Dominic Gorham - The Thief, President Obama, Jay-Z, Petter Stordalen, Hotellvirksomhet, Michelin

Transkript

Så det er nett i veggene og i taket,

og så er ballen i spill hele tiden.

Og alle får litt skåret en del mål,

alle får litt kjeft,

og du får så ekstrem temperatur.

Ja,

virkelig?

Ja, ja.

Cool.

Så det er dødsbra.

Jeg er lyst til å spille med et team som kjenner hverandre,

og de er veldig kalme.

Ja.

Veldig gode mennesker.

Ja.

Så vi spiller god fotball.

De vil spille god fotball.

De vil at det blir interessant og divers.

Og ballen på bakken.

Ja, ja.

Ballen på bakken, ballen til fett.

Hvis noe går feil,

er det bare at det går feil.

Vi prøver igjen.

Ja, ja, ja.

Godt, godt vibe.

Ja, coolt.

Og jeg spiller med så mange, du vet.

Hvilken nivå er du på?

Jeg var på Chelsea som barn.

Var du det?

Ja.

Wow.

Du, ta en mikke.

Vi bare begynner vi nå.

Men mikken kan, vil du ha headset på,

eller av?

Ja, ja, ja.

Det er det beste.

Wow, så går vi rett inn i fotballen her.

Du,

det er nydelig å ha deg her, Dominik.

Så gikk vi bare rett inn i fotballen med en gang.

Det er fotballpassjonen som bringer oss sammen,

tror jeg.

Jeg tror det.

Musikk og fotball.

Fotball aller først.

Uansett.

Og hvis du fisker også,

så har vi en annen ting i sammenheng.

Du, jeg så det.

Jeg gjorde litt research før det intervjuet her.

Og så så jeg en sånn reportasje fra Migrapolis,

var det det?

Ja, det er korrekt.

På NRK igjen.

Jeg visste ikke at du fisket.

Ja.

Og så vakkert.

Med Bennett Lund,

som forstås gikk bort.

Men vi hadde en fantastisk morgen.

Jeg hadde lyst til å komme opp om klokken fire i morgen til Fornebu.

På siden her, faktisk.

Jeg synes det var noe kjent der.

Det er her, ja.

Og vi gikk flyfiske.

Det var en fantastisk morgen.

Jeg så faktisk at du var litt brydd at du var der også.

Jeg vet ikke hvor lenge dere har holdt på.

Det var litt sånn at du stod og fisket,

og alt var så rolig.

Og så

snakket vi hele tiden.

Så du var litt brydd på slutten av utslaget.

Jeg må forstå at fiske for meg er en slags religion.

Det er min terapi.

Så jeg gjør så mye av dette snakket.

At når jeg går bort,

jeg bruker termen fra Simon & Garfunkel-sangen,

«The Sound of Silence».

Jeg elsker «The Sound of Silence».

Jeg finner det generelt stående i en rive, kastet en fly,

og ikke hører min egen vokse,

hva som er en absolutt glede noen ganger.

Du er jo i en bransje hvor du nettverker,

snakker med folk, du selger ting.

Du er på hele tiden.

Så kommer de til å bare...

Det stopper ikke.

Det er for sikkert.

Ja, det er om kommunikasjonen.

Og det blir mer og mer om kommunikasjonen.

Fordi folk blir så langsiktige i

deres

profesjonelle liv, eller de grunner de bruker.

De kan langsiktige seg fra folk.

Og

grunnerene vi bruker er helt annet.

Å bringe folk tilbake sammen

gjennom kropp, kommunikasjon, gjennom touch, gjennom skjønnelse, gjennom alle de elementene som har gjort, i faktisk,

om jeg skal snakke om hotellet,

i hvert fall, en enormt suksess.

Fordi vi er...

Vi er veldig informelle som et eget.

Jeg tror virkelig at fremtiden av servis,

og jeg gjør mange presentasjoner om dette,

er i informelliteten av servis.

Jeg var født til å servere.

Det er et sitat jeg har sett godt til på Google.

Jeg var definitivt født til å servere.

Jeg tror virkelig på det.

Jeg tror virkelig på det.

Jeg hadde mine aspirasjoner av

profesjonell fotball og rockstardom.

Jeg gleder meg stadig på både.

Men jeg tror virkelig på min vokasjon

er det samme.

Det er akkurat det jeg gjør.

Jeg har funnet min ting.

Ok, la oss ta det kronologisk.

Vi var på Chelsea.

For du spiller fotball...

Vi begge skal spille fotball etterpå.

Vi skal, vi skal, ja.

Jeg skal bygge opp min team, Håsler,

som er en av de største teamene jeg har spilt

i mange, mange år, fordi de elsker å spille fotball.

Er det en divisjonssystem?

Det er en 7-a-side-team,

og de har ulike kategorier.

I faktisk var det veldig vanskelig, fordi jeg

var med dem et par dager siden,

og jeg så vetterne,

og de

vet at jeg elsker å spille fotball,

og de vet at jeg elsker å spille fotball,

og de vet at jeg er veldig inn i fotball.

Og når jeg spiller med dem,

de vil selvfølgelig at jeg spiller med teamet.

Og jeg så vetterne, og jeg tenkte,

jeg kan spille med dem.

Og de tenkte,

nei, du må være over 55.

Og jeg tenkte, jeg er over 55.

Og de tenkte, wow,

det er veldig kult,

vi hadde ingen aning at du var så gammel.

Og jeg tenkte, jeg kan spille i alle tre kategorier av team.

Og i all sannhet,

jeg er ikke sikker på,

hvilken divisjon de spiller i,

og jeg burde vite det selv.

Men det jeg vet,

er at jeg gjerne

elsker å spille fotball med dem.

Det vet jeg.

Det er som gutta på vårt lag sier,

og de her har spilt tippeliga,

og utlander, noen som har spilt,

og høytemål, bare som at dette her er noe gøyest de har gjort.

Spille sånn med kompiser,

klokka fem på en tirsdag,

og folk kan bli så sure at de går hjem fra trening før.

Så snakker de ikke med hverandre etter treningen,

det er helt fantastisk.

Voksne mennesker kan bli sånn.

Det er et eller annet spesielt.

Jeg har tatt det til en annen nivå,

fordi jeg er referer nå.

Og jeg refererte de første to kampene.

Jeg gav ut min første penaltid to dager siden.

Og det var en penaltid.

Jeg ble det inn,

og det var 100%.

Jeg

hadde mine kartene klar i min pakke.

Jeg har en jævla og en rød kart.

Jeg har ikke brannet dem enda.

Men jeg venter på tilfellet

til å bringe de to ut for å spille.

I really enjoy the refereeing part and I

think if you have a love of football and you enjoy football

you know a referee can make a difference

to a game so I've started refereeing now as well

which I really enjoy

you've started to earn in football

it's crazy to think about

when we were young

who is this judge who stands up for 200 kroner and judges

so we can stand here and play football

it's crazy to think about

if I was to be brutally honest

if I had my time again

of course I'd love to be a footballer

but the second choice

would be a referee

I'd be a professional referee

and I'd be travelling the world

refereeing hopefully at the highest level

and thoroughly enjoying myself

I'm sure I'd be hated by many

because unfortunately referees are

that's just the nature of the game

but

I really enjoy it

I really really enjoy it

I think so too

when you talk about it

maybe I should try it myself

and give something back

it's exciting to look at the team

and try to stay neutral

exactly the neutrality is really really good

because you're just making decisions

based on the rules of the game

and also your interpretation of the game

which is very important

so people stay calm

not just keeping people

people under control is important

but it's also interpreting

a 50-50 ball

it wasn't a foul

it was a 50-50 ball

they both went in

they both put their heart and soul into it

and it went crunch

they both came out of it

but it wasn't a foul

there was no foul on either side

it was just a 50-50 ball

and a footballer needs

you obviously need a footballer

to kind of understand that

and that commitment that you have to make

to kind of make that tackle work

because if one goes 70

and one goes 30

there's going to be pain on one side

that's for sure so for

me it's the interpretation of the game

watching the game and there is I

wouldn't say a grey zone

but there is definitely a referee's interpretation

that's very, very important

to make the game flow

I remember I was a football judge

for some kids out on Kalvøya

an ABC cup and I was like

20-80 nine-year-olds

and I thought it was

really, really hard but I think I have

a bad level of concentration

so I fell out of the game

and suddenly I heard

one of those fathers

who was like Hey!

What the hell?

So I just took it

and even then it was hard

both to stay concentrated

and follow me all the time

not thinking about anything else

but once you think about something else

then you're done Yeah and then you have to be like

Oh my God and then you learn a lot

to look at the players' reactions

which way you should

because you are in doubt

quite a lot when you judge Yeah, all without a doubt

They get hell I mean I've seen parents

give referees absolute hell

and it's not fair in a way

because the guy is just trying to do his job

Okay, if he's not doing his job well

that's one thing but there was a guy

on that particular year

it was two days ago

there was a guy who was

he was from the north of Norway

and he had plenty to say for himself

and I had to

eventually it was an obvious handball

I gave the handball

and he was yakking away

about something about handball

I said listen you've got the foul shut up

and he looked at me I said listen

don't do it again mate

because then then I'm going to come down on you

so just shut up

But you get a little edge

with the English Oh, without a doubt This is the language of football

But the player answers in Norwegian

in English He got back to me in Norwegian

but I gave it back to him in English Okay

This is we could do a whole

a whole program on this language because it's

I've thought a lot about it

It's very interesting You know what I've set up a point

where I might not be able

to talk about it in the end

because I have a lot of friends from Australia

and I got to know a lot of Englishmen

in London not London but in Trondheim and a few different places in Norway

and in contrast to other

Europeans

who also speak English

but they changed very quickly

to Norwegian while Australians and Americans and Englishmen they didn't do that

because they had I think it's something like that

it's a it's a

it's a social edge

with that especially out in the city

in the social media

you check out ladies

get an edge in social conversations

You sound a little cooler

when you speak English

and I think a lot of people

dare to go over to Norwegian

because they go over to gibberish

Norwegian is a big difference Yeah

As I say we could do a whole program

on this because it's very it's very interesting and people do talk to me about it

but I have a lot of

people who know me

I've been here a long time you

know it's the truth

and I speak very

not that I don't speak Norwegian

because I do speak Norwegian

but I use very little Norwegian

in my life if you like in my everyday life

with my children I speak English with my wife I speak English with my colleagues at work

I speak English and with the guests at the hotel I speak English

I speak French as well

and I do that quite a bit at work

it's just one of those things

that it's just one of those things

that it's just one of those things My job

relies predominantly on my levels of communication

and I understand that

and it's something that's

the foundation of, of, of what I do.

Um,

and if it

turns into a language that I don't

probably completely command or have command of,

I lose part of that skill.

And this is the brutal truth.

Um,

and so, so to lose that for me is a major disadvantage.

Um, and if I can get away,

if I can work in the way that I do

and communicate at the level that I do and achieve what I've done, I

presume I'm doing something right.

Now I don't, I don't understand any disrespect for a

country in a language because I do speak Norwegian and when people come in and there is obviously a communication issue,

I will switch to Norwegian without a problem.

But, um,

it's the,

the level that I'm working at and especially the international level that I'm working at,

it seems to be appropriate.

It also seems to be appropriate for the properties,

that I'm running at the moment,

which is the Thief Hotel.

Um,

we have, I

mean, predominantly an international clientele.

We must be the most international spot outside

of the airport, must be the Thief Hotel.

So the language thing actually works and it,

but it's always worked.

I have a little anecdote where this is concerned is that

I opened a club here called Buddha,

Buddha Bar, which was back in the day.

Legendary place.

I mean, it was massive, 800 people and a lot of stuff went on.

We did a lot of good stuff and

it was a very interesting place.

And I'd been working a lot in Paris and I was working with some French people and we used to

greet people on the door in French.

Now it's, it's like stealing what we have an expression at the

hotels, stealing you away from everyday life.

Your everyday life would be to be greeted by

somebody in Norwegian, at a Norwegian club and say, hi, hi, velkommen.

And you see how you laugh.

We used to say bonsoir.

And when you say bonsoir to somebody,

it just takes them out of their

everyday life.

And suddenly they're in Paris and they're eating croissant and they're in a cafe and there's pastis and there's the whole pain au chocolat and there's boulangerie and there's a parfum and there's all these French things,

the basic French things that kind of take your senses somewhere else.

And we also used to comment a lot on the way that people looked because we re-appreciated when you come to the club,

you've made an effort.

You, you, you've, you've, you've taken time to come,

you know, to get yourself ready.

You bought a new dress,

you bought a new pair of trousers,

you had your hair done,

whatever it may be.

And we were very keen to kind of emphasize that first of all,

we appreciated what you've done and that we'd recognized it.

And it just, because a girl would walk in and say,

I love your dress or really like your shoes,

have a nice evening.

And she'd be like,

oh my goodness, he's got my shoes.

Or in French or in any language.

I mean, it didn't really matter in a sense,

as long as you just took them out of their everyday life.

And also you create,

and I said another show we could do about this, about doors,

how establishments are run from the door.

Yeah.

You run a club from the door.

