Manchester bought the building and they wanted to turn it into flats. Right, okay. And they told me, they said, no, no, no, you're fine.

18:00Keith McNicol: You're fine. You've been there 28 years. you'll be lovely lovely lovely um and then they found out they needed the goods lift so they sent me a d-lap for 1.2 mil my god and said you gotta leave yeah and this was before christmas and they said right you gotta leave on the 15th of december and i went are you having a laugh my busiest time of the year and you're what you're trying to do to me and they went well and i managed to persuade them to do the 15th of january but they said you've got to be out on that date and you can't do anything to stop us taking over the property and that's when i moved to west over road i wasn't happy yeah um it's worse than having a divorce yeah because you've been there 20 and i haven't been back which is also worse than having a divorce um because i can't walk in there because i was there for so long what is it today we built it out i think it's an indian now yeah okay it was westward westward okay um and uh obviously above is all flats uh but yeah i mean when i took it way way way back uh i just loved the shop it was being run as a gridiron sports store yeah uh and i was working like i say i was working for discus um and i went to see ian who had the shop and gridiron sports and doing all the american football stuff which was dying to death really but the shop was lovely and at weekends i used to I used to go on the beach selling Ocean Pacific t-shirts down at Sandbank to get chased by council workers for illegally selling gear on the beach.

19:33Is that brand still going, Ocean Pacific? I think it's trying to come back a few times. The students start to wear it because when you go on to Vinted and things like that, you can see pieces. And therefore, yeah, it's still that whole surfing culture, hot tuna. I was selling all that when I had Sussed Out. I mean, don't forget, I've had many guises of Richmond classics, not just Richmond classics. So we had Sussed Out. What, you changed the name from Richmond Classics? No, no. The next door we changed to Sussed Out. Okay. So we had Richmond Classics. It's always been there. Richmond Classics is a stalwart.

20:05Richmond Classics is because it's on Richmond Hill. Yeah. And then the next door was the Chippy Shop. Then when Chippy started to go, I turned it into Sussed Out. So I was selling Stussy. So I looked at the spelling of Stussy and plagiarized Mr. Sean Stussy and called it Sussed Out using the double S's. a little bit of his crown from Stussy. And we were selling Oxbow, Mambo, O 'Neill, all those brands from way, way back. Simple Shoes, Vans, Airwalk, all of that. But yes, but I used to sell T-shirts on the beach before I even started my own business because I loved it. Just sit down with a load of students, two for 25 pound, one for 20.

20:46Just great fun, great fun. And before, I want to roll back even further, what was your childhood like? Where'd you grow up? Where were you? What was it like before you got into the fashion world? Okay. So I was born just after God. So 1958, I was born in Glasgow, Glaswegian. I was born in the Gorbals, Castle Melt, which is not a particularly nice area of Glasgow. My father was a built skyscrapers. He was very good at what he did when he was sober. and the companies that bought the properties moved him from Glasgow to London because he was a good foreman. But he liked to drink, as Glaswegians do.

21:31It's part of our DNA, really. And I moved to North London, believe it or not. I lived in Holloway until the age of three. And it was during the party days, which I think I've picked up from my parents and have adopted the Windrush days. And they were having parties. Obviously, the Windrush were bringing in certain things to smoke and drink and whatever. And my parents would go to those parties and I'd be there. And a very nosy neighbour decided to tell the authorities that this is not the area or the place that a child of three should be brought up. So I was made a ward of court. I was taken into care at three years of age.

22:15and I remained in care till I was 18. Travelling from London because I was Catholic. So I was in a London children's home, which wasn't fun at all. And then I was moved down to Torquay to live with nuns, which is not like the sound of music, believe me. It's a lot harder than that. And then again, because it was a Catholic children's home and at the age of 10, I was brought to Paul with my brother and we weren't told anything. We were actually by the roundabout at Poole. There was a children's home there. And they said, right, you're not going back. And we were like, what? And they said, no, that's it.

22:58You're staying here now. So we don't have any time to say goodbye to anybody. Growing up in Torquay for like seven years and cut off. And because it was a children's home there, they said, no, we're not sending you back. You're staying here now. And I stayed in Poole. and then they opened a children's home in Swanage, which was a lot better, a lot smaller. There were only about 25 kids, whereas when I was in the convent down in Torquay, there was 100, which was a very, very, very Oliver Twist-y type of place. Yeah, just say that. And then I used to, I was at school in Swanage. I used to dress quite flamboyantly in those days so I stood out during the old Bowie days I had the orange haircut, I had the platform shoes everything anti-school I got expelled and told that I'd never make anything of myself by the headmaster and I found myself a job I looked across the water all the time and saw the glittering lights of Bournemouth from Swanage I found myself a job working in bobbies as was, that's how old I am, that's the old bobbies, not the new bobbies, before it became Debenhams.

24:12Worked in initially dress fabrics, which is slightly bizarre, as a training manager. Then worked in music, so I worked in the record department and that's how I got into music. So my whole life from the age of sort of 18, 19 has been entwined in music and fashion and you can't beat that. They're the best two things you could ever, ever have. both of them make you feel good both of them just brings people together yeah put smiles on faces put smiles on faces it's a diary it's a diary of your life your music is a diary of your life so I used to get Keith Clarke coming in who had the Bournemouth Soul Centre which is basically was by the church where it is now by Halo and he'd come in and buy records that we'd get from Debenhams at the time imports were like 50p and he'd come in buy them off me early and sell them for like 15 pounds to like Bob Povey or John Coomer or Paul Brady.

25:09And that's how I got into that whole music thing. We've had Brady on the podcast. Yeah, I know. I see Paul. Paul legend. Yeah, Paul's the top boy. He is a top, top boy. I actually took him down to Artwell's birthday last week because Paul's, I don't know if you know, had a serious bike accident. So I took him out for the first time. How was he? In a wheelchair. He's good. really good Paul's resilient very resilient man I've known Paul a very very long time he did my 50th birthday at Clute which was legendary let's say it was it was fun real fun good good good good time I want to go back a bit further when we talk about care homes how would you explain a care home from the age of 3 to 18 what was it like give me an example of the London care home the Torquay home you said there's 100 kids What is it?

25:59Is it just one big house? No, you're in dormitories. Because obviously it's tied in religion. And obviously recently and a lot recently in the press, how they did this wrong. They did that wrong. They shouldn't have done this. They shouldn't have done that. I was very fortunate because when I was three and I was in Torquay. So you were three years old and you didn't know where you were going. No, no, no, no, no. I was dragged down the street by my mother to go into care. My father, as I say, was Glaswegian. Glaswegian is like a drink, like a party, and often get chased by the old Bill. And so he was sort of, I was almost, she was punishing him by me.

