Transcript: Hugh Macleod takes us on a tour of Saville Row

This transcript is from a PodTech.net podcast at:
http://www.podtech.net/home/technology/1690/hugh-macleod-takes-us-on-a-tour-of-saville-row

Guest: Hugh Macleod - Blogger
Host: Robert Scoble - ScobleShow

Hugh Macleod - Blogger
You ever seen that movie, 'North by Northwest'?

Robert Scoble - ScobleShow
Yeah.

Hugh Macleod - Blogger
Cary Grant's suit came out of here.

Robert Scoble - ScobleShow
What road are we on?

Hugh Macleod - Blogger
Savile Row.

Robert Scoble - ScobleShow
What's famous about this road?

Hugh Macleod - Blogger
This is where the modern suit was invented.

Robert Scoble - ScobleShow
The modern suit?

Hugh Macleod - Blogger
Yeah, the men's, gentlemen's suit. This is quite interesting, this is a (Inaudible), it used to be called Eree and Wheeler (ph), and the tailor that's at the back, they make 70 (Inaudible) suits that are about $3000-$4000.
This is Dege & Skinner, one of the great ones. Let's see, I don't know the -- that side of the street I don't know as well. This is Hunstman, where -- this is like if you want to spend -- these are probably most expensive on the road and they're built like battle tanks, they're really good though. Hello, there are some tailors.

Speaker
Hello.

Hugh Macleod - Blogger
There's a tailor down there. This is Scabal, they're cloth merchants, they sell cloth.

Robert Scoble - ScobleShow
They sell cloth?

Hugh Macleod - Blogger
Yeah.

Speaker
The Scabal launch.

Robert Scoble - ScobleShow
Yeah, the Scabal launch.

Hugh Macleod - Blogger
Richard Anderson is very good. Down here, that didn't look like a very -- that guy Brain Burstow, he's dead, he died last year. When the Sultan of Brunei comes into town to buy suits, where does he go? He doesn't go to Harrods, he goes there.

Robert Scoble - ScobleShow
Really.

Hugh Macleod - Blogger
Yeah. Hardy Amies, dressmaker to the Queen. This building here is Anderson and Shepherd, at least it used to be. They closed down and moved two streets down, this is the most respected tailors on the Row. Now, this is interesting. This is Henry Poole.

Speaker
Advertising placements.

Robert Scoble - ScobleShow
What's that?

Speaker
Advertising placements.

Robert Scoble - ScobleShow
Where?

Speaker
All around here.

Hugh Macleod - Blogger
Henry Poole was the first one on Savile Row, and there's a guy who works here, he's got a warrant. He is the only guy who is legally allowed to work on Admiral Nelson's suits, for the museums, Admiral Nelson's our greatest Admiral and...

Speaker
I saw the American version of that same war, Nelson didn't no a big part.

Hugh Macleod - Blogger
John Kent's very good. I don't know what's happening. There is one -- let's see. This is the old Anderson and Shepherd, this is where -- what's really interesting here is, once a year they have a carpet, they have a parquet floor, they had a carpet they use to roll up once a year. The reason they rolled it up once a year was because Fredo Starr (ph) wanted to test out his new duds for dancing, and he is used to just -- so they roll up the carpet and he just kind of tapped dance on floor over there, to make sure his collar stayed on his neck when he danced. Morris Sedwills (ph), a really great business.

Let's see, I'll take you one more. This is one of my favorites, this is Welsh & Jefferies. This hoarding was cut, it used to operate, until it got too big. Yeah, they do the military...

Speaker
Prince of Wales.

Hugh Macleod - Blogger
A guy call Malcolm Clue (ph) is a really great tailor. He makes the best women suits in town, and he also -- he makes all of the Prince of Wales Military garbs. So he's got the royal warrant. Then Richard James over there, that's where you go if you're a celebrity, like Elton John or Jude Law, these people, because he's like a celebrity tailor. So, this is it.

Robert Scoble - ScobleShow
This is it?

Hugh Macleod - Blogger
This is it. Now I'm going to show you some pubs.

Robert Scoble - ScobleShow
Alright, (Inaudible).

Hugh Macleod - Blogger
We're in the West of London, in the South most corner of Central London.

Robert Scoble - ScobleShow
Who are you?

Hugh Macleod - Blogger
My name is Hugh Macleod. I'm a Blogger.

Robert Scoble - ScobleShow
You're a Blogger.

Hugh Macleod - Blogger
Yeah, for my sins, yeah.

Robert Scoble - ScobleShow
You used to be an advertising guy, right?

Hugh Macleod - Blogger
Yeah, and then I decided that business sucked, which it does and...

Robert Scoble - ScobleShow
Doesn't Blogging suck?

Hugh Macleod - Blogger
No, Blogging is great, no one telling me what to do.

Robert Scoble - ScobleShow
To say you're a blogger is almost of an understatement right, because you're actually an artist too. You like drawing these cute little cartoons.

Hugh Macleod - Blogger
Yeah, I guess so. I've done this since I was five years old. I've got cartoons -- my sister's a hoarder, I'm not a hoarder, my sister has cartoons of mine from 70s, which is quite incredible.

Sarah Blow - Girl Geek Dinners
This is the new one I just got.

Hugh Macleod - Blogger
Ooh, a new one. Ooh, this one says, "We need to talk, after that, you need to shut up".

Robert Scoble - ScobleShow
I think she's going to use that card on me.

Hugh Macleod - Blogger
Yeah.

Sarah Blow - Girl Geek Dinners
I thought she was going to use it on him.

