The recession is part of it, because it makes people realise they need to get their connections in good order. 'Why do people want to come along? I'm not quite sure, but they do. 'It is very open and inclusive now,' Hardy says. He is working on a plan to franchise the concept to sales-driven businesses that are interested in creating their own version - McDrake, perhaps? Hardy reckons that, far from being an exclusive charmed circle, the club now has a database of 1,000 names. Ross may now be a sitting duck for detractors, but his and Johnson's creation, the Mandrake, is still going strong. He is brilliant, but was always second fiddle to Charles, so he felt he had to do more outside, and that has all come unbundled,' says one friend. 'Rosso's weak spot is probably family issues and trying to prove himself. Ross junior is on record saying the defining moment of his life was when his father sent him, aged 16, to work on an Algerian building site the experience was so awful, he claimed, that he decided to take control of his own destiny. A number of Mandrake members had tricky family backgrounds and were driven by the need to establish themselves in their own right, out of the shadow of a famous or dominant father: Luke Johnson is the son of Paul, who was one of the UK's best-known journalists the late zoo tycoon John Aspinall refused to give his son Damian a trust fund and insisted he make his own way in life and David Ross is a scion of a wealthy Grimsby frozen food dynasty. If you were academically clever you might become a doctor, but if not, then business was the way to go.'Īs the same individual points out, the privileged public school milieu was not without its pitfalls. 'Public schoolboys are quite likely to become entrepreneurs because they are aspirational and they have wealth in their background, so there is something to fall back on. 'The whole Uppingham and Oundle story is very interesting,' says one member of the circle. He also tapped Uppingham's arch rival at rugby, Oundle, for two of his senior executives, Roger Taylor and Andrew Pinnington. It was at school that Dunstone set up his first business selling lighters with fellow pupil Johnny Vaughan, the DJ and TV presenter. Hoult's sister Anabel is the most senior female executive at Carphone Warehouse, and was one of the first girls to go to Ross and Dunstone's old school, Uppingham, when it went co-educational. It is now run by Ed Hardy, who, along with his friend Charlie Hoult, took over the running of the club from Johnson in 2004. Next month's speaker is Feargal Sharkey, the chief executive of UK Music, which champions performers' rights against digital piracy - better known to people of a certain age as the singer in The Undertones.Īlthough the mood has changed, the new-look Mandrake remains a testament to the strength of old-school connections. But it is still pulling in speakers such as sculptor Antony Gormley, Sir Rocco Forte and private equity baron Jon Moulton. 'It doesn't have that old louche, slightly secretive feel any more,' says one frequenter of the meetings. Nowadays it involves drinks - paid for by the members themselves - and a speaker at its premises in Adam Street, a converted Georgian townhouse just off the Strand. The club itself is still going strong, though in keeping with the recessionary times, today's incarnation is a more sober affair. Ross's current plight, after admitting he broke City rules by secretly raising loans against his share stakes in Carphone and other companies, is a far cry from the glory days when he and Johnson were among the big draws at the Mandrake. But it was not all supersonic billionaires: there were some lawyers and surveyors with squeaky shoes as well.' 'Luke liked the idea of a latter-day salon. 'It was Luke's thing, and he was having a chum-in with Rosso at the time,' says one member. With an audience like that, the elder statesmen of the business world, such as former BA chairman Lord King, clamoured to be invited as speakers - as did more colourful figures like lapdancing club owner Peter Stringfellow. Anyone who was young, male, single and loaded - and had been to the right public school - flocked to the soirees. Mandrake luminaries included Charles Dunstone, Ross's partner at Carphone casino owner Damian Aspinall Julian Metcalfe and Sinclair Beecham of the Pret A Manger food chain Julian Richer of hi-fi outlet Richer Sounds and Hugh Osmond, the pubs owner turned insurance baron.
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