It lost an £860m project to extend Manchester’s Metrolink tram system, as two other consortia were named preferred bidders. It also lost a £766m contract for a public-private partnership (PPP) to provide Northamptonshire County Council and Milton Keynes County Council with a range of office management services.It has also been rejected by Stoke-on-Trent City Council for a £104m project to upgrade street lighting.Although Amey had been selected for a £345m PPP in Redcar and Cleveland to supply financial and accounting services, it was asked to re-tender because it was unable to fulfil some parts of the contract, and subsequently dropped.Earlier this year it withdrew from a £500m project to build a tram link across the Pennines from Leeds.Amey’s plight has been reflected in a dreadful share price performance, with the stock losing 91 per cent of its value during 2002. This was despite bid speculation fuelled by the purchase of an 8 per cent stake in Amey by Sterling Investment Group, the UK vehicle of Swiss corporate raider Tito Tettamanti.Mr Tettamanti’s move has added to the pressure on Brian Staples, Amey’s chief executive, blamed by many in the City for the company’s woes. There is intense speculation he will resign in the new year.. After a year that has seen the tyranny of vacuum-packed pop reach a truly alarming zenith &#150 it’s perhaps heart-warming to consider that New Year’s Eve will see millions of people tuning in to a show that celebrates an altogether more home-brewed approach to music.

As usual, BBC2 will broadcast the Later programme’s annual Hootenanny: a two-hour spectacular, filmed a couple of weeks ago, that this year features the likes of Pulp, Jeff Beck, Tom Jones and the ubiquitous Ms Dynamite.
It will be hosted, of course, by Jools Holland, who will chat amiably to both his musical guests and the sprinkling of celebrities who happen to pop by, and doubtless add some hastily rehearsed piano to some of the evening’s performances. No one will be asked about their sex life or marriage break-up; nor will Holland be forced to bluff his way through any comedy sketches. That is neither his nor Later’s style: though the concept might seems ridiculously old-fashioned, the programme is simply about the music, man.Since Later’s invention in 1992, Holland – now 44 – has become the public face of the show’s brand values, touring the country with his Rhythm & Blues Orchestra, releasing albums splattered with star guests (the latest of which, Small World Big Band Vol. 2, featuring Bono, Marianne Faithfull and Robert Plant, was released last month), and becoming so synonymous with the notion of old-style authenticity that he is now the poster-boy of Bell’s Scotch Whisky.

Moreover, as pop music becomes ever more synthetic, his place in the nation’s affections only seems to become more secure.Some 25 years ago, Holland was doing the rounds of provincial theatres and television studios in an altogether more lowly role, as the keyboard player with Squeeze. Formed in and around Holland’s native south London, the band was, to some extent, a vehicle for the songwriting talents of Glenn Tilbrook and Chris Difford, whose crisply worded, deeply English compositions marked them down as pretenders to the throne once occupied by the Kinks’ Ray Davies. That said, Holland brought something of his own to the party: at a time when punk rock’s clod-hopping rejection of technique was all the rage, he lent Squeeze a musical sophistication that quickly separated them from their contemporaries.”I first met him in 1974 in Blackheath,” recalls Difford, who recently toured the UK with his former colleague. “He turned up in a leather jacket on the back of a motorbike He looked every bit the Marlon Brando-type figure. He played some fantastic boogie-woogie piano, which I’d never heard before – all I knew was the Velvet Underground, the Grateful Dead, the Beatles and the Rolling Stones – and then fell off the piano stool and was sick on the floor He’d had too much cider. He was very cartoon-like in his life in those early days; almost a caricature of himself.”Once the vomit had been wiped up, Holland stayed with the band for six years, during which time they amassed a devoted following not only in the UK, but also in America – where Holland’s raconteurish personality often proved to be an enviable asset.