It starts at the door.

In fact, it starts probably before you've even got to the door.

But anyway, when, when you physically, it happens, it starts at the door.

And if you can create

that kind of charm,

that kind of welcome,

that kind of, that warm feeling, and especially in another language to somebody entering your establishment,

I guarantee the effect inside the establishment is completely different.

And we used to work on this and not in a cynical level or a manipulative level,

but just on a sensual level.

And when you start working with people's senses,

your club becomes very sensual.

And that's, you can ask for nothing more than a sensual club,

because then stuff can happen.

People interact in a different way,

they groove in a different way,

they drink in a different way,

they socialize in a different way.

And you have a very,

very interesting arena to work with.

Especially Norwegians, who love to,

who change as soon as they leave.

Exactly.

And we used to get them involved.

You'd shake people's hands,

you'd give girls kisses on the door.

And they were your best friends.

And as I said,

there's nothing cynical about it.

There's nothing cynical about making somebody feel welcome.

It's part of my industry,

and it's part of what we do,

and it's part of what we do very, very well.

And if you can take that to a level where people feel extremely appreciated,

they feel recognized, they feel like you are there to take care of them.

And I've always taken this job very,

very seriously.

This is my profession.

We had a little bit of a chat before we started about them

having a drink.

Mm-hmm.

And you said, well, we're not going to have a drink today because I'm playing football tomorrow, tonight.

I'm like, well, I don't drink in any case,

so you can forget that.

And you said, oh, that's why, yeah, you don't drink.

I've never drunk, in a sense.

I've tasted alcohol.

I know the wines and the beers and the spirits that I sell.

But I

don't like the effect of alcohol.

Mm-hmm.

So, have you lived a normal life,

not a normal life,

but a normal consumption?

Have you consumed alcohol on a normal level?

Mm-hmm.

Have you ever been drunk?

Is that what you're asking?

In fact, I can't remember the last time I was drunk.

Well, I can probably remember it,

and it was probably when I was 18,

but I can't remember it because it was that long ago.

Mm-hmm.

And

I'm a true believer in the natural sense of things and I don't believe if you're a teacher or a pilot or a road sweep or somebody who works in RIMI,

you can go to work drunk or drink alcohol at work.

So what makes my job any different?

Just because I work in that milieu doesn't mean that I can actually consume.

And I'm a real believer in the natural sense of if

I'm happy, I'm happy.

It's because I'm naturally happy.

And if I'm sad,

I'm sad because I'm naturally sad.

Not because I'm hungover from the day before or the day before that or I said something stupid when I was drunk to somebody and I regret it or I did something with a girl that I shouldn't have done because I was drunken.

That's not my way.

It is a very natural.

If I want to do something,

I will be responsible for it.

Possibly, have you had more evenings in the city where you've been on the other side of,

or you've been on the professional side than on the clientele side?

Have I been in that situation?

No, you've had more.

You've probably had more.

You've probably had more days or evenings in your life where you've been on the professional side,

you've been on the job side,

in front of being on the clientele side,

you've been out in the city yourself.

Yes.

So you've been much more, you've been,

you've almost been more on the job side than you've been.

Oh, without a doubt.

Yes.

You've been on a good life.

Oh, without a doubt.

Yes, yes, yes.

Oh, I've, I've, I

work every day.

Mm.

Literally.

Where does that come from?

Because you have a very special journey.

Would you say that you're self-educated?

Yes.

You're like, you have sweet knowledge.

Yes.

Well, yeah, but self-educated in the sense that I put myself in a position

where I was taught

by what I presume to be very, very good people.

So my education was started in London, but

it should start at the beginning.

Just a quick brief on the very beginning.

I was adopted into an English family.

I don't know my mother or my father.

I've just recently found a photo of my father.

So I know somebody who looks like me now,

which is, which is, yeah, it's quite unique.

It's really quite special.

Where did that photo come from?

My brother.

Wow.

So he has the facet.

He's, he's, he is my biological brother from, from our father.

Okay.

But I've just found him,

literally just found him.

Shit.

Yeah.

But that's another, that's another story.

The next part.

The next part.

Adoption.

Transracial adoption.

That's a super interesting one.

Cause I was trying,

my parents are both white and I was raised,

uh, I got adopted posh in

a sense.

I was adopted into a house in Wimbledon, uh,

which is a very nice suburb of London where

the tennis tournament is.

And, um,

Chelsea,

but that's, that's because it's South London.

Yeah.

That's Wimbledon weren't a glam.

When I was a kid,

Wimbledon, Wimbledon were an Ishmian league side.

My first ever football game.

It was Wimbledon against Metropolitan Police at Plough Lane.

And I must've been nine, eight,

maybe eight years old.

Mm.

I remember it to this day.

And that was, that was Wimbledon took it.

And they went up in

Premier League.

Then they went to win the FA Cup eventually.

For seven, eight years.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

It went super fast.

Every season they got promoted and now,

uh.

A whole drill to come.

Exactly.

And, and Bjørn Jelstin.

Yeah, I bought the club now.

Exactly.

That's when it went.

Bjørn Rune.

Yeah.

Nice guy actually.

Mm.

Anyway.

Yes.

Um, yeah,

so the adoption was,

yeah, I was adopted into this English family.

I have eight brothers and sisters and there were,

four of us were adopted.

My mother gave birth to five.

So we were a large Catholic family in a beautiful big house in Wimbledon.

And so life was pretty dandy.

I landed, I landed well, I must admit.

I was very, very lucky.

And, um,

my brothers and sisters all went to university.

I was the only child not to go to university.

But then my father kind of took me through private education.

And

tried to get me back on the straight and narrow.

Because I was a little bit wayward.

Without going into too much detail.

I was, I was a good kid.

But I was, you know, I had my own ideas.

And, um, to

cut a long story short, I

have a French grandmother.

And he sent me to live with my French grandmother in Paris.

And I moved when I was 18 from London.

And I, uh, yeah, and I moved in with her.

And she was an older lady.

I mean, she was, uh, and I was her little grandson.

So she wanted to take care of me.

But I wanted to explore Paris and...

And

you did.

I definitely did.

Oh my goodness.

Between 80 and 2000.

I was there for like 18, almost 20 years.

Amazing.

Paris was absolutely on fire.

Some of the best years Paris has ever seen.

Were they the 70s and 80s?

It was 80s.

I arrived there in 81.

And I left in 98,

probably.

99.

Wow.

So many things happened in culture and music from then on.

It was incredible.

It was the end of disco era.

I had DJ Cam.

Um, and Miles, uh, Giles Peterson and David Guetta and all those boys.

They was paying for me for like a beer and a...

and 100 kroner shit

I

remember these boys they were and David Guetta in fact when I met

David Guetta first of all he was a bartender

in the Bandouge wow he was a bartender

his girlfriend Cathy was on the coat check

actually David came to stay in the hotel

a couple of a couple of weeks ago

and we had a little

reminisce about Paris and the day

and the Bandouge he was I mean he was

he's a ledge now

I mean the dude's doing he's doing pretty damn well for himself

for a man who was

standing behind a bar

in one of the coolest

but probably the coolest

club in Paris at the time

wow but it's so strange

that there's no I think almost no

Norwegian knows like once in the background

that he was a house star

or a DJ a super super

French DJ before he broke through

the USA yeah yeah yeah that almost no one

in Norway knows exactly nice guy nice guy too really really nice time

I heard that he's incredibly he's very passionate

yeah but extremely

very happy guy

totally yeah polite friendly

centered focused I mean he's he's a good guy

but I know him from

I've known him for

over 30 years now yeah but

I was lucky enough

to meet a Norwegian girl

and I should big up

a girl called Jorunn who

now works in Stockholm

big up Jorunn big up Jorunn respect

respect

because

I got a job

in a in a in a fruit cocktail bar

called Le Paradis de Fruits

and it was it's still there still exists they have many different outlets

in Paris but there was one

very famous one in Saint-Michel and

Le Paradis de Fruits

was a place where you made fruit cocktail drinks and I was they clicked with me

immediately they could see the

profile was right this

guy who spoke English behind their bar and making these fruit cocktails

in this kind of

tropical paradise of a restaurant

and I did that for two years

and Jorunn came in as a guest and we

kind of just made

friends and

she was working in this really nice place

called La Mousson La Mousson was a

place where Catherine Deneuve and Jean Nouvel and all these really

kind of cool hip Parisians hung out

and she took me there

she was a waitress there

she said listen Dominique come and come

and see this place

because you're good you know you should maybe be doing something different

than making fruit cocktails

so I went to this place

long story short again

another big up is the Nicolas and Charlotte Testu

they are half Swedish half French they still own a place called Le Fumoir now Le Fumoir is opposite Louvre it's a very famous

cafe in Paris it's a beautiful place

and any Scandinavians who go in there

will actually if you look around

you'll see the Scandinavian detail

it's very French it's a French institution almost now

but if you look at the detail

you'll see little moments

of Sweden in there

or that moments of Scandinavia anyway

this restaurant called La Mousson it was very cool

and they saw me

and they clicked again

they said listen this guy could

do something for us

so I started being

I started running the bar for them

and

I just I stayed with them

and opened a new place

called Le China Club and

then I my real kind of

my high point was

when I opened my own place

which was called La Casbah now

La Casbah was a take on a

bar what we call a bar à thème

in French it means a themed bar

but it was probably

the first one that ever existed definitely in France and let alone Europe

I mean we really

went over the top

and went to Marrakech and

bought all these bits and pieces and fountains and tiles and doors and windows and we created in the back streets

of Paris which was not a famous

area at the time

it's very cool now a

place called La Casbah

now the thing for me

about La Casbah was it was all about

the door again the front

and we had it was like a dark alley

and there was two enormous doormen

one was called Abraham and one was called

Mouhad Mouhad was from

Morocco and

Abraham was from Liberia

I mean just two giants and there was this

dark space two guys standing in the dark space

and two massive doors

behind these two guys

nothing else and that was La Casbah

but the trick was

in fact when you open these doors

you walked into Aladdin's cave I have goosebumps thinking about it and just the doors

the smell of the doors

these doors were made

from cedar wood and

I went back there

I had a bit of a bad

experience I went back there

and I was very sad

because it was it's not what it was

but but the

smell of the doors

is still there I was almost in tears

standing in these doors

we create absolute magic at La Casbah as I mentioned before

Le Bandouche was the place to go

and that was David Guetta's place and

I should tangent slightly on this one because there was

there's a story about

a physiognomist

now if you talk about

a physiognomist in Paris it's somebody who

judges you physically

now

a physiognomist is is not a it's a great job in Paris

because the clubs were very very

protective of their doors

and they were very selective

And there was two famous physiognomists in Paris.

One was called Marie-Lyne and

one was called Jacques Henry.

Now, Marie-Lyne, anybody who knows Paris,

and I'm sure people who are hearing this will know,

the ones who know the bandouche back in the day,

Marie-Lyne was a ledge.

She was the number one physiognomist in Paris, without a doubt.

And she was incredible because she just controlled that door and you had to get in.

I mean, you just had to get into the bandouche.

And you stand outside and she'd be looking over and picking people out of the crowd.

Yes, yes, you can come.

Oh, no, no, not you.

No, no, I told you.

I told you two weeks ago,

you're never coming in here.

Go, you know, literally.

Wow, brutal.

It's the same thing I remember when I was at Studio 54 and they filmed it there.

Same, same.

Same.

But the thing is, I

did it at the Buddha.

I did it at Buddha Bar and people who know Buddha know exactly what I did.

I did exactly the same thing.

But I suppose there's a way of doing it.

She was pretty arrogant about it,

but she could afford to be.

She was married into the bandouche.

You had to get into the bandouche.

There was no two ways about it.

In fact, they say, the rumor has it,

she had a secret address.

Nobody knew where she lived because she was so hated by some that it was almost dangerous.

But she

was there every night.

Every night Marilyn was outside the bandouche.

She had her boys with her.

The big guys was there in case there was any trouble.

And she would rule that dorm.

And it created a magic inside the club because she was so,

so dominant outside on this dorm.

Anyways, where was I?

The doors of the Casbah.

Yeah, we had Abraham and Jack and we had a fusion of music called Jack Henry.

He was this kind of number two.

He was the second guy.

But what we managed to do was create

this kind of vibe around something that wasn't particularly trendy before.

But we managed to hit it.

Like hit the nail on the head.

And sometimes these things happen.

It's a bit like the thief.

We just hit the nail on the head at

exactly the right time.

In exactly the right place when the market needed it.

And we did the same thing with La

Casbah.

North Africans weren't particularly well viewed.

It was like this whole thing about Les Arabes.

And France wasn't too kind of cool with it in a sense.

But

the sort of mystic,

the magic, the beauty, the colors, the textures, the herbs, the spices.

It was there.

All the elements were there to make something very, very magical.

And we were brave enough to do it.

And we built La Casbah.

And where does that vision start?

You have to have the right contacts.

You have to have money.

You've probably known a lot of people who have been there for many years in Paris.

But it must be a gutsy move to start your own club in Paris.

How much was the vision and how much did it get to you along the way?

At that place?

I believe like anything.

