Trading gossip

Dec 3 2008 by Tony McDonough, Liverpool Daily Post

THE launch of the St Helens City Growth Strategy last week was designed to show a wider audience what the town has to offer.

And the strategy document was full of surprises. The first was when it used the word complementarity, which we are reliably informed is a local colloquialism for “goes together” and is a phrase that is often uttered in local hostelries.

St Helens is world-famous for its homegrown rugby league talent, which left everyone attending at a loss to explain why the four stars shown in the strategy document were Matt Gidley, Chris Flannery, Willie Talau and Francis Meli, who are well-known in . . . er . . . Australia and Samoa.

VISITORS to Liverpool may be wondering who the giants are covering the TGWU building as it receives a makeover.

Trading Gossip can reveal that PR firm Paver Smith’s Laura Hampson is the 20ft lady in the red coat with the handbag.

The account manager agreed to pose for a NWDA photo shoot earlier this year, but had since forgotten this meant appearing on a city billboard.

So imagine her surprise when reports got back to the Old Hall Street office of strange sightings of a larger than life figure on Islington.

A WARNING in advance for the city's more amorous male business types this week from leisure developer Citrus Ventures, owner of swanky new bar Chameleon, launching next Thursday in Back Colquitt Street, Liverpool.

The ambience, we understand, will be reminiscent of the much- missed Beluga Bar from the 1990s, plus live entertainment. However, organisers of the launch party have said that it will be a no go area for “lounge lizards”.

"There are no cheese or reptile references anywhere within the design, and females on the night will be pleased to know that the same goes for the guest list,” said a spokesman.