IF the BBC is thinking of making another series of Grumpy Old Men, it could do a lot worse than sign up Andy Cosslett, chief executive of Inter-Continental Hotels Group, to contribute to the popular show.

Not that we are suggesting for one moment that the former Cadbury executive is some sort of curmudgeon, but his recent decision on music policy at the group’s hotels does rather prompt the question.

On a visit to one of the hotels, Cosslett was sitting in the bar when music began playing. The familiar strains of that old standard, The Girl From Ipanema, filled the room, but they failed to work their soothing magic on the boss.

Looking around, the 55-year-old Cosslett sensed that he was about the oldest person in the bar and that the music was definitely not in tune with the crowd that was in that night.

The next day, Cosslett promptly issued a ban on The Girl From Ipanema and any similar tunes from the 1950s, declaring them irrelevant to the type of people hanging around in the group’s bars.

That seems a bit heavy-handed. In a music market dominated by the likes of iTunes and You Tube, tastes seem to have fragmented rather a lot. The management book of the moment, The Long Tail, would suggest that there are plenty of youngsters out there swaying their trendy little hips to old hits such as Ipanema. Then again, the song was once covered by Kenny G, so maybe Cosslett is doing us a favour after all.

Readers are welcome to send in suggestions for more appropriate hotel bar listening.

• WHAT is entrepreneur Duncan Bannatyne doing with his casino business? He opened it on Newcastle’s quayside early last year but closed it in September. Bannatyne members are being wooed away by the town’s rival casinos, who are placing bets on whether Bannatyne will bounce back with a new venue or get out of the business. When Prufrock called the Dragons’ Den star, he seemed annoyed at the suggestion he might quit. He said he had decided the site was better off as an office and sold it, but hopes to have a new venue open within six months. Watch this space.

  Red tape is no laughing matter

  THE boss of any small company will tell you that it is no fun filling in the myriad forms that pour out of government departments these days. Ploughing through acres of paperwork is a real burden.

  So it’s good to see that publisher Harriman House has retained its sense of humour on the prickly subject of red tape.

  It is holding a launch party on November 20 for a new book, How To Label A Goat, which explores the extraordinary amount of needless legislation and regulation that has been imposed by the government.

  In keeping with the theme of the occasion, Harriman advises that in order to avoid any repercussions from the health-and-safety lobby, guests at the party will be monitored to make sure that they don’t imbibe more than three sips of champagne in any two-minute period.

  Prufrock assumes that this a joke, but you can never tell these days.
  

• FOR several years, Stella Artois, the beer sometimes unkindly referred to as Wifebeater, has been running an ad campaign describing it as “reassuringly expensive”, but in recent times the price of the popular lager has been anything but.

  Having grown tired of this ridiculous disparity, Prufrock is launching “Stella-Watch” to keep an eye on the ever-falling price of the Belgian brew. The most prominent recent example is an offer from Wm Morrison, the grocer, which is selling 60 250ml bottles for £20. By our calculations, that works out at about 75p per pint.
  

• THERE was some refreshing honesty from Virgin Trains staff on a recent journey to London. It was early evening and the dinner trolley was coming down the aisle. One passenger smelt the aroma of food and declared to his companion: “That smells good, I’ll have whatever that is for my dinner.”
  
  A nearby Virgin attendant overheard the comment and helpfully informed the passenger: “Smells can be deceptive. Most of the customers who had that have sent it back.”