You need to be highly professional,

highly dedicated and highly focused.

because but you need a big slice of luck as well i mean it's yeah it is it's i i luck for

lack of i think you make your own luck i

think if you are on that vibe and on that energy and on

that in the kind of groove you

create your own luck luck will come to you in a sense as long

as you're serious about this you can't just start throwing fads around and then despairing and yeah

that's cool no it's not anymore no i'm gonna change you you have to have some kind of foundation for

this and when we did buddha of course buddha was you know i didn't buddha bar existed before and in

fact i remember the thai embassy contacted me and said listen dude buddhism and drink don't mix so

you gotta stop using this name and i'm like i'm very sorry but the place is called buddha bar and

there are many buddha bars in the world so you know you can start a war with everybody that's

entirely up to you but we will we will do this i

didn't go that far but um i would be very happy to welcome them

anyway the the

idea was as i say to take the whole the beauty of north africa and create a

club around it and we we did exactly that and i was working with a very another big up the guy

called philippe des rois philippe des rois was a guy from club mediterranea

genius this guy was

an absolute genius he

was brilliant with interior he was in brilliant with deco he was brilliant

with creating the kind of visual

backdrop for for a club it was he he he was he was magic this guy

and i remember i did had a meeting with the staff and

i put all i knew a lot of people in paris and so

i chose all these people and i sat down with these people i said this is uh this is the casbah

this is what i want to do you want to do this i remember looking at everybody thinking

damn there's not one french person here

and i rang philippe i remember picking up my phone philippe i got

something to tell you mate i've

got all the staff they're brilliant

but there's not one french person

in this in in the group

He's like, Dominic, if that's your vision,

then

there's a reason for it.

And I'm like,

you're right.

And when you look at La Gazebo,

in fact, La Gazebo was a walled city in a sense.

and everything was inside i mean there was every shape color form of of

yeah everything was there

so it was a real melting pot in a sense and i think we managed to create that in paris and that was

that was legendary we we we yeah we were we were kicking the bandage all over the place palace

privilege all the other clubs are like what the hell

i was 24.

also business smart but that's like a middle so you can you can see a little bit more now and

and then but that you have that creative boost there and so much will and so much time then probably to

be willing in the 20 years do

you miss that time no no i don't no i don't miss it

i i i really enjoy i i reminisce and i i still see people who are part of that who tell me you know what

a wonderful time it was in fact i met many norwegians in my club in paris and so when i

came to oslo life got a little bit easier for me because they knew what i did in paris they'd been

to my clubs in paris and they'd seen what i could do wow and when i came to oslo they were like

okay um what about doing what you did in paris here

and the first person another massive big up massive big

up sisel quello in

the industry was a ledge an absolute ledge she's still in the industry and

doing very well i hope

i don't see her that often anymore which is a shame but i have a lot of respect for this lady

because she started the place called aqua um

oh you know you should never ask me but i barely know

my own age i'm serious i'm so bad on this yeah that's about all that's about all exactly that's

about it yeah i'm really bad on ages

but it was

when you come to norway don't even go there because

it's you're asking the wrong questions because i was back and forth in the first three or four

years i was back and forth between paris and i didn't settle i didn't i didn't really like it

to be honest with you but aqua was uh top of my head

don't know don't know

late 90s

you're in yeah that was the moose and oh

No, it wasn't Juden.

It was Trudy.

Okay, there was a new Norwegian girl called Trudy.

And she's the mother of our son,

Dylan.

Who's 25 now and a father of his own.

He has two children.

So I'm a grandfather.

Wow.

That's another story.

But when I came to Oslo,

there was Cicel and Kristoffer Vesberg, who

is another very, very cool guy and a good friend.

They were looking to start a restaurant.

And if I remember correctly,

they took me to a place on the back of Sully,

which was some kind of tapas restaurant, some underground restaurant.

It's like we're heading to a palace grill.

Exactly.

Keep going down from palace grill towards Aker Brygge.

And then on the way down, there's a strange,

Spanish tapas place thing that existed back in the day.

I don't know what it is now,

but it was underground.

And their idea was to create in this location

before the tapas place was there,

it was a place called 360 or some degrees under the sea

because it was actually located.

And the name of the place was representative

of its physical location

in the city.

And that was the idea.

And they came to me and said,

Dominic, do you want to be part of this?

And I'm like, listen, let's have a look.

So they took me to this place.

And I'm like, oh yeah, cool, cool, nice.

It's you guys.

I like you guys.

You guys are cool.

So yeah, maybe let's do this.

And then it didn't happen.

And then I can't remember how long it was after this.

Suddenly this thing, this aqua thing came along

and Cicel came

to me and approached me and said,

listen, would you, will

you do this for me?

Will you front it?

And I'm like,

yeah, I'd be more than happy to do that for you.

So I fronted, actually,

we had a laid back section and a gourmet section.

And there was a bar and it was kicking

and everybody was there.

And it was probably what I'd described

as one of the first times

that there was some kind of pizzazz in

the city.

Before, you know, I was going to the clubs,

it was all pretty dark

and you couldn't see if you were wearing Gucci,

Prada or Hennessy Maritz.

I mean, it was, but aqua was like a goldfish bowl.

And you could see people,

people would walk around

and the girls would get up and go to the toilet

five times a night just to show the new dress.

And it was one of those really kind of,

it became pretty glamorous.

So there were a lot of clubs in Oslo.

It was all dark.

Yeah,

it was all dark.

It was all hallited and dark,

you know.

It wasn't glamorous.

It wasn't cocktail-y.

It wasn't she-she.

It wasn't guest-listed.

it was very pretty it

was pretty kind of basic

but cool you know head on

and those sort of places yeah

and Aqua was Cicely did something completely different and she took the idea

from River Cafe which was a very cool place in London

and

off we went

and we absolutely rocked the city it was brilliant it was a very cool time

and big up to her

because she saw that what I did in Paris

I could duplicate basically to

a certain extent in Oslo and

I worked with some really good people there

there were some really really nice people

one I'm a big up

this isn't going to be

a big up show because I've got

I've got a big up

a few people here

there's a girl called

Magda

Magda who now owns

Le Benjamin

in Gronluka I

remember coming into just you know coming from Paris and working with some

some really good people

and I I was kind of

frustrated in Norway because

I didn't see people

seeing this as a profession

what I was doing

they saw it as a job

they could do between jobs

or they made good tips

so yeah I can do this

I can do that but she was

proper business

this girl I was like man you are good

and not only are you good

you have an understanding

of this of this business and this profession

and it just goes to show

what she's doing now she's

she's one of the best restaurants

in town she's a top girl

so big up Magda

have you seen any other places and clubs in Oslo that have gone the same

after you came to Oslo

and did the things you do

that you've clearly seen

that have inspired you

or the things you've done

or that you've taken with you

to Oslo I think

they definitely took inspiration in

possibly the service

presentation

music

because we we went out on a limb

we were doing stuff

and playing stuff that wasn't

as I say it was more like

the buddha-esque kind of thing where you can kind of mix up things lots of different types of music and

people have a really good time

it's like escapism in music basically it's not just funk and soul

but they

didn't

they tried yeah they tried some of them tried

the door policy one but

that's a difficult one

it's a really difficult

one because it takes somebody to do it

and somebody with enough kahunas to stand and take the rough

with the smooth I mean you get

you know you get 90 kisses a night

but you also get

some people who just don't like you

because you have to say no

you have to say no

there's no point in having a door

if you can't say no

and you have your own

own vibe in the door it's a little bit

it's very static to come in and you get your own own rhythm because you did Cosmo in

Vika and I think that's what I got

in my 20 years

instead of 20 and that was very new for me

that you took it out because you were so used to standing in a queue

it's very Norwegian standing in a queue

even your tour that was my anecdote

in fact was the queue I remember I had some pretty good doorman these guys who'd been working Oslo for many years

and they were like

no no the guy's in the queue

he's waiting and I said

yeah but

he's in a shell suit

and he's got a beer

in one hand and a sausage in the other and he's in my queue

he ain't getting in

it's never gonna happen

he's approaching the door

with completely the wrong attitude

but if he comes back

tomorrow he freshens himself up

and he's got a little

good thing going on

and it doesn't take much

it doesn't take much

to get yourself into a club

you just gotta show

that kind of I

say certain respect in a sense and also a

certain understanding of where you're going

and that you're gonna

actually add something to this environment I've had people I've had the poorest people

in the world and I know I've had some boys

on my doors oh my goodness me I

can't big up them

because they'll get insulted

because they had nothing

at the time and actually there's one of them

who's doing really well

in New York now

he's a big photographer

he used to come to my door

every night in Paris

and I'm like oh man not you again yeah man yeah let me in man

yeah come on man

this thing oh let me in

and he was very unique

and not just the fact

that he had felt my feelings but I'm a great believer

in the fruit salad if

you look on my

Instagram profile it says a bowl of bananas

is not a fruit salad

your bowl of bananas

is not gonna make

an exciting evening you need the apples

and the grapes and the pears and the passion fruit

and the mango and the papaya to make an exciting

fruit salad that's just what you need

and a club is exactly the same

so I would be

doing this and and juggling and trying to find

that combo that would make an interesting evening and an interesting clientele inside a club

that would create the magic

and he was one of those people

as I say he's now a very famous

photographer in New York

but back in the day

he had nothing and I used to

I used to give him

a bit of a hard time

on the door sometimes

I'm like oh man

not you again no man

alright come on man

let you in man

yeah yeah go on

and he'd get in

and he'd create a vibe

he was a he was a very unique dude

he was very super creative

and you know you need those people

it's not just the guy

who can buy the bottle

of Dom Pérignon that interests me whatsoever

it's in fact the opposite because the Dom Pérignon guys

they're flooding to your club

It's the ones that will make that environment interesting that you need.

And that's what I look for.

That's why I do,

I work so hard with The Thief,

inviting the people you probably wouldn't expect inside The Thief

and making them feel welcome at The Thief.

I did a presentation for...

Thank you for this meal, Bernardo.

No, no, no.

I think about guests.

But not guests who are necessarily going to bring you massive revenue today.

Because I do a lot of work with universities and with students.

And

I'm actually on school's curriculums now

because I've taken so much time and effort

to welcome the students into the property.

I do literally a two-hour presentation about marketing,

about brand building, about informal service, about The Thief, about the whole industry.

And I anecdote, I quirk, I tangent, I do loads of different stuff.

And then I take them on a tour of the property,

show them the house.

And you can see.

I get letters back from teachers on a regular basis saying,

you don't know what you've done to these kids.

You've actually taken them to another place because,

first of all, they felt welcome.

And this is The Thief Hotel that they've heard so much about.

It's the most expensive hotel in Norway,

which it probably is.

And all these famous people stay there and all the business people are there

and it's all this and that.

But that's our foundation and that's a reality, which is true.

But it doesn't mean...

It doesn't mean you're not welcome.

And I try and emphasise to this.

At the end of the presentation,

which takes a long time,

a lot of effort and a lot of talking,

I say to them,

now,

what I have here in front of me

are 35 ambassadors of The Thief.

You are now 35 people who've been to The Thief,

you've smelt The Thief,

you've tasted The Thief

and you've probably met The Thief.

Now, it's up to you

now whether you like it or not.

In fact, it's entirely up to you.

But you now know,

instead of hearing the story,

oh, yeah, my brother's friends, girlfriends, brothers, uncles,

cousin went there and,

yeah, he was a famous guy in the bar.

That's not an opinion of The Thief, that's just hearsay.

What's really important for me is these people actually come to The Thief.

And so I invite them now,

teachers write back to me on a regular basis,

can we come back again?

And I've had them for six years now.

It's cute.

Yeah, it's fantastic.

I absolutely love it.

And I think the most fun,

actually, I have, in a sense, is actually working with students because

they're like sponges.

I've had teachers come back to me and say,

listen, you don't know that that class,

you've just taken on board,

they were an absolute nightmare

and they never listened to me.

But they sat there for two hours listening to you.

I'm like, well, I don't know what it is, but...

It sounds to me like it's something that goes into all the things you've said now.

It's this welcome.

Yeah, welcome, mate.

How important that is.

I do the five-point test with the students.

And I do the whole,

I create a scenario around a business person

who's coming to Norway.

And I give them the five points.

And point number two,

is when

you walk into the property,

what should you feel?

You walk inside the doors of the Thief Hotel,

what should you feel?

And I want one word.

I stand there and I stand back and I'm like,

oh, give me that word now.

Warm and yeah, I don't know.

And they're sort of mumbling away and I'm like,

what's the one thing you should feel when you walk into your home?

What's that one thing you should feel?

What's that one word?

And you hope that somebody's,

well, it's actually welcome.

Yeah, welcome.

Welcome.

Welcome, welcome.

It's the foundation of our industry, welcome.

You cannot go wrong if you're welcoming people into your property.

First of all, because you've laid the foundation.

And you can see,

and I do the five-point test.

And there's five words and five things.

And

it's very, very simple.

And I did a presentation actually for a young

form of African entrepreneurs and business people.

And a girl at the end of it,

she came to me and said,

you make things sound so silly.

It's very simple with such clarity.

