Peter Bacon

"Sol soon set up an office on Jermyn Street, London, which he shared with Charles Fiddian-Green of Rennies and a young Johann Rupert. Peter Bacon, who had also left South Africa with his then-wife Vicky and their three girls, joined the rebounding Sol, too. Peter and Vicky bought a home in Hampstead from the musician Sting. Their hopes of settling down in London were quickly dashed, however, as Sol put together a deal in Monte Carlo, Monaco, to create Monte Carlo Sporting, a proposed leisure and sport centre with, of course, a casino. Bacon therefore moved to Monte Carlo."

"In consultation with Sol, we determined that 2 000 visitors might show up on day one, and the catering facilities were equipped, stocked and staffed accordingly. As it transpired, 7 000 bodies were bussed up the hill from the car park on the day. We were overwhelmed. The restaurants could not cope, the bars were swamped and the toilets were a disgrace – but, thankfully, there were lines at every slot machine and table. Everything that could go wrong did. Bacon and I were run ragged fighting fires. The new man, Wagner, looked on in terror. At 2am after the first day, I practically ordered a hollow-faced Bacon to go to bed. The man was exhausted. I, too, was shattered, but the adrenalin kept surging. I finally sought the haven of my room at about 3am. At 7am, the phone rang. It was Sol, summoning me to meet him in the office behind the front desk. I was sure that I was going to be fired. After all, I had been assigned to cope with the deluge of the opening day, and I was fully expecting a repeat performance on day two. I dragged myself to the office. Sol, who had also had little sleep, was sitting at a desk with paper and pencil. Despite his fatigue, his countenance was breezy. He did not look as if he was about to fire his chief executive. “Sit down, Pete,” he instructed. “We’ve got work to do.” I sat down nervously. “Sol, I know there’s a hell of a lot of cleaning up to get on with and preparation for—” Sol interjected, “No, man, Peter Bacon can get on with that. What we’ve got to do is build another hotel – fast. We’ve cracked it, man. This place is going to be a success. We need more rooms!”"