26:49So when they came and collected me and said, look, this child can't be in this environment. and my brother, not just me, my brother as well. He was three years older. He's dead now. He's been dead for a long, long time. He got involved in very horrible drug scenarios. Yeah. How did he die? He had heroin. He had heroin and he actually died of cancer. He had a very, my brother had a very horrible life. I was very fortunate. The three-year gap was the difference between me going into the forces or me being allowed to have a life. because the idea of care back then was you had to give back. Because you're brought up in care and the government have paid for everything, it's time for you to give back.

27:35So giving back meant you had to go into the forces. You had no choice. 16, Army, Navy, Air Force. That was it. No choice. So my brother certainly wasn't Army material and he had to go in the Army. Because I was three years younger, it all stopped and they'd realize this is a ridiculous scenario we shouldn't be doing this to kids yeah um and i was able to do what i wanted to do so that that was the difference but in in care uh at three years old i was very fortunate because i was the youngest kid there so i got spoiled a lot because i at three years old you're just the cute little smiling kid um I went back there with my children about 15 years ago, and it's now been turned into an old people's home.

28:23But the building is all still there. It's a church, very old-fashioned, talky church. And they told me a story that when I was, I think, about first got there, I went into where the nuns lived, into their offices, and I stole all their money at three years old. And I ran down the road saying, I'm going back to London with all this money falling out of my pockets, which was obviously their wages. And they just laughed. So there are nice stories. Obviously, there's not nice stories as well. You had to earn your keep. So you had to go out and clean things and tidy things. And if you didn't eat your food, it was left there for the next day.

29:03So it was... Was it strict? Very strict. Nuns are strict. I'm sure your listeners would understand. Nuns are strict. So it's run by nuns. So it's just females. It's run by nuns. There's no males there. Well, there's a priest. Okay. Because it's a church. But no males. No, no, no, no. Okay. All nuns. So you can... Because I've heard some horrific stories about Kit Holmes. Yeah. People have been on the podcast. Yeah. Yeah, they are horrific stories. Who normally end up very, very violent as they get older because of trauma that may have happened in younger years that they're now letting their anger out.

29:37And that's what I've noticed over the years. I sort of had that. I did go through a stage where I was unmanageable, which you all do. We all rebel. Probably when I was about 13, maybe 14, you've got no love for your parents. You've got nothing coming in. You're trying to put out, and you sort of go into a shell, and showing any emotion is considered a weakness, and weaknesses are when you get attacked. So you don't show weakness. you always show strength by not having emotion so have you learned over the years to let your emotion out yeah yeah yeah yeah because you're quite you know even chatting even chatting here before you're like not done a podcast before not put myself out there you're now putting yourself out there on socials which i think is really good for you and your brand and also for the town of bournemouth yeah you know and this must be very awkward for you when you started filming yourself and talking about things but when you're you've seen yourself online now i think it's great that You're actually just letting people know your story and letting know who you are.

30:44Yeah, but this podcast is unique because what I'm saying to you, I've never said to anybody, nobody apart from my children, because I'm a private person as we all have our own privacy in our lives. We've all got our own stories, but it's whether you want to use them or not. And I've never, ever used them. It's not what I do. I just go, I'm me. I do what I do. Okay, I've got resilience. and that is from my background. So I'm not a Bournemouth person, if you like, because I've come from a different background. So therefore, I have strong resilience, very strong resilience. So I can put up with certain things that maybe other people couldn't.

31:28But I also enjoy life. I also go out all the time socialise all the time and take advantage of putting yourself out there putting being out there yeah yeah yeah which is why like I say fashion music it doesn't it doesn't really doesn't get better than that I hear you it's good I'm the same sport music yeah bringing people together putting smiles on faces via the power of Bournemouth 7th Festival nightclubs whatever we've been in over the years yeah yeah it's not a better feeling we get a buzz from it we do people get a buzz we do I say that all the time. I actually say that to my staff. We're in a unique business where customers will come in to me.

32:09They may spend 1 ,500, 2 ,000, they may spend 50 pounds, but they'll thank me for spending their money.

32:16Keith McNicol: Yeah, it's bizarre, isn't it? It's the most bizarre thing you could ever have. I agree. Because there's no industry like that. I agree. And you're like, but that gives you the feel-good factor. Yeah. Because you're like - It's the perfect win-win. Yeah. because I've looked after them and they're thanking me for taking their money off them. It's a beautiful thing. It's the best thing you could ever want. There's not many people who say that. People come to the festival, they hug you, go, thank you for putting this on. I'm like, well, you've just paid to come here. Well, thank you for coming. It's lovely, isn't it?

32:41Keith McNicol: Yeah, yeah. It's a great feeling because you're like, well, I'm doing what I do for a living and I love it and I love what I do and you're allowing me to do that because you're the one who's spending the money so you're the one who's financing it.

32:57Keith McNicol: yeah yeah yeah yeah my my parents um my father died when i was 10 my mother died when i was 17 um so they were there uh my father being a glaswegian he um didn't visit me very often he came maybe once or twice did he ever show you love yeah show me love with gifts um rather than with love um when uh we had the best of everything when we were little kids so i had the first and god knows if i'd have kept it be worth a fortune now i had the first skeletal set that ever ever started yeah which was battery operated which now would be worth a ridiculous a ridiculous amount of money um and that's what my father was like he would go and it's a bit like watching the films where they go, I want the best present, the most popular one for Christmas because I'm going to give it to my kid.

33:58And I haven't seen him for a year, but this will make up for it. And that's what he did. He gave me, me and my brother, the Skeletric set. He gave me a full, and I'm talking old now, I'm talking a full Thunderbird outfit. So I was dressed head to toe at three, four years old because it was the number one present. And that's what they did. Are these memories from the memory bank or these memories from photos? No, no, no. These are from the memory bank. Okay. Yeah, they're very few photos. Yeah, okay. Very few. Because my background and my mother, that's a different story. I won't tell that today.

34:37That's a very, very different story. But the photographs vanished over the years through various scenarios. videos um my mother lived in a squat for quite a long time of her life um in the early days for various reasons um so therefore a lot of this stuff got lost and vanished um so no it's all it's pejorative memories mainly memories okay and rolling rolling on now like we're going into the shop now you've been in the shop 38 years you've created a wonderful brand yeah how have you seen the shop change and the culture change over the last five years well the last five years

35:17Keith McNicol: because of the phone that i'm not allowed to have on the table because it's now on the floor um and uh social media and the internet is very very different now um covid sort of nudged it even further. So, everything has changed. The whole, Mike Ashley, who I lovingly call Pac-Man because he eats everything. He does, doesn't he? Everything. He's just eating boss at the moment. Mate, do you know what? I want to talk about this. This is really interesting saying that. For anyone who doesn't know Mike Ashley owns Sports Direct. I went to Sports Direct. And Flannels. And Flannels. I went to Sports Direct the other day.

35:54There's brands in there. I thought, I used to love this brand. Yeah. And it feels like it's been totally ruined by being associated with a pile of my, sell them cheap clothing sports shop. Bizarre, isn't it?