And I'm like, well, it

is simple.

And there is clarity to this because you

don't have to complicate life

when it comes to the

essential needs of people.

It's not complicated.

You can call it whatever you want.

You can paint it in whatever color you want.

But the

basics are very, very simple.

So a mix of welcome and first impression is probably

also one of the important details.

And that's why I position myself.

You'll see when you come to the hotel,

I position myself by the door.

That you can't get past me without saying hello or me saying hello to you.

And that's another thing we have that steals you away from everyday life.

It's probably my favorite expression when the hotel is concerned.

How do you come up with that?

Don't say like the consultants,

seminars and post-its on the walls.

No, no, no, no, no, no.

Well, I can't give credit to that.

I give credit where credit isn't due,

so I prefer not to say.

But I have to big up one more person on the Big Up show.

It's a girl called Siri Learning.

Siri Siri Siri learning learning

this girl I mean we're the closest thing

to a married couple

who aren't married because we we have a

genuine

love for the industry

and we have a work rate

that's second to none

and we have a deep understanding of

each other and

Siri was the person

she was Petter's right hand

on the Thief Project

Petter Stordal Petter Stordal exactly who I should big up as well

big up Petter because you're the man

trust me you're the man he's not your boss but he is

I didn't say that

because I didn't say that

because he's my boss

I say it because I mean it

I could do a whole program

on Petter Stordal I mean that's what I think

oh my goodness we should take our own

podman here what a dude that man he's got it going on

he really is yeah

we well not as much as I'd like to

because we have a good time

every time we have a chat

and he's the man's just mad busy

but when we do we kind of look in each other's eyes

and I say what I've got to say

and he says what he's got to say

and then we kind of leave it there

but there's one thing

I will say about him is

the level of emotion he can create

around

something that

belongs to him which is his company

is phenomenal I've never seen anything like it

he is a public speaker of excellence

when he just lets his heart out

and he will he'll stand on the stage and cry

I've seen him I can say this

because I know it's true and I was there

he talked about his sister

back in the day and

his sister's his sister's gay and

he had a he flew in all his leaders and management and and

he brought us into an arena and he he always opens this seminar

it's a thing called

Vickle it's it's his it's his thank you to all his people

every year for what they've done

and it's a great gathering

and it's a black-tie dinner

and a party and seminars and keynote speakers this

is legend in the industry

this is this is a very special moment

to be invited to Vickle

and he opens Vickle every year and he was up on stage

talking about how his sister

struggled

and then was brave enough to

come out and tell people exactly

who she was and what she represented

and how she felt about herself and and

being gay you know and he said back then

it wasn't trendy it wasn't no fashionable thing

to be gay and

she was brave enough

to do so and I remember he was in tears on stage

it was one of the most emotional

things I've ever seen

because

he's he's genuine and he's honest

and he can take you to places

with him and you can feel his pain

you can feel his joy

you can feel his sorrow

you can feel the emotions that he has

and I equate that

through very much through work that we're doing

and work that where we where we find ourselves in this industry

and I always equate it to vulnerability I

think being vulnerable is a fantastic thing

because we can all build

this wall around ourselves

and call ourselves this and call ourselves

that and give ourselves

fancy titles I'm the GM I'm the CEO I'm the this I'm the that

but at

the end of the day

the vulnerability means that you're open and you're open for a kiss

and you're open for a slap

you can take both

and if you're willing

to take the kiss

you should always be willing

to take the slap so

the vulnerability of our industry I think is an absolute charm

to work with because you're being very very honest and people can feel it

so the example would be

if somebody came to me

and said oh Dominic yeah I just stayed in your

five star hotel I've just arrived it's a five star property

and I'm like well

it's very nice of you

to say that we're

a five star property but

I shake your hand now

and on the way out

shake my hand and tell me how many stars

you'd like to see me do

because I don't own

five stars I don't have five stars

on my lapel I'm not like five stars

on the back of my shirt

calling me the five star five

star Dominic I'm not I'm only as good

as the guy checking in now

so my vulnerability will be to say to you

it's up to you

this is exactly your call because

I try and avoid

using those terms that put me in a position of not

just a position of strength

but a position of full

fake strength

because there could be

a guy checking in

now is having a horror

at the thief hotel

what does that make me does

that make me a five star hotel

not in the slightest

so I am vulnerable

every single day I wake up every morning

vulnerable but I love that vulnerability

because it makes me strong

and it makes me want

to go to work

it makes me want to deliver oh

I'm alive

like Petter I mean it's the same thing

he's the man he puts himself in a position of vulnerability

oh he lives but it's also from the outside from those who don't

work with him but I see him

on the mainstream press and stuff and for my own part

I think it's a man

who gives a fucking

spesielt i opinions i oppslag, hva folk måtte mene, synes, han gir fullstendig faen av, han har en sånn regnjakke

utarbeidet regnjakke hvor det bare preller av

men han er samtidig sårbar

det er noe menneskelig herlig med han

det er jo noen av de her

folk liker han så godt jeg tror det

jeg tror du skjønner

hva jeg mener

jeg tror du skjønner hva jeg mener

jeg tror du skjønner hva jeg mener

jeg tror du skjønner hva jeg mener

men jeg tror også at

han har en dyp

forståelse av hvor han kommer fra

og en dyp forståelse av hva det er

som det er ikke å ha veldig mye

og jeg tror at når han ser

mennesker som ikke har veldig mye som strider,

nummer en strider hardt til å oppnå og da oppnå

han har mye respekt for

for jeg vet hvor du kommer fra

og jeg tror,

som du sier

ikke å gi en døm

kanskje litt mer med verden

som står utenfor, for den kan være ganske brutal

å ta deg når du virkelig ligger ned

han er den første som skal fortelle deg

han ble skrudd av noen mennesker

og han har kanskje

hatt noen problemer med menneskene

i sin business-karriere

og det er bare

når du kommer til toppen av ditt spill

det er uansett at det har vært noen

det er naturlig ja

men jeg har sett ham gjøre noen ting

jeg har sett ham

interagere med mennesker på et nivå der han belongerer til dem

og de belongerer til ham og

du ser tre og en halv, fire tusen mennesker

de bare

står og applauderer fordi

han gir det alt

han gir det alt

og han vil, som jeg sier, den vulnerabiliteten

er noe jeg virkelig

oppfører i menneskene for du ser mange av disse menneskene på stedet

og det er alt meg

og jeg tar en bære og de går

jeg lar ingenting tilbake

men han lar sin søn på stedet

og for

meg er det en massiv kvalitet

er han like intens eller?

når du snakker sammen sånn

på tomt og sånn

ja, ja, ja det er ikke noe sånn

nei, nei, nei ok nei, nei, han er på det

tenk deg han som er midtbanespiller da

han måtte jo vært helt sin her

i et annet liv

han var som Vidal

du vet den mannen med Mohawk

som spiller for Barcelona

han var den slags spiller tattoo,

sweat give it everything man, you done kjefter alle på en positiv måte

yeah, exactly might have been the best player on the pitch

but damn, he'll let you know he's there

ja, ja, ja he will let you know

sånn positive Roy Keane oh yeah

exactly,

yeah, exactly exotic Roy Keane let's say, yeah, yeah men hvordan har du for nå

jeg leste jo en liten artikkel

for tidligere i dag

at nå har det har blitt seks år på å komme i pluss

altså nå har du endelig begynt

å tjene penger på hotellet

ja men har Petter vært

lik sånn er

han enda litt mer fornøyd nå

som liksom ting har snudd litt rundt at

ting at penger renner inn

altså skjønner du altså er det en forskjell fra

de første årene til nå da hvor dere

sannsynligvis har satt systemet ting fungerer

dere har lært mye

dere vet hvor dere er på vei igjen I

think first of all

when when the thief

yeah, when he came

with the idea of the thief

he wanted to do the thief it

was because he has

many properties already across

Scandinavia but to

be possibly recognized as a great

hotelier you know one of the greats

in the industry he has 197 properties at present you

need those flagship properties that really stand out

one thing is having volume

you know the other thing is having

that little extra and I think the thief was his

was his shout out to the world that

I'm good at what I do

but now you're going to see

something a little bit special

and he pulled every rabbit out of every hat

to make this happen I mean

he's worked with some of the best people in the industry

the hotel was

it's a stunning property

in a stunning location

we have the whole

art profile with the patrons of the Astrid Fernand Museum he is a patron

so we have the artwork on the property

we have you know beautiful rooms there's

it is a beautiful property

and it was truly recognized as one of the great properties

in fact we were nominated we were voted as

the best hotel in northern Europe in Condé Nast Travel

er det du som tar imot

disse folkene her som Michelin folk og de som yeah yeah yeah that's my job basically

I'm on meet and greet

when these guys arrive

it's me they're going to meet first

and that's where Siri comes into the game Siri learning who

she reaches out to me

to these people and it's one thing is saying

I've got the best chocolate cake

in the world the other is actually

having the best chocolate cake

in the world because people will turn up

and say oh yeah

where's your chocolate cake

there it is have a taste you know

And you're like, damn, that's the best chocolate cake I've ever tasted.

And that's what we would choose.

That was our goal.

You can't go out to these people and invite them from around the planet

and say, listen, we've got one of the finest hotels in Scandinavia.

They're like, okay, great.

I'm coming.

Let's see what you've got.

And when they come, they're like,

damn, this is special.

And that's what we created.

They don't just go around and write notes and be quiet.

They express their enthusiasm.

No, they're on a different level.

As I say, this whole informal thing is probably

where I have to kind of land this in a sense.

When you're dealing with informality,

you're dealing with people on a different level.

And you can take them and say,

listen, let's just have a breakfast and just chat about this place.

And that's exactly what you do.

And you share food.

I love sharing food with people.

I do a lot of breakfast meetings.

I think it's a great,

great leveler.

People love breakfast.

You sit down and have a breakfast and you start chatting away.

And I could be talking fishing, football, music.

Fashion.

Yeah, exactly.

With them.

Because you don't.

I mean, it's amazing the level you can sort of

interact with people on before you even started talking about business.

And I can't even start.

There's no point.

Because there's been so many links and so many friends in common and so many things we've done and so many things we've experienced at

the same place that may be different.

Anyway.

So Siri, as I get back.

I get back to Siri because I have to end this kind of

where she started it.

In fact, she will go out and contact these people.

And she has a fantastic network.

And she will let these people know there's something special happening in Norway.

And this place is called The Thief.

And they're like, oh, I'm assuming it could be somebody at Vogue.

It could be somebody at CNN,

BBC.

It doesn't matter where it is.

I mean.

And they click.

There's something clicking about Norway.

And it's been great for us.

Anyway.

So they come.

And I meet them.

And we have this whole informal thing going.

And one leads to two and two leads to three.

And we have a breakfast.

And blah, blah, blah.

And they say at the property.

They absolutely love it.

I know they're going to love the property.

It's just giving them that extra kind of little something that just kind of puts them in the cake.

You divide them really up a little.

Yeah.

But I'm there.

Things like I live on the property almost.

So I'm generally there at all times.

So whenever they're coming in from dinner.

Did you have a nice dinner?

Yeah.

Where did you go?

Oh, did you meet someone?

Yeah, I did.

What are you doing tomorrow?

Let's have breakfast.

There's this whole.

You just interact with people.

But it does take a lot of time.

And you have to generally.

As I say, I live on the property practically.

So that's another.

Yeah.

That's another.

How would I put it?

That you get people to visit.

Is it almost like that?

Is it like that?

Do you feel that you're very proud to be able to invite almost home to your other homes?

Yeah.

Kind of.

Kind of.

But I believe to do what we do.

Because what we've done at the Thief and with the amazing people that I work with,

you have to dedicate your mind, body and soul.

You just have to do it.

There's no other way to put a property on the map that we've done with the Thief.

Because in all honesty,

we were up against the great properties.

The Grand Hotel,

the Continental,

the Bristol.

And those guys have been there for a long time.

Yes.

And they are your competitors.

Oh, big time.

Big time.

But a competition, as you know, as a footballer is the wonderful,

the best part is the competition.

I love.

I'm highly competitive.

You give me.

You give me a race, I'll join it.

So they're great properties,

but they've had hundreds of years to establish themselves

and their brands.

And they have the location.

They have Ibsen and Munch and all these,

you know, quintessentially Norwegian things.

We've been there for six years.

Excellent.

And we've absolutely moved mountains.

So it

takes a dedicated team and it takes a team of people who really know what they're doing to

achieve that goal.

But it also takes,

as I say, the word dedication is priceless.

Probably the foundation is you, you

know, I have children, I have a wife,

I have a house, I have.

Don't leave.

Yeah.

I have another life.

But they understand what I do.

They truly understand what I do.

And my colleagues at work,

there's a few who are Andrea and Jens and Yala and

people who

have really given their mind,

bodies and souls to this property to make this a great,

great property.

Yeah.

And you

need those people, you truly need those people.

Otherwise, it just won't work.

I've seen a very good video.

One is a presenter and one is very popular on YouTube lately.

It's Simon Sinek.

Have you heard of him?

He talks about a lot of what you're up to and has a statement of one thing.

He means that the customer does not come first.