Robert Scoble - ScobleShow
No, who are you?

Sarah Blow - Girl Geek Dinners
Oh no, you're not going to get that.

Robert Scoble - ScobleShow
Yeah, we are. You shouldn't have spoken up. That's how the camera works.

Sarah Blow - Girl Geek Dinners
You're nothing but trouble, nothing but trouble. I'm Sarah.

Robert Scoble - ScobleShow
You're Sarah who?

Hugh Macleod - Blogger
Sarah Blow.

Sarah Blow - Girl Geek Dinners
Sarah Blow.

Hugh Macleod - Blogger
The famous Sarah Blow.

Robert Scoble - ScobleShow
Why is she famous?

Hugh Macleod - Blogger
Because she started the Girl Geek Dinners.

Robert Scoble - ScobleShow
The Girl Geek...

Hugh Macleod - Blogger
Girl Geek Dinners.

Robert Scoble - ScobleShow
Now, why do we need Girl Geek Dinners?

Hugh Macleod - Blogger
Because we don't have them, then when you have a geek party, like nine out of ten people, they're all males.

Sarah Blow - Girl Geek Dinners
Less than that.

Hugh Macleod - Blogger
99 out of 100 are males. Where at a girl geek dinner, at least 50% are females, which makes for a funner party.

Robert Scoble - ScobleShow
That was what was interesting about going to the girl geek dinner, I've actually been there last night. I wasn't expecting that.

Hugh Macleod - Blogger
Well, what happens when all these men geeks go out, well, I need a wife, I'm a certain age.

Sarah Blow - Girl Geek Dinners
(Inaudible) most of them were actually married.

Robert Scoble - ScobleShow
She was looking at that. Now, why did you start the Girl Geek Dinners?

Sarah Blow. - Girl Geek Dinners
Why did I start them, because I got really annoyed at your Scoble Geek Dinner.

Hugh Macleod - Blogger
Which I arranged by the way.

Sarah Blow - Girl Geek Dinners
Which you arranged, where there were 150 people, and I knew about seven females there, I assumed to be marketing and I hated it. So, decided that I had enough and I wanted to find a way of getting more of the girls into those kinds of event, as simple as that.

Robert Scoble - ScobleShow
Are you marketing?

Hugh Macleod - Blogger
Did it work?

Sarah Blow - Girl Geek Dinners
No, (Inaudible).

Hugh Macleod - Blogger
You're the consummate marketer.

Sarah Blow - Girl Geek Dinners
What?

Hugh Macleod - Blogger
You're the consummate marketer.

Sarah Blow - Girl Geek Dinners
How's that?

Hugh Macleod - Blogger
You're really good at marketing.

Sarah Blow - Girl Geek Dinners
Yeah, but it's not my job. My day job is programming in Software Engineering, it's being really geeky.

Hugh Macleod - Blogger
Yeah, but the best marketing is never a day job. The best marketing is something you just get up and do, like breathing.

Sarah Blow - Girl Geek Dinners
Now I'm going to shut up and be quiet.

Hugh Macleod - Blogger
No, truly. The best marketing doesn't need a professional doing, the best marketing is amateur I think.

Robert Scoble - ScobleShow
I love the cabs in London.

Sarah Blow - Girl Geek Dinners
You're just going to do completely random stuff here, you're going to have this online tomorrow.

Robert Scoble - ScobleShow
No, in about a week maybe.

Hugh Macleod - Blogger
But think of it, it's like Thomas of English Cut, he didn't go, I need a Marketing guy. He just said, well, I hear, you're kind of unemployed, why don't you help me out.

Robert Scoble - ScobleShow
Is that how you get a marketing job, when you're unemployed?

Hugh Macleod - Blogger
Yeah, you become unemployed. The best jobs come when you're unemployed.

Sarah Blow - Girl Geek Dinners
So I need to un-employ myself and then I can become a marketing geek.

Hugh Macleod - Blogger
Exactly.

Sarah Blow - Girl Geek Dinners
Nah, that's not going to work.

Hugh Macleod - Blogger
Well, but you shouldn't -- the thing about -- see, I have a very holistic view of marketing.

Sarah Blow - Girl Geek Dinners
I thought you said unemployable, not unemployed when you had spoken to me about this before.

Hugh Macleod - Blogger
Unemployable is actually pretty good for marketing, because then you have no money and you become so desperate, you have to do stuff that's actually worst, not just stuff that's on your job description. It's -- Harvard is a great teacher.

Robert Scoble - ScobleShow
Have you been taught by them?

Hugh Macleod - Blogger
Oh yeah. I started Blogging in 2001. I hadn't worked for six months. I had about $30 in the bank, in fact I was...

Sarah Blow. - Girl Geek Dinners
(Inaudible).

Hugh Macleod - Blogger
Yeah, we're nearly there. You don't get to do extraordinary things and have an ordinary life. If you want to do extraordinary things, you have to have extraordinary circumstances, and that's just the way it is. Turn of your driver. My metaphor is, if you want to climb Mt. Everest, that's great, but you don't get to bring along your Jacuzzi.

Robert Scoble - ScobleShow
That's not fair.

Hugh Macleod - Blogger
I know. Right here driver.

Robert Scoble - ScobleShow
So, what's your thing with Apple computers?

Sarah Blow - Girl Geek Dinners
Oh yeah, because he's just bought one, hasn't he?

Robert Scoble - ScobleShow
Yeah, he just bought one today, but he's been making fun of the Mac users for a couple of years?

Hugh Macleod - Blogger
That's a private affair I think.