36:07Keith McNicol: Yeah, I mean, he's an interesting man. A lot of what he does, I really don't understand because financially it's not particularly...

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38:15Straightforward. Doesn't look straightforward. He managed to buy 16 or actually I think it's 22. Brands? Companies. No, companies. Okay. And squashed them all, which is bizarre. What do you mean? He basically was, there was a rival between him and JD. Yes. So you had. Sports Direct versus JD. You had Peter Cowgirl who headed up JD. Yeah. And you had Mike Ashley who headed up Sports Direct and had flannels. And JD were going to, in theory, go after the business of flannels and had the right retailers around them to do it. So they built a team of high-end independent retailers to combat flannels.

39:00And then Peter Calgill got dismissed. And the new person who came on board said, no, we don't want any of this. We do sportswear. We don't do fashion. We don't do designer fashion. And had a massive fire sale and sold it all to Mike Ashley on a plate for ridiculously low money. And they'd sell Mike Ashley, got everything. He literally got all these different retailers and squashed them from all over the country. Retailers that people loved and grew up with and just squashed them. And where he is now with flannels. Explain to the listener, flannels, what flannels is. Flannels was Neil Prosser. Neil Prosser had flannels in Manchester.

39:45Very high-end, very premiership football-led, not commercial in any way, shape, or form. And Neil was sort of not making a lot of money. He had the profile, but didn't make any money, as a lot of retailers don't. And he just wanted out. so that one little business in St Anne's Walk in Manchester he sold to Mike Ashley and that was the beginning of Flanners which is a one store in Manchester nothing else that's all they had one store one store and then it developed out from that to buying this one and this one and this one and this one and House of Fraser and trying to get Debenhams but didn't get it and all the other independents that he took and squashed John Anthony Philip Brown many many many Psychotire Choice Julio in Cambridge all these independents which was strong so he bought the more independents just to close them all down Z and Co you probably went to Z and Co back in the day in London yeah and closed them all down just closed the lot killed the independent at High Street so he's basically what with Flannels is is the equivalent of what he did with Sports Direct because obviously the sportswear independents were huge they were the backbone of the UK you know you probably remember more than me do because I'm not really sport minded but you are so yeah he just swallowed all the sport shops Cobra Sports in Bournemouth all these little sports shops that were in Bournemouth back in the 90s one called Olympus

41:24Keith McNicol: yeah Olympus Sports that's what it was called he literally nicked everything JJB Sports and he bought JJB Sports and send it into sports their own. So my industry, so now my industry, going back to what we were talking about, is very, very different. So a lot of the brands now are in-house with the likes of Flanners. So I had Dolce & Gabbana, can't get Dolce & Gabbana anymore. So you can't, as an independent, you can't go and get that? No. No, no, no, no. Why? Who blocks that? Well, Dolce & Gabbana now, even pulled out of Selfridges in the end, they literally are going to maybe Harrods, maybe one or two others i don't even think they're in flannels anymore but a lot of these brands once they're in flannels they go we don't need independence and and because of covid because now everyone's doing dtc uh direct to consumer yeah so the the two years where we were in a gap and the gap was basically there was no one going out shopping so all the brands were going direct to consumer via the internet yeah and they realized well maybe we don't need independence Maybe we can do it ourselves.

42:33But we as independents, we launch brands and grow brands. But the brands that are already there, which we've already done back in the day, they don't need us anymore. So now what we're becoming is specialists in what we do. So on some of the reels that I've done on Richmond Classics, for instance, I never say prices. I never do QVC channel, come and buy this and come and buy this. and that's not me. I talk about product. I talk about brands. And that's what we do now. We give a customer a service where they come in. I had a fantastic feedback two days ago from a customer and I just went, that's why I do this for a living.

43:19Because they were saying, we love coming in. We love the communication. You knew what you were talking about. You looked after us. You told us about brands. You told us where they came from. You told us what suited us. You go to Flanners, you don't get that at all. Flanners is a supermarket, but a very high-end supermarket because there's no soul. Yeah, no soul. No real, yeah. And the independence now, what we look at is our strengths. And our strengths are what we sell, we do in breadth rather than depth. So, for instance, the top you've got on, I would probably buy seven colors. whereas flannels would buy two, black and navy.

44:05And I would go, no, let's have a bit of this and a bit of this and a bit of this. So we offer a broader spectrum. They can get the brand because I can't stop that. But what I do is I buy from the gut. So when I go buying, I go out and see a customer. And if I don't see a customer in my head, I don't buy it. And that's how we grow and build. and with new brands, we just bought it in J. Lindenburg, which I was selling 25 years ago. I love that brand. Yeah, I was selling it 25 years ago on Richmond Hill. What did it start off as, a golfing brand or a ski brand? No, it started as a golfing brand 30 years ago.

44:42It's the 30th anniversary. And on Richmond Hill, I was selling the bridge belt, which was like the H belt of its day or the Gucci belt of its day. All the Essex buyers were wearing this belt. I think that's just a belt. And that belt was everything, that bridge with the J and the L. If you had one of those in your Patrick Cox shoes and your D &G shirt, you were the top boy. You were the Essex boy. And everyone loved all that. And then probably because I saw what was going on with Hugo Boss and I sort of thought Mike Ashi was going to really take this and I need to go somewhere else because I had a lot of boss at one stage.

45:18I was an early adopter into Jay Lindbergh. And now I love it. The quality is good. The price is good. It's understated. It's lovely. It stands out and it's understated. It's lovely, yeah. With a nice little logo. Nice, tiny little logo. Perfect. Yeah. No, it works really, really well. Price point's good. The product's good. The people are good. They're not interested in going into the big store flannel groups. And that's what my customers want. So I re-educate them. So they come in and they go, Hugo Boss. I go, Sports Direct. And I go, what? Sports Direct if you want Hugo Boss. But I don't understand that.

45:53what's the deal been done to put Hugo Boss why would Hugo Boss want to go to Sports Direct because they own

45:58Keith McNicol: 49 well actually they bought the company now I think 1.9 billion what who did Mike Ashley Mike Ashley bought Hugo Boss yeah last week I think wow yeah I did not know that yeah yeah he's been after it for a long time and he's just whacking a beautiful brand into a sports shop he'll do whatever he wants oh my god Mike Ashley his company is a law to itself. It really is. So he's got the whole monopoly. Yeah, yeah. I would imagine, I don't know, I would imagine he'll roll out stores of Boss. Because if you pay 1.9 billion, you want a little bit of a return for that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You haven't quite got that in your pocket, have you?

46:41What other brands have you got when you walk in there? Into Sports Direct. I was in shock the other day when I saw two or three, I was like, he's got CP. Yeah. He's got Paul Smith. Does he own Paul Smith? No, he doesn't own it. No, no, no, no. He doesn't own CP either. He's got it in there. He's got it in there. But why would those brands want to be in there? I don't think they do want to be in there. I think... Surely if they own their brand, why would they want to go... But they're Italian. Italians sell their grandmother. Okay. It's a money scenario. It's pure money. So the Italian market is far from pure and chaste.