He has his own video support with everything that's a little interesting to listen to.

So it's interesting to hear if you agree or not.

But he says that you do not want to get involved.

Yeah,

that's not true.

It is true.

It is true.

And

there's a balance somewhere along that line as well.

But what we do take

extreme care of is

that we have a school.

I'm actually the teacher at the school.

It's called Thief School.

And anybody who works at the Thief has to go through the school.

And I give probably a three to four hour presentation of the property and I interact with that person.

And we

truly try and install the sense of being a thief in that individual,

regardless if it's from dishwash or from,

you know, new food and beverage manager.

In fact, who I'm meeting.

Identity.

Totally.

Culture.

Identity and culture.

And that culture is infective.

And you realize that when people understand the

level they work.

And the expectations,

then

it just takes them.

It's like

playing in the Premier League almost, you know.

You know what's expected of you.

You don't join Man U without thinking,

damn, this is Old Trafford and Alex Ferguson sitting in the stands.

And I've got this red shirt on.

I'm running out on that pitch.

I've got to deliver.

I mean, that's just the name of the game.

If you don't want to play for Man U,

then go and play.

Play somewhere else, you know.

But when you decide to put that shirt on,

when you decide to put the tee that we wear,

which we're very, very proud of,

that's an obligation.

And also, you're mine.

As far as I'm concerned, you're a thief.

And you are a thief 24-7.

And another thing we could do,

the whole thing about is brand representation.

I am a brand representative.

And I believe that my colleagues and the guys who've really been successful at the thief,

they're brand representatives.

They'll be known as thieves.

And it also stands you in very good stead in future life.

Because when you've...

When you've actually left the thief,

when you're out on the market looking for a new job,

that name starts ringing bells.

And people are like,

damn, let's get that person in.

Because then they can hopefully tell us how

it was done.

How did the thief manage to achieve what they've achieved in such a short space of time?

So it's important to get the people to think more about just the paycheck.

To think that it's a bigger...

It's a bigger honor and a bigger responsibility.

You'd like to think so.

There are, of course, you know, we don't live in an ideal world.

And people, you know, have different...

Priorities.

But at least being a thief at the thief and working there,

you have to have a completely different value and a completely different feeling than working at a,

let's say, regular hotel.

Yes, I would definitely think so.

Yeah.

So it's probably more passionate people.

Yeah, but yeah, you try.

You try.

It's not easy.

The market isn't easy because there's not an abundance of people who...

Because this is an industry where you,

as I said before, I spend...

A third of the year,

I sleep at the hotel.

Wow.

So a hundred and...

At least 120 nights.

Do you have your own room?

Yeah, I've got my own room.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

How does it look in there?

Looks like any other room.

Does it?

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Have you done anything with it?

No, no, no.

I spend so little time in that room,

there's no point in even personalizing it.

No, no.

It's just a...

Yeah,

it's just a room.

High top?

Yeah, yeah.

Oh, yeah.

But I'm in the middle of the artists.

Okay.

Not to give too much away.

But I generally position myself...

Where the artists will be.

So I'm surrounded by the artists,

basically.

So when you come into such a huge entourage with Rihanna,

you're...

I'm in the middle.

Yeah, exactly.

But do they book like...

Yes, yes.

Whole floors?

It can happen.

How does it work?

From the first event to...

Do you talk to tour managers and then...

Or do you compete with other hotels to land deals and stuff?

They generally have agents who book their tour, first of all.

And the agent will generally decide where they're going to stay.

If the tour manager had a particularly good experience at a hotel,

he will then tell the agent,

this is where we want to stay.

And that's what happens with us.

We get guests come back, basically.

Once that's been established and we know when they're coming and how many rooms,

then we can set it up and deal with generally the PA.

Because the PA will know...

About PA?

Personal assistant.

Okay.

Thank you.

The PA will generally know what the artist likes, doesn't like,

and all the idiosyncrasies that go with it.

So once that's been established, then it's...

The thing is, once you've created that sense of,

one, understanding, because they know I understand,

and two, delivery,

then you're good to go,

basically.

But once, of course, we're in the house,

things can happen, things can change.

But that's why I live on the property.

Simply because

you're there 24-7.

And I could go home.

I live, you know, up by...

Du har noen slags rektor

og syvende far i huset.

Big up, Lina.

Thank you very much.

Big up.

Big up, big up.

Sett rundt øverst på big up-listen.

She should be at the top.

I should have started with her.

Yeah,

there's the understanding of

what I do

and how I function.

She allows me to do that.

Without her, I wouldn't be able to do it.

There would always be something

that would be trying to drag me away

from what I do

instead of her taking care of all of that.

Saying,

just do what you do.

So I try and make up for it

when I come home.

I'd love to be

part of home and do the homely thing.

But in all honesty,

I've been doing this all my life.

I've always, and probably my children,

probably when they get to the age

where they can express this,

they will say, yeah, dad, you worked.

Ja, her var du.

Dette laget du det.

And I'll have to live with that.

And I do live,

and I did a presentation the other day.

And my example was,

my role model was my father.

And he was a very hardworking man.

He woke up in the morning,

he went to work,

he came home, and we had au pairs at the time.

And I remember trying to run past the au pair

to say goodnight to my dad

like eight o'clock in the evening

when I should have been in bed.

And that was a very important time

for me to see my father.

But that was probably the only time,

I did see him,

apart from the weekends.

And on holidays.

We always went on some really long ass holiday.

Always traveled the world with him.

And that was

always a pleasure.

But my example was a man

who worked very, very hard.

And I just took that as being the norm.

And I've always been

that hardworking man.

If there's anything I can thank him for,

anything, if he's looking down on me now,

I know he'll have his hand on his heart

and say, I did good.

That boy, he

works hard.

And how long do you think you're going to hold that coke in?

Do you think you're going to

hold this tempo here

and work with this?

I've got a new project in the pipeline as we speak.

A side project?

No, no, no.

Well, I can't talk about that.

No, no, yeah.

That's the problem.

Yeah, that could be a little...

With a little alcohol as well.

That's a whole top.

Fuck.

But you didn't have to kill a hotel

before you started with Thief, right?

This is my first hotel.

Isn't that right?

So now...

I don't know.

Er det noe helt annet nå,

eller?

No, no, no.

Another hotel.

Fotballklubb?

No,

oh, I wish,

I wish.

Chelsea?

No, it's for sale, but I ain't got the money.

I haven't got that kind of money,

that's for sure.

Du har ikke møtt Abramowitz?

No, never, never.

Synd.

No.

Nå har han flyktet til Israel,

har han ikke?

I've heard.

Han har ikke vært der sin tolte på sted.

They were all letting back in England.

Well, they were all letting back,

but he can't, he's got this lack of, you know, residency,

and there's all this stupidness.

Anyway, I can't, that's just politics,

I don't want to get involved.

Nei.

But it's not had a good effect on the team,

I don't think, not the greatest effect,

but we're still, last night, respect,

got a little 1-1.

Kjemper om fjerdeplassen.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Got a little 1-1,

and hopefully in Stamford Bridge

we can bury them

and go to the final and meet Arsenal,

who might beat Valencia in Spain,

or they, I don't know, that's another one, I can't get involved in that one.

Chelsea har blitt Liverpool i nå.

Vi kjemper i Europa-liga nå.

Ja.

Ja,

det er vondt.

Ja.

Men tilbake til, jeg synes det var interessant det der

med artister på det,

jeg skjønner, du kan jo ikke snakke om

spesifikke artister som har vært på besøk hos deg og sånt.

Nei.

Men jeg kom på en jævlig bra historie med Per Osmundsvog.

Åh.

Han fortalte meg om,

kanskje ikke jeg skal si det her.

Big up Per, actually.

It's a big up show.

Big up Per.

You the man.

Jeg har invitert han hit, da.

Has he been here?

Nei, jeg har invitert han.

Really?

Han sa, jeg må ha noen øl

før jeg kan gå på.

Top boy.

Ja, ja.

Top boy.

Per, respect to you, man.

He's a good boy.

Han er et vanlig råfyr også.

I like Per.

Kanskje ikke jeg skal si det.

Jeg kan vel si det

hvis han har sagt det til meg,

jeg tror ikke det.

Han hadde en jævlig bra historie på Prince,

Rest in Peace.

Okay, okay.

For det lurer jeg på,

for jeg hørte noe sånn

at de drev å bygge dem

Grand Hotel.

De modifiserte Grand Hotel

til å passe Prince sine behov.

Så de,

vi hørte en story på det,

at de hadde to rom,

de bygget dem to toppsvitter

eller noe sånn.

Så hvis den ene ikke funket,

så hadde de den,

ja, det stemmer det.

Har du hørt noe sånn?

Yeah, I've heard.

I've heard.

Yeah.

In the mix.

Her er det en professional

in the mix story.

Loyalitet.

Yeah, no, there are stories.

I've got a few, but I, yeah.

What I would say

And generally,

they are very, very nice people.

I've met them all from Obama to Jay-Z to Rihanna.

And those are the ones I can talk about

because they've been in the press

and they've obviously been saying that the thief,

I mean, it's there.

Yeah, I had

dinner with Jay-Z,

had dinner with Damien Hirst not so long ago.

Yeah, nice, nice people.

But just to come back to

them in a sense is that a

lot of people have a lot of opinion

where these people are concerned.

And if you take, I don't know,

take one guy, for example, say,

yeah, just say Jay-Z, for example.

That dude has a world tour of 50 dates, let's say.

Every date, there's 50,000 people.

He's doing the big stadium tour of America, let's say.

Now, my job when he comes to my hotel and

in my environment is to make sure that he can deliver.

Now, if he says to me,

Dominic, I don't give a damn about anybody else.

I want to sleep all day and I want chicken and rice

and this and that and get this into my room

and I want it this way and that way and not that way and

I'll do it.

Because the repercussions of that guy

not being able to do what he should be doing,

which is on stage,

performing, could be that disappointed 50,000 people

and that starts with the people.

Then you're talking about transport,

then you're talking about hotels,

then you're talking about the guys who sell popcorn,

then you guys sell the sausage

and the guys who sell the beer.

There are thousands and thousands and thousands of people

and money linked to this guy's performance.

So my job is to make sure that he can perform.

And I don't care what anybody says.

Oh, yeah, he's so special.

He just wants chicken with that and not on the bone

and he wants rice.

You're damn right that's what he wants

and that's exactly what he's going to get.

And you've got to deliver it.

That's what I want.

That's your job.

It's not that he's being precocious

or being unfriendly or being rude about something.

He's just being very specific.

And I love that.

For me, it makes my life really easy.

I say, what do you want?

Because the trouble is that the issues generally come

when it's the people around the artist who start pulling

strings and saying what thing,

how things should be.

In fact, when

the best thing to do is

to go to source,

go to the artist.

But do you always have the opportunity to do that?

Isn't it often to start with...

That you relate to another person to begin with?

Yeah, yeah, yeah, true.

You do.

But if they trust you, you can get

very close.

If not

as close as you need to be.

Yeah,

you can get there.

If they trust you.

But then you're very much part of the entourage.

You're very much part of

the operation.

And you're very much part of making sure

delivery is as it should be.

But if once...

If you know them,

then you get in very,

very quickly.

If they don't know you,

they've generally been told about you.

Because all these tour managers talk,

and I like this,

when you get to Oslo, talk to Dominic.

And that's the only person.

Once again, I'm in the hotel,

I'm there 24-7,

they have one point of reference, that's me.

And it's 24-7.

Anything they need, any time of the day or night, call Dominic.

It sounds like Prince artists would have gone to

Dominic Graham at Grand Hotel and said,

I would have built them fleas on the bathroom.

It sounds like an apparatus.

You know, I think those days of...

Modificating?

Yeah, the days of madness.

Because you've heard of artists wanting room to be changed, colour,

and they won't come until the room's right, white or pink.

There's other points of focus now.

Because they're not selling records,

they're touring.

And touring is probably the most lucrative part

of their industry now.

So they have to deliver.

And they generally have to behave.

They're not throwing your TV out the window anymore.

Those days of that rock and roll era,

seem to have gone there.

They're business people.

They realise that there could be a...

The longevity of their careers is maybe not as it was before.

And ultimately, delivery.

If you're touring, you've got 50 dates.

You've got to deliver 50 times in 50 different places.

And that's

a job.

But do you have some sort of template for yourself,

something you operate after?

I meet them here,

take their speech here,

and then I invite them to lunch,

and then I talk to the artist there,

and then I show them the room.

You don't have any...

You don't have a routine,

is that what you're saying?

There is a certain routine.

There's a foundation in that you need to know

when things are going to happen.

You need to know when flights are arriving.

You need to know who's on pick-up.

You need to know who's on reception.

Those things you need to have very,

very good control over,

because then you can control movement.

And once you know that,

where they're going to be at any particular time,

it makes life so much easier.

But there's no template for this.

You just...

Once again, if it was a template,

I probably wouldn't have to do the 24-7,

but the 24-7,

it's an organic thing.

And you never quite know.

You just...

You never quite know what

curveball they're going to throw at you, you know?

Fantastic guy.

What a guy.

That was probably one of my highest points ever.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

We had a chat.

