Sir Clive Sinclair laps up Stringfellow's party

People & Business

Peter Stringfellow knows how to throw a party - even if the occasion is only the launch of the Stringfellow's Internet site. Held at his West End nightclub, the veteran funster turned the evening into a lap-dancing extravaganza to help promote his twice-weekly Cabaret of Angels shows and his lap-dancing club which is scheduled to open next spring.

Seventy five "angels" were on hand to help demonstrate the complex art (first one free, then a tenner a go).

But most curious of all was the choice of guest of honour - Britain's best-known boffin, Sir Clive Sinclair. In his introduction, the white suited Stringfellow described the inventor as "a little known ladies man".

Sir Clive did not deny it and admitted he had been tempted along "by the idea of a couple of dozen girls getting their kit off".

Sir Clive flicked the switch to launch the Internet site (www.stringfellow.co.uk) which will include a new branded Stringfellow's range of lingerie. Then it was lap-dancing time.

As a special guest of honour Sir Clive was treated to a double helping. Not one but two pneumatic babes clad only in G-strings proceeded to perform a bouncing, thrusting dance of libidinous persuasion just inches from his face. Fiddling with his glass of red wine Sir Clive appeared as if he was trying not to look. Or perhaps it was just that his glasses had steamed up.

Kate Bowes is quitting as director of corporate affairs at Barclays Bank after just 18 months in the job. Ms Bowes was brought in from the Stock Exchange by chief executive Martin Taylor to help re-evaluate Barclay's brand strategy. Presumably to see if it had one. Another task was to help change the bank's civil service-style culture.

She will leave in January to spend more time doing up the tumbledown house she and her husband have bought in Chiswick's Bedford Park in west London. Ms Bowes denies a culture clash saying she has simply reviewed herself out of a job. "It is all very amicable. I just reached the conclusion that things needed to be done differently."

Bad news for Michael and Maurice Bennett, the two brothers who run the Oasis chain of fashion shops. Oasis has agreed to pay pounds 5,000 compensation to Tateossian, a jewellery designer, after the designer found items on sale in Oasis stores that were virtually identical to its own.

The main difference was the price. Tateossian's silver and semi-precious stone necklaces and bracelets retail for up to pounds 70. The Oasis versions were priced as low as pounds 2.99 at branches in Oxford Street, Covent Garden and Kingston-upon-Thames.

John Morris, the bearded Australian who runs the AIM-listed Gold Mines of Sardinia, is in the City this week updating the market on progress. Everything is progressing well as far as the gold is concerned though the local employees have needed a bit of extra training as far as safety regulations are concerned.

Apparently some of the workers have been used to work without the usual protective clothing and driving heavy trucks down narrow lanes with a bottle of vino tucked under the seat. "It's what they've been used to be but we've told them that's not the way we do things."

Research by Churchill Insurance has shown that Friday the 13th has proved to be particularly unlucky. In one incident a driver's car was hit by a washing machine whilst on the motorway. "The washing machine fell off the back of a lorry," the claimant said. Another driver had his car stolen from outside his home. Then found the steering wheel had been left on the lawn.

Marc Doman has been appointed head of sales and marketing at AIM Global Advisers, the European operation of AIM Management Group which recently merged with Invesco. Mr Doman, who was previously at Invesco, joins with a brief to beef up the London office, which only has a handful of staff. He says he knew nothing of the merger. "I knew there was something in the air but I didn't know it was Invesco."

Mr Doman, 45, expects to be moving AIM from its offices on Bishopsgate soon as they are already too small.