47:16They do whatever they need to do to get their money. And the UK now, independence-wise, is up in the air because of businesses are closing, but also because he's swallowed up the business up that they were dealing with. They don't have any choice. So they've lost choice. They've lost, like I say, they've lost choice. They've lost Giulio. They've lost Z & Co. And that's like probably 11 stores in itself. So they've got to find another revenue stream. Mike Ashley I'll put it wherever yeah Peter Cowgirl who owned JD Sports yeah why was he pushed out I don't know that's a political scenario I think because he wanted to challenge Mike Ashley and come into the designer fashion world yeah and JD has never been designer fashion and I think they realised the risk of getting involved in designer because it is hard yeah you know designer fashion all fashion's hard it is but sports sports are a lot easier because sport doesn't date you know if I buy a pair of trousers that have got clouds all over them and I don't sell them in two weeks I'm not selling them and they might be £600 but no one's going to pay £100 let alone£600 but sportswear you can always sell sportswear and you always will mass market as well yeah but fashion is a very different animal I've had some massive faux pas in my time and gone what was I on when I bought that good god give an example i i there's many many many many um i bought into jean-paul gaultier yeah a long long time ago um and did you like that brand it was a brand you needed in your stable because it was part of the set where we were doing nick coleman you're doing John Richmond you were doing Destroy and that was like the part of the same thing but when you didn't sell it you're like

49:19Keith McNicol: why did I buy that? Why would I buy a jumpsuit for a geezer? Really? Am I mad? But you go yeah but you stick it in the window and it brings people in but yeah so yeah we've done a few faux pas a few faux pas yeah jumpsuit for a geezer yeah if you couldn't sell that what would you do? Cry yeah No, you would probably, if you're making profit, you'd write it off. Yeah. As we all do with various things throughout our business lives. Because you're like, I can't get anything for that. Yeah. No one even wants it. How tough is it for you right now? It's hard. Really, really hard. We've got everything against us.

49:58We've got our lovely Millie Earl and the rest of the Clownsellers, which are down in Bournemouth, destroying the town centre for no reason. um people aren't coming to bournemouth we've i've tried to do things where we're one of the big things is parking everyone goes on about parking so i set this thing up a couple of years ago now

50:21Keith McNicol: where i said purchase and park for free come in the shop spend some money don't pay for parking i'll pay yeah and they go well what do i have to do bring me ticket in no just spend some money in this shop and i'll pay for your parking and i've got a few other businesses involved in that and once you get that obstacle out of the way they'll come back but Bournemouth is hard no it's everything I think a lot of people use parking as an excuse they do me personally when I think what's quid or two quid an hour if you want to go in a town you go in a town but there's nothing to bring you in this week I've been having a little chat and pop and got dragged off from Jessica Tull our lovely MP she's the MP for Bournemouth who stood up in Parliament and said I'm opening this shop for a week in Bournemouth and everyone well done well done clap clap clap clap clap and so she's opening a little shop for a week selling whatever she's selling with people coming in selling their own little bits of jewellery and things they've made with their feet and all that sort of nonsense they're not paying rent they're not paying rates they're not paying anything really they're in La La Land and what's she doing that for?

51:35Keith McNicol: It's an insult to read. Well, I had this conversation with her. Is it for her to say, yes, retail can work. I'm going to prove to you. Yeah, that's exactly what it is. And I'm like, right, well, they're not paying rent. And she's not a businesswoman. They're not paying rent. They're not paying rates. They're not paying for staff. So where do you get this idea of I'll open a shop for a week and show Bournemouth what it's all about? No one's going to drive 50 miles to see your little shop for a week. I said, you're insulting retailers. are you are you on a scale of 1 to 10 how frustrated are you right now as a retailer 11 you're you're you're you're you're yeah yeah yeah we watch it every day yeah and my customers come in and they just say it's hard it must be really hard it must be really hard and they almost wish it to be really hard it's very strange yeah that they are you saying in Bournemouth people don't want to see you succeed I think I think they just like to talk about About the negativity.

52:30Keith McNicol: Yeah. I think they just like to talk about the negativity because it isn't all negative. Because we've got the botanist, which is working really well. And it's supposedly... It's really nice up there, by the way. It's great. I love the botanist. Yeah, same. It's a proper... The ivy? Yeah, you've got the ivy. The botanist is, I think, I was told, is their best performing branch in the country. So it sticks out a mile. You've got the Nicky. The Nicky is doing well. It's now five star. Yeah. So we've got things going on. We've got... Oh, but everyone thinks about the negative. Why? What would you put your finger on why people aren't going into Bournemouth?

53:04Keith McNicol: Because there's nothing to bring them into Bournemouth. I sat down with Jessica. Well, I didn't sit down. I stood up with Jessica last week when I went in to see her about the shop. And what's she like? She's a lovely woman. She's got a lovely dog that won an award at Parliament for being one of the best dogs or something. And she smiles a lot. But she doesn't do anything because all she says, her go-to answer is, I can't do anything about that. That's BCP. I can't do anything about that. That's BCP. Okay. And Millie Earle don't even talk. So she's just a waste of space, really. Comes out when the royalties are in, starts shaking hands with people, and that's about it.

53:36Keith McNicol: But, yeah. So when Jessica, Bournemouth just needs people to invest. And I said to her, I said... It's very hard to invest, though. It is, but there's a... Okay, what we should be doing, the government should be going to businesses that in COVID said, do you know what go and work from home go and work from home go and work from home what they should be doing now is saying to the businesses right come back into the towns put your businesses back into the offices put your staff back into the offices and the town will reignite naturally so if the government said we'll give you two years rates free if you come back and bring your businesses back into town that's a bit more exciting isn't it then they in turn would say to their staff right here's an incentive I don't want you to work from home anymore.

54:27Keith McNicol: I want you to work back in the town. We'll pay your parking or we'll give you X more money so you come to work. And then at lunchtime, funnily enough, they'll go in the town and they'll go to a bar, they'll go to a restaurant, they'll go shopping, they'll go window shopping. And at the weekend when they're off, they'll come back in with their partner and spend money. Do you feel... And that's how you get the towns back. Do you feel... But that's a long... I hear you. I hear you. But it's what should be done. No, I hear you. But they haven't even started it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And then you'll get investment.

54:59Do you feel the atmosphere has changed in Bournemouth Town Centre?

55:03Keith McNicol: Yes. It used to take me an hour to walk from, I'm not that popular, but I used to walk from one side of town to the other, and I'd see people I know and chat. I don't see anyone. Bournemouth people are not in Bournemouth. There are lots of other people in Bournemouth, but they're not Bournemouth people. and this is the shame and the it's sad it's sad because where they are they're in Southbourne with the Sobo crowd Westbourne they're in Westbourne Wimborne they're in Wimborne or they're in Christchurch or they're in they're not even in Poole really yeah but and that's it but they're all thriving yeah all those sub places are thriving and we're we're suffering for that yeah completely suffering for that yeah because the only road left in Bormond is Westover Road.