We talked golf.

Golf, yeah?

Yeah, we talked golf.

Golf, because I'm a bit of a golfer,

a bit of an amateur golfer.

I emphasize on the word amateur.

Kisking and golfing.

Oh, I love.

It's my father-in-law,

actually, who plays, so we spend time,

our bonding time is on a golf course,

and it's very enjoyable.

And I caddied as a kid.

My home is close to a place called Coombe Hill,

which is one of the richest courses in England.

It's a beautiful course.

And to make money,

we used to go and caddy

and

carry a bag around 18 holes,

and I used to get £5,

50 kroner for 18 holes.

And you could do two rounds a day if you started early.

And you'd go home with £10,

and this is 40 years ago,

which was a lot of money for us then.

But I remember Coombe Hill,

mate, what a place.

And the caddy master,

we had a caddy master.

Can I tell the story?

Yeah, sure.

Okay.

The caddy master, he was a guy from the north of Norway.

No, sorry, the north of England.

And the caddy,

that real kind of prestigious golf club.

And if you can imagine,

there was like this sort of pit

where all the caddies stood,

and there was a stairway going up

to the golf course.

And it was like the caddy master stood at the top of the stairway

and looked down

and chose the caddy

who he'd be appropriate for the golfer

who just presented himself at the first tee.

And I remember my first round ever,

and every caddy had

been chosen.

There was nothing left.

There was...

Only me standing there.

I promise you it's true.

And the caddy master was looking under every rock

to see if there was any other human being

apart from this guy who was standing down there.

And I don't mean to sound funny,

but it was a black thing.

I was the only black boy there.

I'm sure they'd never had a black caddy there.

Never.

Actually, I've often found myself in that position

of being the first black person.

I was the first black member of Hazelmere Fishing Club.

Wow.

Ever.

I was 15 back then.

And there was a prop of carp fishing club.

This is how it all started.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Anyway, it wasn't a bad thing.

It was just the thing.

It was just life,

you know.

What did you think?

I'm used to it.

Yeah.

I'm so used to it.

When you're raised with white parents,

you start life strange.

You start life...

You never think about it.

No.

You do because people are always remarking

that when you're walking down the road with your sister,

for example, who's white, they say, oh, Dom, who's your new girlfriend?

I'm like, no, that's my sister.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's your sister.

Yeah, yeah.

But I'm serious.

You get it.

We got stopped at customs.

My parents got stopped with me.

The worst ones is the hotels.

When I was young,

you know, being a young boy,

you know, 15, 16, and staying with my father

who was a rather large business person and, you know,

obviously didn't look anything like my father

or who they expect to be my father,

we used to...

I'd get stopped by hotel security

saying, excuse me, sir, what are you doing?

Oh,

I'm living...

Yeah, but, yeah, do you live in the hotel?

Yeah, I do.

I live...

That's my father.

Yeah, yeah.

And it was kind of like the red boy,

you know, the little, you know...

So for the forklaring of...

Yeah, you had to explain very often.

The worst, actually, the worst one was my sister.

I have a sister who was adopted as well.

She's the same.

She's mixed race.

She's half Nigerian, half English.

She's beautiful.

She's really stunning.

And every time she went for dinner with my father,

it was the same thing.

This beautiful mixed race girl

sitting at a table,

with this white business guy.

And the way it was like,

oh, go on, go on, son.

Yeah, nice one, mate.

Oh, pretty girl.

And we...

That's our father.

I mean, we got it all.

Anyway, so we got used to this.

It's just...

We just, yeah.

We accepted it to a certain extent.

But the canny master looked down,

looked in the pit,

couldn't find anybody under any rock apart from me.

And he was like...

And I remember his words.

He's like, oi, darky, come here.

Darky.

Darky.

I was darky.

And in the north, oi, darky.

Darky, come here.

I was like, oh, why?

And I was like...

I'm like, are you talking to me?

So I climbed up the steps

and I walked onto this course.

And Akum Hill is a stunning course.

It's a beautiful course.

And as I say,

it's one of the richest courses in England.

Not that the golfers

are the greatest golfers in the world.

They're just very, very rich.

And you carry the bag.

There's no trolley.

There's no car.

You carry this bag around.

And I remember, I remember climbing to the top of the stairs

and there was a lady standing there.

And he literally said to her,

listen, this is all I've got.

This is it.

And she looked at me and she's like,

all right, no problem.

And she goes, pick up the bag.

And I sort of picked up the bag,

kind of half wrong.

And she's like, yeah.

She says, just come here, come here.

She goes, have you done this before?

And I'm like, well, sort of.

She's like, listen,

I've got a competition here.

She was actually the women's open golf champion.

Wow.

And she was training at Coombe Hill for a competition.

She was training for this weekend for a competition the following weekend.

She goes, listen, I can see you're not very good at this.

But just

bear with me, and I'll bear with you,

and I'll try and teach you how to do this.

And in fact, she taught me over 18 holes how to caddy.

Wow.

So that was an incredible experience.

There's a bit of film on the script there.

The caddy, yeah.

It would be.

And I ended up,

yeah, being not the last guy to be chosen after a few weeks.

And then after a few months, I was

a decent caddy.

And I learned to play golf.

I learned to play golf by watching golfers.

So I just picked up a club and a ball and just started swinging.

And

I had actually another big up, Darren Webster-Clark.

Darren, he is a golf pro at the golf club I'm a member at now.

And he rectified my stance and my hand position

last week and

put me on a simulator to test my swing.

And he was like, damn, this is.

And he's like, I don't want to take too much of your funky swing out

because you've got your own little way going on there.

So I can't really rectify,

but I can do this and this and this

and rectify these moments.

And then he took me to the golf range.

I was smacking this ball and the 7-iron was going like 120,

130 on a regular and straight.

Nice.

I was like,

damn, this is good.

So my last golfing experience was wonderful.

So I'm now,

I've applied for my green card and I will,

if I have to.

I don't have that much time to play golf

because it is a pretty time-consuming activity.

So you have a certain level on golf.

It's not just recreation.

When I turn up on a course,

I'm there to win.

I don't care who you are.

I'm there to win.

And I'm serious.

I don't care who you are.

I'm there to win.

And one time during the 18 holes,

I will hit a shot better than you.

If it's just once,

I don't care.

And what you said to Obama, wasn't it?

Oh.

Well, he was actually very curious about,

the history of Schufholmen and why we were called the thief.

And this is another

great part of our storytelling is

that we have a

name and a profile and a brand that

demands a story.

You can't get by calling a hotel the thief without having the story behind it.

And that, of course, people are very curious about.

So it gives us that chance to kind of interact with people and explain why we're called the thief.

And the way the name's written and the whole profile and culture around the thief and how we do things.

And

he was fascinated.

He absolutely loved it.

And we managed to get him out,

of course, because he spends

a lot of time in.

And the

freedom of being out is obviously limited for him.

And we managed to take him out on a beautiful walk

in the sunset on the fjord.

And I can't go into too much detail about it.

But what I will tell you is that we were spotted by three people.

The first was a family who lived in the area who filmed us and sent the footage to NRK immediately,

as soon as they,

because they couldn't find him.

The footage was sent straight to press.

The second was a jogger.

And it was really funny because as you're walking towards people,

you know how people function.

And you know how the setup is.

What the fuck?

Exactly.

And as he was jogging,

he could see us.

As he was running towards us,

he was like, oh my God.

But as a jogger,

you can't stop jogging.

Because as soon as you do,

security is asking you questions.

So you have to keep jogging.

And the second one,

in fact, sorry, the second one

was the jogger.

And the third one was another jogger.

And the same thing happened.

Jogging seedlings.

He almost fell in the fjord.

He was really jogging and trying to keep his head,

trying to keep an eye on what was going on.

But that was very nice because it

gave him.

It gave him the chance to relax.

He had a

very nice cup of coffee and just walked around in his casual gear.

And we had a casual conversation.

You could see he really,

really relaxed.

And then

I can say this bit because it was such a nice walk that

we couldn't go anywhere else because that's where the people were.

There were a lot of people waiting to see him.

And

we couldn't go that way.

So he said.

He said to me, can we go

somewhere and continue this walk?

And I'm like, well.

We can't really,

but we can do that walk again.

And he was like,

let's do it again.

The same route.

Yeah, we did exactly the same thing,

the same route.

Lovely.

It was beautiful.

That was, I...

It was just the two of you.

And of course, with the team.

I can't even go down that road.

No, no, no.

It wasn't just us two, that's for sure.

But in the conversation,

it was just the two of you?

Yes, yes.

I was called by his PA to try and

give him a chat.

About where we were and what we were doing.

And how we were doing it.

I can imagine that you came in on him like this.

The type of time you used,

like 10 seconds, it was right in the same time.

I'm sure of that.

Yeah, we started chatting.

You have that skill.

He's a super nice guy.

What a nice guy.

And the more you meet these people,

the more you realize that

there's something very unique

about every single one.

And they say, yeah, yeah, him, yeah, yeah.

No, no, no.

I've met him.

And he's true.

Truly, very, very unique.

I think he has that skill.

And also, I think it was a pleasure for him to actually click

off

and be able to click into something

completely different.

Because, I mean, you know, the sun was setting.

The fjord was beautiful.

It was like a fishing trip.

Yeah.

I should have taken him on one,

actually.

Yeah, that would have been fantastic.

But it was a beautiful evening.

And the

setting was right.

Very often you find this in Norway.

I'm absolutely privileged, in a sense, to be working in such an incredible environment.

Because, you know, our hotel could be on Oxford Street, for example.

You step out of a hotel onto Oxford Street,

I mean,

it's like night and day.

You do not have the luxury or the freedom

or the space or the clean or the fun.

Or the fresh or the crisp or the tranquille.

There's nothing about Oxford Street that

would represent a

relaxing environment.

And it has a direct

effect

and impact on the property.

So us being located on an island, which we are,

has a direct impact on the way people actually function

inside the property and the way people

sort of interact.

It's an absolute joy.

It really is.

It really is.

It's a privilege to be surrounded

or be given such a great tool to work with.

Such a

brilliant property to

front.

Do you think you're going to leave one day?

Yeah.

Unfortunately.

One day.

Is it that you have to?

Or that you're just...

You sound like you're going to take your life into consideration.

So you're restless, then.

No, I'm...

I'm...

I'm...

I'm highly competitive and I love a challenge.

And I get really good.

The bigger the challenge,

the better I get.

And I know Petter and his team, they know that.

Petter has something to say now.

Yeah.

I hear that.

He knows.

We had this conversation some time ago.

And there is a new property that we are...

That's in the pipeline.

It's not a secret.

It's been in the press.

And it's a place called Somero House.

And it's in Somero Gata.

And it's in...

It's in Soliplass.

Ah.

And it's a beautiful building from the 1920s.

And he's brought in two outstanding interior designers.

One from Brooklyn and one from London.

Who are world renowned.

He's gone all in on this property.

I mean...

Where?

On Soliplass?

On the little...

On the height on the other side of the cafe?

Or are we...

No.

If you know where Vescon Bad is?

On Soliplass?

Yeah.

No.

I don't know.

Okay.

If you're standing...

You know...

Do you know...

Is there a bath on Soliplass?

Yeah.

If you're standing...

You know the two tram lines that go across Soliplass?

Yeah.

If you look on the other side,

it's the old NAV building.

Okay.

It's a beautiful building from the 1920s.

He's bought the whole front,

basically.

Okay.

And they're in the process of creating...

Actually, Siri, who I spoke about earlier,

she's head of this project.

And they're building a hotel that's going to absolutely

blow this city.

Wow.

It's an incredible project.

I'm very honored.

I'm honored, in fact, to be part of it.

And Jala, who

was the ex-director from Thief,

will be the director of this new hotel.

So I'll be working very closely with him.

And he's a very close colleague and a very good friend.

And a very exceptional individual.

He's the best in the business,

basically.

So

we will bring in...

This is going to be a crack team of

some of the very, very finest.

Yes.

But is it going to be up to the same level as Thief and Continental and Grand?

Is it up to there?

Yeah.

Oh, it's hard to...

It's hard to say because I couldn't do it unless I believed it would be better.

Which is a very hard thing to say because the Thief,

as far as I'm concerned,

is the best hotel in this country.

But I truly believe if I'm going to do this to the best of my ability,

this will be better than what I've done before.

Otherwise, I wouldn't do it.

I can't function saying,

I can't give my everything because I can't make it better than that.

No, I can.

And I will.

It's an incredible project.

What I'm really happy about is to give people an option in the city.

They have

places to go.

They have a choice between properties,

great properties.

And it's also enhancing the

city.

It's bringing the

city to another level

where people are flying in from London,

New York, and Paris.

They are experiencing wonderful hotel experiences

as good as they would find anywhere else in the world.

It's not because you come to Norway and say,

ah, it's going to be a little bit Norwegian.

No,

no, no, no.

That doesn't wash anymore.

You cannot do that.

You cannot think that way.

You have to think that this will be

the greatest hotel experience

that they can experience anywhere.

Well, I don't know.

Is it

super high luxury?

Is that one of the first things you think about?

