Have your message included in Sir Jimmy Savile’s book of condolences |

November 2, 2011

Have your message included in Sir Jimmy Savile’s book of condolences

Have your message included in Sir Jimmy Savile’s book of condolences

A memorial and book of condolence to the late Sir Jimmy Savile has been set up in SAVILES hall opposite the Royal Armouries Museum in Leeds and you can get your message included through our exclusive condolences porthole, by including your message of condolence in the comments field at the bottom of this post…

“Sir Jimmy was a great friend and a driving force for us and we want to pay tribute to the man. He was a legend – an extraordinary larger than life character,” said James Vincent, Managing Director of Royal Armouries International.

“We share the grief of his passing and hope his loyal local fans will appreciate this as a fitting place in which to honour his memory and lay any flowers or mementoes.”

The foyer of the hall has been made over to house the book of remembrance for fans to sign, with a lifesize poster of Sir Jimmy in his trademark “Jim’ll Fix It” chair in the background.

Exclusive Interview on Sir Jimmy Savile and SAVILES Hall

James Vincent, Managing Director of Royal Armouries (International) plc, shares his memories of the famous former DJ and showbiz personality, the much mourned Sir Jimmy Savile, who was a staunch supporter of the premier Leeds venue named after him, Saviles Hall.

Saviles Hall was opened by Sir Jimmy Savile in June 2007 and is the largest conference and exhibition venue in Leeds. Capable of hosting banquets for up to 1,000 guests or conferences for up to 1,500 delegates, thousands of people have passed through its doors including the rich and famous, and even royalty.

Sir Jimmy Savile, a colourful larger than life character with his bleached long hair, tracksuits, chunky gold jewellery and trademark six-inch Havana cigar, always had a special place in his heart for Saviles Hall which he often called ‘his’ building. Yet, our close involvement with the Leeds legend came about almost by accident.

When we were struggling to find a name for our new flagship venue, I suddenly thought of Sir Jimmy, and got really excited when I learned he was Leeds born and bred. Making initial contact using an old phone number that nobody was certain was correct, I felt incredibly foolish pouring my heart out to the BT answering service. However, two minutes later the phone rang, and it was Sir Jimmy himself, and that’s where it all began.

We visited him to talk further, and fortunately he liked our proposal as he could see how good the venue would be in bringing business to the city. At that first meeting I couldn’t help noticing the pile of gold jewellery heaped on his hall table, and asked if he worried he might get robbed wearing such obviously expensive items. I’ve never forgotten his reply, “That’s never going to happen. People love me.”

I had first-hand experience of the truth of this as in the years I knew him I saw love expressed towards him from people in all walks of life whenever he came to the Hall. One minute you’d see him chatting to a disabled person and their carer, the next he’d be sharing a joke with the Lord Lieutenant – it didn’t make any difference to him. He was a real people person.

We were incredibly fortunate to be involved with him as he did not want to be an anonymous figurehead, but took a very personal interest and was amazingly generous with his time. It was certainly great for business as everything Sir Jimmy did had news value, and, as he invariably supported our events (with one exception when he vetoed a stunt connected to the smoking ban!), we got a lot of media coverage. Sir Jimmy was there to fire the starting pistol for a charity fundraising convoy involving 100 stretch limos, he posed with boxers when we were putting on a match for Help the Heroes, and he switched on the lights on a huge Xmas tree made of nearly 1000 VK bottles – we had a lot of fun together.

We also attracted business directly through Sir Jimmy. For example, Yorkshire minister Rosie Winterton posed for a photo with Sir Jimmy on the day his bright yellow BMW Isetta bubble car with its eccentric flashing orange light on the roof was delivered to Saviles. The resultant publicity for us was huge, and undoubtedly helped us attract key events such as Prime Minster Gordon Brown’s iconic cabinet meeting in 2008, only the second to be held outside London since WWII.

More publicity directly linked to Sir Jimmy came through our purchase of the “Jim’ll Fix It” chair on Ebay, a tricky decision in the economic crisis, but a risk that really paid off as it generated over a hundred thousand pounds of free publicity for the Hall and kick-started a lot of business approaches.

Sir Jimmy would teasingly refer to me as his relative as his third name was also Vincent, and this was typical of his warmth and friendliness. He also possessed incredible vitality, living the equivalent of three lives in one, while his unique qualities were recognized with three knighthoods, two appearances on This Is Your Life, and internet entries running into the thousands.

Saviles Hall strongly reflects its namesake. As well as the car and the “Jim’ll Fix It” chair, we’ve got a lot of incredible photographs of him on Top of The Pops and hanging out with stars like Elvis. One of them shows him in the middle of The Beatles, all pretending to be asleep, and this seems incredibly poignant now that he is gone, especially as that photo is surrounded by lots of others depicting pop icons who knew and loved him.

I was in a fish and chip shop in Preston on a cold and windy night when his death was reported on the news. I didn’t let on that I had known him personally, but listened to how people reacted. At first they were sad, but within a few moments there were smiles and laughter as they swapped stories that recalled Sir Jimmy’s love of life. I think he would have liked that.

Of course, there will be a lot of sadness now he is gone, from the 1300 Fix-Its whose dreams he helped to fulfill to celebrities to just ordinary people in the street. At Saviles Hall we’re paying tribute to his memory by setting aside the foyer with a life-size poster of Sir Jimmy in his trademark “Jim’ll Fix It” chair for fans to lay flowers or mementoes, and sign a special book of remembrance.