55:51Keith McNicol: Yeah. There isn't any others. Yeah. And what's Westover, your shop is on now. How difficult is it for you to be paying your rent, paying your staff, paying your taxes, paying VAT, and trying to make ends meet? Hard. Really, really hard. And how long have you got left on your lease there? I've just renegotiated my lease for a far lower rate. Yes. So the only good thing at the moment is that the boot is on the other foot now. Yeah. So the tenant is now dictating to the landlord to a certain extent. Because you could say, listen, if I leave, no one's going to come in here so offer me this deal. Exactly.

56:27So we've just signed a five-year lease on a reasonably good rate. Far, far better than it was. Are you 100 % sales in the shop or what percentage are you online? I don't do online. Are you missing the move there? No. We were online. We were online for a long time and we did very well. And then Google Shopping came along and said, we want our cut, we want our cut. Then it's not worth it. And also the different procedures of being online and what you have to do and the expense. So you shoot all your products, you write all your content and it costs a lot of money. And then at the end of the season you look and you go, well, what have we sold?

57:10Yeah, what's the point? And I've spent£80 ,000 on promoting it and we've only sold 10%. so I go okay so we'll just go back into being what we do and our strength is chat our strength is one to one and it always will be so it makes more sense to concentrate on that and doing the reels that we're doing now which obviously costs money it's more beneficial isn't it funny how Westover Road has changed because it was always known as the of London wasn't it it was the Bond Street of London but you go there now I'm in shock yeah you and me both I'm in shock. It's vape shops. It's homeless. Homeless people.

57:53Drugs. Drugs. It's horrible. It's horrible. I keep them out of the shop. If they're begging outside, I go out and give them an ultimatum and they walk away because they know I'm not going to put up with it. So the problems come about because of COVID. I worked all through COVID and I watched the town, for that matter, be taken over because no one was there. And when no one was there, they came out and they ran the town. They literally, all the homeless ran the town, the drug dealers ran the town, the beggars. They all ran the town and they've never given it back. And do you think that's one of the main reasons why a lot of locals don't go back into town now?

58:33Of course. They're worried. I've actually had an old boy last year who was staying at the Royal Bath, which is not the best hotel at the moment. But anyway, he was staying at the Royal Bath and he was walking down Westover Road and this horrible woman of 30 odd had got hold of him. He was probably in his late 80s, very smartly dressed, bag across his shoulder. And she tried to get money out of him and took him to a cash point. And my staff sort of told me something's just gone on out there. And I went, okay, I'll go and watch it. And I watched it.

59:09Keith McNicol: And she tried to drag him into a taxi. And I went, what are you doing? And she went, he's with me. He's my boyfriend. I went, no, no, no, no, no, no. Leave him alone. so I brought him into the shop and he was a little bit didn't know what was going on really because he was in his 80s sat him down and I said are you alright he went yeah my daughter bought me a weekend in Bournemouth I'm staying at have I done anything wrong I went no you've done nothing wrong stay where you are and so I calmed him down got him a cup of tea and I walked him back to the Royal Bath and I said right you stay here to his room and I said you don't leave if anyone knocks on the door and you're not expecting them don't open it and if you go out make sure you go out with somebody else because unfortunately this area isn't particularly good at the moment and I'm really sad, I was really really angry about that and I don't talk Bournemouth down I don't like to talk Bournemouth down because that's not what we need and if you listen or watch any of the reels that we do or I do, afterwards I say don't believe what you read because for whatever reason the Red Tops and the press are crucifying Bournemouth and I get people coming to me and I'm sure you do saying well what's what's going on in Bournemouth there's conspiracy people are making it go further and further down something's going to happen someone's doing it for a reason I'm like really I don't know what planet you're on but I don't like talking Bournemouth down no I don't like talking to Bournemouth down I hate talking I agree but we also have to be honest with ourselves we have to be honest and I totally agree with that and I will always be honest you know to the right people but you're on ground level yeah I'm on ground level I clock what's going on in the cities around the country.

1:00:46I clock what's going on in Bournemouth. And I say how it is. But people can't sit at home for the last two, three years and just talk Bournemouth down because they haven't been down there and had to sit themselves. No, they haven't been into it. Yeah. There is a different vibe down there. It's a very different vibe. For me, personally.

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1:02:56I lived down there for 17 years. And now I move further out and away from it. In 2005, when I moved down from London for the 17 years there, it was wonderful.

1:03:10Keith McNicol: Yeah, it was. It still is. It was wonderful. You've got seven miles of beach. You're the best beach ever. I'm just saying in 2005, all the pubs were packed. All the bars were packed. All the clubs. There was five or six clubs. There was 10 ,000 people on the streets on a Saturday and a Friday and Thursday. It was safe. That was James and Richard. Yes. Richard Carr, Jimmy Bronson, Izzy. Yep. You know, it was very, very safe. Bournemouth was the place to come. It was. And it was very, very safe. But when I moved down, all my pals and my old man and all that, what are you doing going to Bournemouth's Blue Ridge?

1:03:38People are dying down. I was like, no, no. I said, trust me. I went down. I said, trust me, boys. Get down. There's like five or six couples have moved down because we're down here now. Yeah, yeah. Because they've seen it and gone, this is unreal. Yeah. You know? It's sad. But it pains me. For me, personally, it's the last three years. Yes. Everyone goes, I was last 20. It's the last three. It's since COVID. Yeah, but even COVID 2020, 2021, that was okay. 2022 was okay. It's the last three years. But since we've come back from COVID, they've not given it back. We all know why over the last three years, what's happened in Bournemouth.

1:04:11Yeah, yeah, yeah. The hotel scenario. Exactly. And it's all accelerated everything. It's huge. Yeah. And they should never have done that. You know, putting them on Bath Hill is a ludicrous scenario. Putting them in the town centre. I was talking to someone about that the other day. um and it was interesting i don't know if this is a word it's the many the many singing it is the menacing it's menacing yeah these people are on their many yeah but if you look at it uh realistically and i was talking to someone who is a muslim who does go on about palestine all the time and he's around bournemouth all the time um and he was right he was saying if these people

1:04:49Keith McNicol: are allowed to work if these people could give back to society yeah you've got half a chance of them doing something. But because they've got no income, they're forced to do what they do. They're forced to sell drugs. They're forced to do all these things. So if the government had a modicum of intelligence, they would go, okay, we'll give you a job. You can go and cut lawns. You can go and dig this up. You can go and do that. Take the graffiti off the walls. You can do something. You can earn a living. You can become part of this, because you're in society anyway. So now you can become part of it.