And what you think about with Succeed and the Thief

and the, shall we say, the oversteer range hotels,

is it a little bit of a high-conducture dependence

that the hotels are doing well?

Or is it just such a big advantage of international guests that

it's a market for having so many five-star hotels in the city?

Well, you just used the two terms that I try and avoid using.

One is luxury and two is five-star.

I know.

I believe that there is definitely a

market for it.

We've proved it with the Thief

and we will prove it again with the

new hotels and new projects.

There's America Linear just opened up.

The Hub is now 800 rooms.

I mean, there's another.

There are properties coming into the city

and properties that are

of a

standard and of a quality

that would easily...

be on a par with some of the great hotels in London,

Paris, New York or wherever else you want to talk about.

Because

you have to be at that level now.

You cannot be...

There's no excuse, in fact.

We're charging top dollar for our rooms.

I mean, if you walk into the hotel and you're paying

anywhere from 3,000 to 30,000 a night for a room...

You've

got to deliver.

Exactly.

Yeah.

They were the monopoly,

basically, on the market.

They had the two spots.

But I feel like before,

the biggest

A-star or most important person was at Grand.

But is it practically better to put

security and logistics out at Thief?

Are there any advantages out there?

That could be an issue for them, yes.

They could be.

But they've dealt with,

you know, they do the Nobel Peace,

so they can deal with the best in the business.

They don't have an issue.

They don't have an issue with that.

What I would say,

they're not on an island.

They're not surrounded by water.

That's for sure.

They're surrounded by Kaliwan.

So it's a different...

It's like the Oxford Street.

But, you know, Oxford Street light.

It's more than...

When you step out into the city,

you step out into the heart of the city.

When you step out of the Thief Hotel,

you step out into Schufholmen.

You have the Astrid Fernand Museum.

You have the beautiful Oslo Fjord.

You know, you have these fine eateries

and you can wander around

and you can just relax.

It's a whole different vibe.

And that's, I think, has been one of our enormous strengths

of the property is to have that kind of profile.

It's to just put yourself in a position

and in a location

where people can still travel.

They can get from A to B.

But they want something different now.

They're looking for that experience

that takes them a little bit away

from the hustle-bustle.

It's a hard word to replace.

That's why.

Yeah, that's it.

It's a super hard word to replace.

It's just a little...

I don't know if we can compare it,

but I feel that everyone,

regardless of whether you say

that you live a very ordinary life

without having those big ups and downs, I think

people just think of taking a taxi.

I think people just think that

it's a little luxury

to take a taxi.

Don't you think so?

That's the feeling.

You see a lot of things

like the University of Oslo.

They have access to electric cars

when they work there.

There's a lot of opportunities

to get around there.

There's something about that.

I think there's something about that that's...

I don't know.

The worthiness of taking a taxi,

that you sit in the back of the car,

pay top dollar to get from A to B.

Yeah.

That it's a kind of...

Maybe not a luxury, but it's...

It's...

Yeah.

Do you understand what I'm saying?

Yeah, I see what you're saying, but I

also think that people,

even though they have money,

they're looking for a new experience.

I'm

convinced that, as I say, when we started talking about

the informality of service,

it's the approach.

You can charge as much money as you like

for whatever it may be,

but it's the approach.

It's how you actually deal with that person.

How do you look at that person?

How do you interact with that person?

What are you giving that person?

What's the experience they're experiencing?

What is the value of what you're providing?

And I'm a great believer in value for money,

real believer.

So, of course, selling the most expensive hotel in the country

is a challenge.

But I truly believe we'd give value for money.

I wouldn't do it if I didn't believe so.

So,

there is a logical equation there and the equation for me works.

If it didn't work,

I wouldn't do it.

But I truly believe if you're going to pay 10,000 to stay at the hotel.

Sorry?

Oh,

yeah, yeah, yeah.

You will experience something completely different.

Completely different.

The staycation, we call it.

The staycation, yeah,

yeah, yeah.

Staycation, I've never heard of it.

Yeah, but they say it's just like that.

You don't have to go as far as you want.

It seems like a lot of money.

It's like a lot of money that goes on

vacation on The Thief.

Exactly.

It's just to get enough money from young people and fans.

And also, once again, you're walking into a very international environment.

It's not as if you're walking into a hotel where it's all vanlig wafflet and, you know,

jajtost and even though we do have those two elements.

You're spending time somewhere else.

And it's very easy to escape in The Thief.

You sort of walk in and suddenly you're

surrounded by it.

It's not as if it's not there.

It is there.

You'll hear the different languages being spoken.

You'll see the staff interact with you in a different way.

You're surrounded by, you know, there's a Richard Prince,

Nicky de Saint Phalle, and, you know,

these things are there for you.

You can sit there and have a cup of coffee in the lounge and just

enjoy the moment.

I mean, it's –

and I am a great believer in that

every person who enters that door actually

adds something to the property.

You are part of it.

It's not as if you're just staying there and going.

Whatever you do whilst you're there will contribute to the actuality.

It's not as if you're just staying there and going.

It's not as if you're just staying there and going.

It's not as if you're just staying there and going.

And I think people are very much encouraged to

bring themselves forward if that's what they want.

They have the space to do it.

Because the informality allows you that space.

The formality, if I stand there,

Mrs.

Jones and everything is very,

very formal.

And there's no space there because that's the distance we keep.

Once we break that barrier, then the

world's your oyster.

But the beautiful vision here,

have you ever doubted that it would work?

Instead?

In the part of The Thief,

have you ever thought,

oh shit, never, ever,

ever.

I've never had a doubt about anything I've ever done.

Never.

That's very special.

Never.

Never will, otherwise I won't do it.

Not the least of it,

but what have you...

Never.

I can't, that doesn't even exist in my DNA.

Shit.

Because I know what

I can do, and I know I will do everything.

And the people around me will do everything to

make this work.

And I have an unmovable belief in what I do.

And I've always had it.

But is it after you've built up The Thief and made those experiences and got that vision to live,

or is it after you've started with presentations and

talked a lot about service and branding and such?

Is that it?

Say it again, sorry, what was the question?

After you've done The Thief project.

Mm-hmm.

Is that when you've started with presentations and branding and traveling around?

Yeah,

it's

a spin-off from The Thief because I think people have been very curious.

I've had a lot of questions about how we did this,

how have you actually achieved this?

And the only way I can actually do it is to actually

walk into an arena and

give them the

time that's needed to explain.

And how we've done this,

because there isn't a magic formula in a sense.

It's a lot more,

how would I explain it?

You have to be able to

get the message across.

You have to be able to explain to people how this is done.

And it's as simple as talking to people,

because I have a presentation and I have films and I have

PowerPoints and I have bits and pieces sometimes,

depending on who I'm talking to.

But I did the thing.

I did a thing for BMW and it was the big wigs.

I mean, the big guys came in and they

just said, listen, can you just open up this

seminar we have and all

these guys are coming in and I'm like, sure.

And I actually stood in the middle of a room just for an hour.

I just talked.

Yeah.

Just talked to them.

From the heart.

From the heart.

And it was superb.

Yeah.

It was really, really good.

I enjoyed every moment of it.

I think it was a real eye-opener for them.

But they were very curious.

They were curious if

what we were doing

could be duplicated or used in the car industry.

Yeah.

in their sales pitches,

in their workshops,

in their showrooms,

in the how, how,

the reason that we'd had such an effect

was what I was telling them.

And could we actually take that into the

car industry, for example?

I got asked by SAS the same thing.

I did the same thing for SAS.

Can this be brought into the airline industry?

Are they compatible with other things?

Exactly.

And I would say 100% yes.

Are they compatible?

Do you remember the first time we met each other?

I think it was 2011,

2010.

Go on, go on.

I think I probably heard about it.

Everyone has heard about it.

Everyone knows who you are.

I think you're the most famous person I've ever known.

I think you made contact with...

I think I was project manager at NRK at one time,

and you had Extrema Festival in Kalvia.

Yeah, that's right.

And then we had...

It was a really nice meeting.

And you presented the shit out of the project.

And then it turned out that we have a lot of...

You know my sister.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

And the whole pack of that.

And then I remember,

it was Extrema Outdoor.

That's right.

It was something quite different than almost everything we've talked about today.

It's an outdoor festival, a Dutch concept,

on Kalvia.

It was a little crazy.

I got buried on that one.

My God.

It was 2010,

2011.

And there are a lot of YouTube clips of that.

But one of the YouTube clips that's the highest up

is when you talk to TV2 about narcotics on...

And I got busted live on TV.

Do you remember that?

Huh?

I got busted live,

I think, on TV.

Not me, personally.

I wouldn't have drugs,

but it was somebody got...

They were filming.

They were filming, and somebody was in the background

getting done by a dog.

The thing about Extrema was that...

I met Marcel Mingus,

who was another big up.

Big up Marcel.

He's a crazy cool guy.

Top boy.

Yeah.

And one of the best festival producers in Europe.

I mean, this guy is ledge.

He came to me and asked me if I wanted to do this,

and I was very curious about it all.

And as I say,

it's a very long story.

Can we explain what that is,

Kjappar?

Well, Extrema was...

It was a

Dutch concept.

But what they did is they put a festival together with DJs.

Just to...

To cut to the chase.

But some of the best DJs in the world,

and it was generally electronica, let's say.

Yes.

And they...

I mean, you're talking some of the best DJs in the world.

The big stars, you know.

And he asked me if we could do it in Oslo,

and I thought it was a bit of a whack idea, but why not?

And then he came up,

and he had in fact convinced

the commune to give him Kalvoja.

And when I saw that...

There were his senses.

It was amazing.

The location was absolutely...

It was absolutely brilliant.

He always does things around water.

It's very much his concept,

and he does the same in Holland.

Anyway, when he came with this idea,

I was very into production,

but in all honesty,

I don't really like the music.

It's not really my flavor.

I'm much more of a soul,

funk, jazz, blues, reggae kind of guy.

I mistook you for that.

Yeah, no, I didn't like the music.

Still don't like the music,

to be honest with you.

But I love the production.

I can't get my groove on.

I can't groove to it.

It's just not possible.

Anyway, that's another story.

But he

asked me to work on the production

and do the whole thing for him,

which I did, and I worked a year.

Every gig took me a year's work,

and I was working...

There was a few people around me,

but it was a lot of work

alone, in a sense.

And I tried to convince him

that we should do things a little bit differently in Norway,

possibly change the name,

because the whole Dutch profile and the DJs

and the whole connotation of Nijmegen,

and the idea of needing something else to make the party happen,

was very much part of the culture,

of that dance culture.

And of course, the police clicked into it, and it

went...

The production was really good.

The stages were brilliant.

The location was stunning.

He did exactly as he said he would do,

and he did it the right way.

The problem was that the police decided to use the festival

as literally a training ground for their...

every body involved in narcotics,

including the four-legged kind.

Every dog was on the premises.

It was the most policed festival in the history of Norwegian festivals, without a doubt.

It was draconian.

And of course, they found people with drugs.

And it was perfect for the police to work with Kalvebro.

You can see everything.

There was no other way in.

They had spotters on the way in.

They took people on the way in.

It was draconian.

It was hardcore.

But what we tried to do,

and this is the one...

The issue I had with The Commune was

that we had an outstanding production.

We were financed and

we were serious and we had the best DJs in the world.

Now, these dudes are flying around the world.

They're not

openly doing drugs or promoting drugs.

These are business people.

I mean, you talk to Armin van Buuren,

the guy's not talking about drugs.

He's talking about his private jet and how much you're going to pay him for his next gig in Marrakesh.

I mean, these guys are very,

very good at what they do.

And he, Armin van Buuren was one of them who said,

listen, I will come out and I will say we are anti-drugs.

We want to do the first anti-drugs festival.

And that was the idea.

I came to The Commune and said,

okay, two years has not been brilliant.

And because there are drugs in Norway,

that's just a fact.

How about if you back us and we do the festival every year,

we do the anti-drugs festival.

We will be a drug-free festival.

We will do the production.

We will bring as Norm as everybody you can see,

all the greatest DJs in the world.

And we will do.

You'll be there.

The first Commune in Norway and possibly in Europe and maybe in the world to do an anti-drugs festival.

How about that?

No, no, no, no, no.

They were like so negative.

No, no, you bought the drugs.

There was no drugs here.

You bought the drugs with you.

Wow.

I'm serious.

Yes.

So there was an upvaskmøte afterwards.

We had meetings with The Commune and everybody.

And the police.

Trying to convince them.

And the police.

Trying to convince them.

Let's do this.

Let's do this together.

Because, in fact, all you have to do is jump on our bus.

We have the coolest.

We have the coolest bus in town.

We have the coolest DJs in town.

We have the best production in town.

We have the best stages in town.

All you've got to do is jump on.

And we will promote the first drug-free festival.

I also remember that it was a very professional,

developed festival.

I went a lot on Kvarten,

Hove.

And I think that kept it at a completely different level.

Yes.

It was brilliant.

So there was a lot of upvaskmøte.

The weather and so on.

Yes, that was what it was in a way.

But these narcos came to me at once,

I remember.

It was massive.

We got the front cover of VG and Dagblad.