1:05:23Keith McNicol: Now you can give back and we'll take your tax off you. But they don't. They just go, there you go, you're going to stay over there and we're going to give you no work. We're going to give you nothing to do. And we're going to kick you out at eight o 'clock in the morning and you can't come back into eight o 'clock in the evening. What am I going to do all day? Oh, I know. I'll go in town and rob people or do whatever I'm going to do. It's simple. And he was right. And I'd never looked at it like that before. If they actually just gave them something to do, as in an employment some sort of status that they can go out and be a purpose in life a purpose yeah if you've got no purpose in life you've got no value yeah and if you've got no value you do anything and that's the problem we've got in the town centre you've got it and it's happening all around the country it is every city every town every seaside town it's happening everywhere and I think that's I think that's why people are getting quite frustrated at the moment well that's why people are leaving the country as well let's face it my customers are leaving by their droves they really are they're going What's the future for you and Richmond Classics, knowing what we know now, knowing what you've gone through in the 80s, the 90s, the noughties, the 10s, now into the 2020s, when you sit back and go, right, the age I'm at now, how long left have I got doing what I'm doing right now?

1:06:35And if someone took it away from me, what would I do? Well, firstly, my son tells me every day, Dad, you need to retire. Dad, you need to retire. Dad, you need to retire. And I go, no, I get bored. I'm a people person. I love people. I want a reason to get up in the morning. I don't play golf I never will I love music and I love fashion and funnily enough I can talk so from my point of view I enjoy what I do so you'll keep on doing that until the day I'll do it till they put the pine lid on my head and I'm out the door because at the moment I still enjoy it you know I bring new brands in this year I brought new brands in last year I'm also looking at next year I'm involved in other things as well with the music so we're doing this Soul Weekender which we did this year well done on that by the way that was great yeah

1:07:24Keith McNicol: I couldn't was it 600-700 people we had 800 people brilliant and next year we're looking at 12 and a half brilliant and it put Bournemouth on the map and that's all I wanted to do I wasn't interested you were actually doing something yeah you were doing something bringing some positivity to the town we wanted to bring some positivity into the town yeah and the people that came just went this is amazing Bournemouth is amazing I went well yeah we've got 7 miles of beach and we kept them away from the Lansdowne we kept them away from the Triangle We incorporated all the hotels. We incorporated all the bars.

1:07:52Where were your parties? How did it work? Well, basically... What was it called? It was the Bournemouth Soul and House Weekend. Weekend, okay. And did you have... How many venues did you have? We had four, five venues. So basically, for four days. What were they? What venues were they? So basically, what we did is we had... Hot Rocks was a hub. Yep. So I've been going to festivals for a long, long time. And I've been going on and on and on and on for years about why can't Bournemouth do this? Because we've got a natural hub. Yes. and we have which is Hot Rocks and it's on the beach so we had Hot Rocks we had Eden we had Notura we had the stables Notura's good Eden's good isn't it yeah yeah he's done well he's done really really well what a lovely human being he is yeah well he's a good boy he's a good lad and he and he grafts he grafts hard really really hard so we had all that going on at the same time and it went from the Friday to the Monday and what was it 40 plus 40, 50, 60s?

1:08:47It was probably 40 plus. Yeah. But there were younger people because a lot of the youngsters are into that music again now. This year, or next year, we're going to do a younger market as well using Bomo House probably. And that'll be New Beats. So that'll be your 20 to 40 year olds. Massive respect for Bomo House, by the way. Yeah, he's. Yeah, yeah. Putting their balls on the line, doing their three venues. Three venues. In a very, very toughest market as an adult I've seen in my life. Massive respect for them. giving it a good go and trying to put Bournemouth on the map again. Guys, get out. Get out of your houses.

1:09:19Let's go down here. Yeah. But that's what we're trying to do. I mean, as businesses and until COVID, we were all very island mentality. Yeah. This is me. This is what I do. I don't care what anyone else is doing. I'm going to blink in myself and I'm not going to talk to anybody. Then COVID came along and everyone started talking to each other. Yeah. And I'm now trying to do that and Izzy's trying to do that to be fair as well. He's done bloody well. He's done really, really well. I love that fella. Yeah. Funky Griller. Anyone's out there, get yourself to Funky Griller for a job. Food is amazing.

1:09:49Steak's amazing. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And he's a proper character. He's a real character. You won't understand him, but he's a great character. Him and James together was like being David Attenborough looking at animals. It was bizarre. You couldn't understand a word they were saying. They were just literally nodding at each other. But they put Bournemouth on the map. They did, 100%. With Clute and Funky Griller and Funky Sushi and all the bands they did. I think James had the longest running club in Bournemouth for its success and notoriety which was clute and he was very proud of that he told me he loved it didn't he I think he ran it for seven years which is unheard of Bournemouth is a two three years cycle and then people get bored and flip on and he managed to keep it for that long God knows what he'd make of all this at the moment he wouldn't be happy he wouldn't be happy he definitely wouldn't be happy with any of this but and he would let people know oh 100 % James James didn't didn't pull punches he told you exactly how it was yeah yeah in no uncertain terms but uh no izzy's top boy yeah top boy and the restaurant is good but that's the whole bournemouth thing is people from bournemouth and that's what it's all about so what we wanted to do with a weekender was have it for bournemouth we didn't want the multiples involved we didn't want the restaurants that were in BH2 involved.

1:11:10So Izzy was involved in it and so was Carla Tai. That was involved in it and so was the Mandarin. And so what's the date for next year? The date for next year is the 30th of April to the 3rd of May. So it's the bank holiday again. So it's the bank holiday and it's going to be bigger, better. We're going to put some live acts on as well. We're pulling people from London. I had a few pals come down from London for it. Yeah, the music is great. yeah music it's all about the music and the people yeah and the people and they love to mix I went to Margate because they did the original Weekenders that's right yeah yeah yeah for 25 years yeah and it's all during the day

1:11:50Keith McNicol: everyone's chatting chatting chatting chatting and chatting and that's what we're going to do then you know what's funny Keith like the gen Z's don't know how to party no yeah but everyone who's 40, 56 they've gone give me a party yeah yeah we love it we were smashing it in the 90s and the 90s give me a party people we're back out we're back out yeah agree you know I'm 68 and I'm still out there enjoying life and partying and so you've got all this 50 pluses now where the kids are gone they're at uni and now they've got their own lives and you're like well I want to go back out and talk to myself let's crank it up a notch let's go back up they might not stay out until 5 in the morning anymore or be at 176 and watch the seagulls come after you but they're out until like 11 o 'clock at least I used to wait for that when you come out of a club and the birds are tweeting or the seagulls on the street making all the chips especially in Old Crossroads where I come out of 176 and got bombed but you're like what?

1:12:35Keith McNicol: Whatever. It's five in the morning. I've got to go to work at nine. Volatility. Yeah. It was good fun. Really, really, really good fun. Good times, man. They were, mate. Bournemouth was the best. It was the best. I agree. And you tell your kids now, I don't know how old your children are, but mine are 25 and 27. And you go, we had the best time ever. I agree. Ever. I agree. And get that back. So the old people are coming out now, but the 18 to 24, probably the 20 to 30 year olds are drinking matcha tea and going running. Yeah. That's their social life. All going out for dinner together. Yeah. If I'm in my 20s and we're going, boys, we'll go out for dinner together, everyone's like, what are you on the bell?

1:13:13I'll meet you down at the booze and we're going to a club. Yeah. It's a totally different world now. Yeah.

1:13:17Keith McNicol: They run and that's their social life. And you're like, is that it? Yeah. Really? Where's it? Oh, no, no, we don't go out. Yeah. Keith, if you could wave a magic wand for Richmond Classics right now, what would it be? A magic wand.

1:13:36for richmond classics it would it would be to have more customers more people but it wouldn't just be for richmond classic it'd be for bournemouth it would be the return of what we had and people coming into bournemouth and appreciating yeah bournemouth for what it is because it's still there yeah you just got a ripple the nonsense away and it is still there that the raw roots are still there. People have just got to come back and go, don't listen to the press. Don't listen to your next door neighbour or your next door neighbour's mate or someone in the pub.

1:14:10Keith McNicol: Go and look for it for yourself. And that's what we did with the weekend of last year. People from Bournemouth came back and they thanked me. I'm like, why are you thanking me? You live here. This is your town. Just come back to Bournemouth. Don't just go to Southbourne and go, well, no one goes to Bournemouth. No one goes to Bournemouth. What decade from the 90s to the 90s to the 10s to the 20s were you earning the most amount of money? I would say the 90s, definitely. The mid through the 90s. We had a bigger women's business than we had men's business because women had basically discovered America and that was unbelievable.

1:14:49I had a huge women's shop. My women's shop was bigger than my men's shop. Huge. I had a crash in there where you could dump your kid, literally dump your kid in a ball pond, put a tag on it and you could shop for yourself, buy some children's whatever, D &G or Paul Smith or Burberry like Daniela Westbrook and then come out. And those days were phenomenal when women started to wear True Religion, Juicy Couture, Seven for All Mankind,

1:15:16Keith McNicol: Rock and Republic, Von Dutch. And we were selling for fun. For fun. And you were like, this is amazing. And women's wear was on fire. And it's gone. Completely. Oh, the women's got all completely gone. we haven't done women's for 10 years okay but the women's market is totally different yeah okay very very different how well did you know Julian Dunkerson from Superdry I'll tell you a little story about that so I met the Queen did you I did where Buckingham Palace I was invited I drove through the gates parked round the back got the invite it's very it's a long story so basically what happened I was in my office and I got an invite and my bookkeeper opened it and she said Keith I've got an invite something from Buckingham Palace I went you having a laugh and she went no no it's from the Queen and I went oh that'll be from fake London because she called herself the Queen of Quirk I don't remember fake genius fake London good brand and I went she's just a lunatic from Spain ignore it so she ignored it she went no no I think this is real and I went all right when I come in the office I'll have a look and it was you're accordingly invited as part of the British Fashion Society to come to Buckingham Palace, blah, blah, blah, blah, here's your invite, here's your security pass to drive through the gates, put on your car, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

1:16:35And I'm like, right, phone them up and just say, yeah, okay, yeah, we'll come in. And that was it. I had the most surreal day ever. So I drove into Buckingham Palace, parked around the back, didn't do any donut, parked around the back, came back out. I was with various, there was about six retailers. Julian was there that's why I said it Dunkerton and there were people like Zandra Rhodes was there Yasmin Le Bon was there Vivian Westwood was there David Rees from Rees was there and it was unbelievable and we were put in little groups and we were all introduced to the Queen and Philip to start with anyway and then afterwards they would come out in their little groups and the Queen came in with our little group I was with Elizabeth Emmanuel who designed Princess Diana's wedding dress and a couple of other retailers.

1:17:24And she came in and we were told you can't do this and you can't, you know, the usual nonsense. You can't call her this and you've got to bow and that went out the window to be fair. Because when you're talking, you're talking. As you know, I can talk.

1:17:36Keith McNicol: And she came in and she said, what do you do? And I went, oh, I've got an independent business down in Bournemouth, fashion retail. Must be very hard for you. And I said, yeah, it is very hard. But you're keeping us alive because people are wearing Hunter and they're wearing Barber. You'll be on the catwalk next year. in Milan and she just laughed she was literally like your grandmother yeah and it was so funny because she's quite small and she laughed and it was it was just really good fun and it was the most surreal day I think I've ever had yeah because it went from that to going to the Lanesboro for dinner with some friends ending up in an East End pub and sleeping on the floor and then going back to Bournemouth in the morning keep it real yeah it was literally Buckingham palace all the way down east end of london sleeping on the floor in a mate's pub and then getting up early at seven in the morning come back to work and go to work it was it was unbelievable it was just and julian literally so where julian came in he was there so how well dunkel did how well did julian dunkelton do with super dry and how would you explain that brand so julian basically had a store called Cult Clothing.

1:18:47Cult Clothing was a multi... Where's he? Cheltenham way, wasn't he? Yeah, he was always in Cheltenham. Yeah, yeah. He had a multi-branded store called Cult Clothing. It was doing all the street brands, skate street, blah, blah, blah. And there was a young lad who was James, who's actually now in prison. He may or may have heard of. For what? Misbehaving, hugging, and all the other nonsense that they all did in the fashion industry. I don't know specifics, but I know he's been locked up. And he was a fantastic designer, and he worked for a brand called Bench, and he worked for a guy who had another business who was in Bristol.

1:19:26And Julian used to buy from them, and he poached him and said, I want to do my own brand. And that's where Superdry came from. Okay. So he nicked him. Because you talked to me about Superdry a long, long time ago when you were doing your brand. That's right. We sold that brand, by the way, in 2018. Wow. Yeah. Nice. Yeah, 2010 we launched it and sold it in 2018. Nice. So Julian did what he did. So he got super dry. Obviously his probably best thing he ever did was getting Beckham wearing the Osaka. Yeah. And that Osaka t-shirt, that did it. It flew, didn't it? It launched it. Yeah. Huge, huge launch.

1:20:06And then the rest was history. and then it's been up and down, up and down like a roller coaster from being worth fortunes to being worth nothing, literally nothing. And now it's come back. But there's a point that he sold at the right time. But then all of a sudden, I don't know where VC money coming and saying, but all of a sudden I just saw so much stock being loaded and all the super dry shops everywhere. I was like, wow. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I think it just overkilled. Yeah. And he's now taken it back on board himself and I think he's now running the whole show now. And obviously his missus has got the, what's the brand called?

1:20:46Keith McNicol: Holland Cooper. Okay. So that's her. So she's got Holland Cooper, which is a very equestrian sort of higher end brand, which he worked with her and now he relaunched Superdry. In fact, he was on the stand. I was in Florence last year, and someone said to me, oh, they're relaunching Superdry. So I went, and he's on the stand. I said, what are you doing here? Why are you on your own stand? You're a multimillionaire, for God's sake. And he said, yeah, but it's my brand. And I'm like, do you know what? Fair play. Fair play to you. But what it goes to prove is that when VC money comes in, it can go tits up very quickly.