And that's the genre,

it really depends on the genre from the old days as well.

I thought about the festival,

okay, this is a re-spark of Hyperstate,

Sub-City in the time,

right?

Yes.

The same type of music and actually the same type of people.

No.

So.

But,

in all honesty, there

is an issue.

I mean, people do, unfortunately, believe that they need to take something to highlight the experience,

you know, to make the experience better.

Mm-hmm.

What can you say?

I mean, if you...

I'm not sure if you could take any other festival in Norway and probably have the same effect

if you put the same amount of police or dogs or...

I think so.

You probably would.

Yes.

But we were walking down,

you know, we were on thin ice and that was for sure.

And, you know, the whole extrema thing and it was...

But, you know...

Ligger i navnet.

Yeah.

It was there.

It was waiting to happen in a sense.

And it was unfortunate because we were very professional and we were very serious and we

really tried...

We tried to put something together that was unique in this country and...

I'm wondering what the municipality thought or expected.

I mean, what were they...

I don't...

Because they allowed you from...

Because 2010 was the first year and it went fine.

There wasn't so much...

No, it was...

We got away with it.

Oh, okay.

But there was a little bit...

There was malarkey there.

There was something going on there.

So, yeah,

I just found it...

I'd probably still be doing it now.

Mm.

If I hadn't.

But they hadn't eventually.

Yeah.

Pulled the plug.

Mm.

And I'd be promoting the first drug-free festival,

simply believing that you can have a great

time without taking drugs.

I've been to some festivals in England,

a lot of festivals in England and a little in

Europe and stuff.

And it's...

Without comparison,

it's so much more drugs and drugs than

in Scandinavia.

Yeah.

There's a lot more in Scandinavia,

but it's not comparable.

No.

It's like when I was at the Lovebox Festival a couple of years ago in the London centre in

Victoria Park.

And it was...

I felt like I was the only person who didn't like it.

But we partied so hard that people came over all the time and asked if we wanted anything.

So we did a good job there.

Yeah, for sure.

Vikings at the festival.

They don't have the same approach to,

as you know, in London and England

and other countries.

It's not the same approach to drugs.

They have a better understanding,

in a sense.

Is there something about culture now?

Is it like the club culture is much more focused on...

No! ...and has much more history?

In England than in Norway?

No, I don't think...

I think it's just an understanding.

I think to do anything about anything,

you need to have an understanding of what you're dealing with.

And if you don't have the understanding,

you're dealing with something that's completely foreign to you.

And I think the English and the Dutch and the French and the Germans or everybody,

they have an understanding of how these things function.

In Norway, it seemed to be a fear rather than an understanding.

And to combat something...

You need to understand.

Also, you need to have credibility to the people you're speaking to.

And the reason we thought we had such a great idea is that these DJs have massive cred.

And if they're to say to you,

listen, drugs isn't a good idea,

we ain't doing drugs,

it's not cool, it's just not where we're at.

Not saying it would

change your opinion overnight of drugs, it might not.

But it might make you start to think about what you were doing with your life.

And branding.

The more you do it,

yeah, and the more you do it,

the more you explain,

the more you try and,

you know, understand that these are the people who have the issue,

and they're here, and this is where we can speak to them.

Because when they're in their basement in their fancy house,

and their parents have gone to the mountains,

and all the kids are there,

and they're all doing drugs,

you can't get to them there,

because they're in a basement.

But you can get them at a festival,

because they're there.

I can go to any club in Oslo,

I remember when I was at a club in the early 2000s,

Sika Mechanic and all the guys over there,

and all the clubs,

it was, man, it was,

it was the 80s.

80, 90% were drugged there.

And I drank almost only alcohol,

and that worked well for me, but it's,

if you're going to,

if you're going to organize a big festival,

or a club, you're going to be there anyway.

So it's like, what,

are you going to close all the clubs then?

Yeah.

I don't have a solution to that,

but it's, No, no, but I say once again,

it's having an understanding.

I think it's essential.

Do you think legalization will help?

Yeah, I'd be totally for it.

Totally.

To what level then?

Marijuana?

Yeah, weed.

Yeah, no, don't go mad, no, no, no, stop at weed.

Yeah, people smoke weed.

That should be fine.

But the rest of it,

no.

I don't, I think that's a little bit,

yeah, I wouldn't, I wouldn't go anywhere near that.

But, I've seen an example,

the example I had was on a,

was on a, I

was on a train going

through Mayushua,

and there was this boy on the phone to his parents.

And

he was smacked out.

He was really

not good.

And he was on the phone with his parents,

and I could just read the scenario.

They had no idea that their kid was on smack.

And this was a young boy.

And I prefer to know what

smack looks like.

And the symptoms of smack,

the symptoms of any drug,

that I could look into my kid's eyes and say,

no, no, no, you ain't drunk, you's on drugs.

You's taking something.

Because at least you know,

and then you can do something about it.

Say, oh, no, no, I'm not a fool.

I know, I know, he's on something else,

mate.

You want to,

maybe have a little word in his ear about that one.

So, having the knowledge, I think, and I grew up with a family where there was drugs,

was my big brothers,

and they were smoking,

and I knew all about it.

So,

I

know, I know.

And I've been around clubs long enough to just look into your eye and say

exactly what you're doing,

you know.

And I can see if you're drunk.

And I can see if you're high,

or if you're both.

And it's better to know.

It's much better to know than not to know.

So, I wouldn't, yeah, that's what I'd say.

It was a,

instead of having a fear, have

an understanding.

And then you can possibly do something about it.

But without an understanding,

you have no idea.

I have to think about,

should I try some of those things?

Just to get an even deeper understanding.

Yeah, I wouldn't recommend trying it, in a sense.

You can probably...

You can probably find out,

or know a little bit about it, without

going into too much detail about trying it.

But...

I've always thought, when I get older,

I'm going to try everything.

When I get older,

I'm going to feel like I'm disappearing.

You know what you'll find?

But you know what you'll find?

You'll find the greatest high is the natural high.

I promise you.

I work with them all.

And I've seen them all.

And they've all been through every drug,

party, orgy you can imagine.

They're all clean now.

Yeah,

exactly.

And they've all realized...

The greatest high has been staring them in the face forever,

and it's the natural high.

Now they play football and go mountain climbing.

Yeah, exactly.

But they're all personal trainers,

and on green juice,

and they're all healthy, and...

It's a very good training.

I think no one can remember that there's been so much focus on training.

Like now.

You want to keep yourself in shape,

mate.

You've got to deliver.

I think that's good, yeah.

I think it's fantastic.

But you've got to deliver.

You've got to wake up in the morning and deliver.

If you don't deliver, somebody else will.

Do you train a lot?

Uh,

football.

Just football?

Give me a ball and I'll chase it.

Any way, shape, or form, I will chase it.

But that's all you do?

To keep the pace you're doing?

You're almost

60 years old.

I'll be 56 this year,

yes.

Yeah, so you're almost 60,

and you're keeping a crazy pace.

You look great, and it's just football,

that's it.

Yeah, and well, I fish, I hike through...

It's your yoga, maybe.

Yoga?

Yeah.

No, that fishing is your yoga.

Oh, that's my yoga, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Without a doubt.

That's fantastic.

That's fantastic.

No, it's more...

I'm very good at training when I'm focused on something else,

like chasing a ball or chasing somebody.

Put me in the gym,

I'm a little bit bored.

Jogging is like...

why

am I going I've got to come back

cycling I kind of like

to swimming I used to love

fantastic training

but it's basically if you put me on a football pitch I will run all day

I love the whole

football thing so it's probably the easiest way for me to train

it's the most enjoyable way for me to train but

as you say there's a training culture

around us and I'm all for it

it's a winning culture

or at least a make it or break it

culture among the young then you

can discuss if it's true or not

with this pressure with young people who feel they have to be something

it's not enough to just be something simple

everyone has to live their dreams

and get a dream job and

live a fantastic life

do you have any thoughts on that?

the pressure is on for sure

is there any difference from before?

yeah

but I mean I mean

I think it's just

it's organic there's competition out there now

you've got to deliver

yeah yeah yeah you've got to deliver

I mean if you go back in the day

when I first started in industry

the sort of business lunch

and the guys sitting around with bottles of wine

and it's all drinking up

and in the evening they continued

and it all didn't really matter the next day

because it matters the next day now

the guys I've got in the Thief now

these are all the busy 30 somethings

and they're on it

they're in the gym

7 in the morning

they have breakfast 7.30

they're out 9 sorry it's only quarter past 8 they're gone

cars outside boom off they go boom shit

they're ready and

we actually we sort of

looking at our dietary

presentation the way we present breakfast

to work to coincide with that lifestyle

we have the croissant

we have the pancakes and stuff

but you also have a very fine selection

of organic foods and vegetables

and it's very interesting

because when you put out

say 10 slices of cheese

instead of taking 5

you'll take maybe 1 or 2

and of course we'll replenish

and then at the end you walk down

and in fact when you walk at the end of the Thief

at the end of the buffet

you see people's plates are very diverse and very colourful

they've got a lot of different things

yeah a little bit

it's a really cool way of actually

yeah just sort of guiding people through

dietary

suggestions if you like

to say listen just have a little bit of this

and a little bit of that

and then at the end of the day

you'll feel by the time you get to the meeting

you're going to be fine

so if you're in Kjurholmen

at 7 in the morning

come and have breakfast

come in on the Thief

it's a new breakfast

I will be there too

I do every breakfast

I do every morning

is that true?

are you there every breakfast?

every morning wow

clockwork mate 7 years

it's one of those things

you really need to know

how productive it is

because breakfast is maybe one of the only meals

that some of these business people

will eat in the hotel

it's also

you're in a frame of mind

at breakfast that's completely different to lunch and dinner

you've just woken up

hopefully from a very very good night's sleep

in one of our

very very comfortable beds

I'm serious I'm deadly serious yeah and you cannot get through breakfast

you cannot get into breakfast

without walking through this particular area

and this is where I stand

and I walk around

I walk on my computer

and I greet everybody literally

and depending on depending on what level

I know them at

it could be on a

you know on a good morning sir

it's free seating make yourself at home

we'll bring some tea

some coffee or to the business

some of the guys I know

I see on it

because we have so many guests

who return and they you know we know the

wives we know the kids

we know the football teams

we know what they like to eat

we know what they like

what sort of coffee they like so

you interact on that level

immediately and if there was a

good game last night

or Man U won

or Chelsea won they'll call Dominic man nice game or you were rubbish last night you know it's

the first thing they'll say

they'll see me out of the lift and

you have that informality

immediately and you just interact with people and people interact with each other

the whole breakfast in fact is a major

interactive experience

it's I think and that's the best meal

I think it's the best meal

you can eat for breakfast

it is and it's also the

most successful department in our hotel is breakfast and it's also okay

number one always has been and probably always will be

but how do you measure that?

is it through just through economy?

no through

social medias through

public opinion if you like our guests opinion the feedback we get

from our guests the ratings we get

breakfast is number one

fantastic yeah it's brilliant I think it's fantastic

to hear about talking about hotels and stuff

I'm not sure we could

have talked about the last hour oh I could go on all day

mate but we got to go football soon

yeah now we're going

to go and play football

I'm just my game starts in

an hour and a half oh shit

how much?

well my game starts

4.30 and it's 3 o'clock now

so okay we'll get rid of here I think

it's been a fantastic

plan Dominic it was a pleasure

Wolfgang it's been an absolute pleasure mate

when it was you

I said I had to do it

because we we don't interact all the time but when we do

it's always an extreme pleasure yeah and it goes

a little by itself

it's like we've known each other

for years it was completely lovely I wanted to invite you

back again when Chelsea wins we'll do

transracial adoption or who should be

the next manager of Chelsea we have a lot to talk about

transracial adoption you should invite me

back for that one

I have a lot of

opinion on that one

it's an interesting subject

your biological father has just found

out who it was yes he's passed he passed six years ago

but the funny thing

was I met my brother

and he yeah it's a long story

but we met in London

and he bought me a picture of my father

and I have of all the children I have

three brothers and three sisters

from his side from my Nigerian side I

look just like my father oh my god

just like him it was

it was I have this picture

you might see him every day

he's there and that's the closest I'll ever be to him

is the picture I can see him now

and it's funny because being a physiognomist

which I am and I've done this whole physical thing

and a lot of my injuries

around the physical thing

I've never had anybody look like me

wow

except for my son

actually Dylan is he's the

hellivis oh he's the eldest the two youngest look nothing like me

the eldest just like me

wow

same smile if you put him in a room

you're like that's Dominic's son

same you see his smile

you're like that's Dominic's boy now we have a new teaser

for the next podcast

exactly now we're really going down the road

maybe we should take a little photo

of Tore on the track

and get some tricks there

yeah that would be nice yeah

thank you for coming Dominic

thank you very much

good luck on the football

thank you very much

where do you play on the court?

we are playing Janmire but where do you play on the court?

oh where do I play?

I'll play in front of the back four

I'll play actually no I'll play in the back four

I'll play in the

I'll play center back probably oh welcome opponent

I wish them good luck

okay thank you

have a nice day

yeah thank you bye bye oi

wow
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