1:21:22Of course. You know, if you are the owner of your brand, we're obsessed, and we're relentless, whatever brands we own, whether it's clothing, whether it's festivals, you live and breathe it and as soon as you get taken the owner out of the equation bang yeah yeah yeah then it just becomes a cash cow do you know what I'd like I would love to get Julian Dunkerton on the podcast

1:21:39Keith McNicol: yeah you could probably do that yeah I think I'd love to hear the story his story of Superdry where it's gone and where it's about to go he's put a lot of money into hospitality now has he yeah yeah huge huge in Cheltenham he's got a gin and something bar Oh, isn't he? That's right, yeah. He's had quite a few. And the lads who work with him very closely used to have a shop in Cardiff called Barker's. And Steve, they worked together doing their gin bars and their tea bars and their this and their this. And he's worked with them all the way through. Okay. So, but yeah, no, Julian's, like I say, when we went to Buckingham Palace, the bizarrest thing from one extreme to the other, I'm sitting in a taxi with Julian and he's going, let's go have a drink.

1:22:27he said I'm going to launch Superdrive do you want to buy some chairs and I'll give you family and I went no I've just bought a church I don't need the chairs I'm happy leave me alone and he's rolling a cigarette rolling a cigarette and smoking and that's who he is he's that character he's proper a lad's lad is he? yeah he's a proper boy proper proper boy we've definitely got to get him on yeah yeah yeah I've got his number somewhere I'll dig it out and you can call him but he still lives in Cheltenham he's a Cheltenham boy he's always been a Cheltenham boy yeah and he's very loyal and he'll talk to you at any level there's no I'm here and you're there and he's loaded but yeah I mean Superdry was absolutely phenomenal do you know what he sold it for no silly silly silly money I'd like to find it I'll have a look later on yeah you'll definitely find it but a lot of these people they're they are very humble I mean when I was in in Vegas and I went to buy BBC Billionaire Boys Club and Pharrell was on the stand and I was talking to Pharrell and he thanked me for buying his product and this is Pharrell Williams you know Pharrell Williams kids go to school up the road yeah you told me yeah yeah that's bizarre isn't it go to Brunson school that's great

1:23:38Keith McNicol: that's mental that's crazy yeah yeah and now he's the creative director for Louis Vuitton yeah I'm real it's the whole everything we've just had a very colourful wonderful life and there's nothing I've done that I've regretted regretted at all yeah i've met paris hilton at a birthday party i've done all sorts of all sorts of people loads and just gone we are the luckiest people ever because we've got these introductions into everything everything absolutely and go anywhere you like in the world and you'll know someone and you just have some fun yeah you know people and everyone's on the same level there's no us and them it's just you yeah and real yeah and and that's what i carry on doing it's it's great fun you know you just enjoy life and and get on with it i was invited to a launch of a brand this week in london where they're relaunching the eversu brand and i was like yeah okay i'll come have a look and we were like you know we went to the original kill bill film um where they launched kill bill in london and we were mixing with tarantino and we were literally the after party as well yeah and we were on the oh we were on the yellow carpet going in there and we were like what what's going on this is ridiculous and it's just fun just great great fun Keith I've really enjoyed this thank you I've really enjoyed it good I've done 400 episodes I've really really enjoyed this this is real I'm a real person I know I know I know and that's when we spoke I knew it would be a good what I like about this is that you're just you yeah and you're just going this is what I did there's no façade there's no airs and graces this is what I did this is my journey this is the madness this is the highs these are the lows yeah wallop and for people out there who know you and you're well known people are going to hear this story I think people are going to really love it so I want to say thank you for your honesty you're welcome you're welcome mate I mean yeah I love Bournemouth okay I've only been here for I'm going to be taking my shoes and socks off to add it up I think it's about 40 something 55 yeah I came here at 16 across the water from Swanage but not in a rubber boat and it was actually on the ferry on a moped but listen I'm pro Bournemouth you're pro Bournemouth we need to get Bournemouth back on the proper I would love to do anything we need to do and that's why we did the weekender and I'm not interested in any of that and that's why we do Bournemouth 7th Festival it's known worldwide that's why Bournemouth Football Club are doing so well that's why everything we possibly can to make Bournemouth a better place but what I'd like to ask is Bournemouth got into the Euros why Why is the town not covered in welcome Bournemouth?

1:26:22Keith McNicol: Why is it not saying something, well done Bournemouth. We're in Europe. We're in Europe. There's nothing. There's nothing. It's Millie Earl not a football supporter. I know. Bournemouth, we've got a team that have come from nothing. I knew Steve Fletcher when he was 19 and a cheeky boy who came in the shop and asked a discount. Yeah. It's ludicrous. It's crazy, isn't it? It doesn't make any sense. The whole town should be bright red. Yeah. Bright red. I remember you haven't posted. Yeah. We've gone to Europe. We've done nothing. Nothing. It's as if they don't want us to be known for our football club.

1:26:54Keith McNicol: They want us to be known for people in rubber boats and fighting and killing people. They don't care about the good things. I'm going to have a word with Bournemouth Football Club straight after this. It's crazy. I'm going to get hold of... I'd support that all day long. The top people there going, why are we not covering the town in red? Well, it's not them. It's the council, BCP, or the bid who I pay into. I don't think you're even paying the bid. You're out on the airstrip. maybe I'll move out here because I have to pay £1 ,000 a year for the privilege of being on the bid but they should be doing it they should come to us and go let's do a big banner let's do something well congratulations you're in the Euros Bournemouth this Bournemouth that there's nothing and these people are coming down every couple of weeks for football from Liverpool from Manchester from Birmingham and we just go nothing going on here mate all they've got is a coach outside the Hilton and that's it anywhere else we'll be like yeah this is Bournemouth get on with it have some wrong anyway here's to Bournemouth moving forward exactly loads of positivity Bournemouth are having it yeah this is Bournemouth Bournemouth is back back on the map and that's the strap line of the weekender is Bournemouth is back yeah and that's what we say from the 90s Keith absolutely love this mate thank you proper gentleman cheers guys and I appreciate your time you're welcome no problem at all I wish you all the best mate thank you anyone check out Richmond Classics if you listen to this go to Richmond Classics and have a chat you'll be there for about an hour and a half make sure you buy something pay your parking pay your parking before you get there two hours minimum two hours where can people find you before we finish socials socials Richmond Classics on Instagram Facebook in the shop down the pub come and have a chat anyway I'll chat to anyone mate I'm not fussy Keith you're a gentleman mate thank you good man cheers Dodds cheers mate cheers mate cheers Hi guys, I really hope you enjoyed that as much as I did.

1:28:50Can you do us a favor and leave us a review as it massively helps us grow the show? Cheers guys.

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