Who is the real Danny Lambo?
FAB UK’s Stephanie Amazigo met up with this intriguing and charismatic public figure to find out more about the self-made millionaire with a passion for fast cars.
Location, the‘St. James’ Court, A Taj Hotel, London’ at the ‘Dar Blo Bar’, hair salon by Dar Barot who is his personal hairstylist and stylist to many celebrities and public figures.
Stephaie Amazigo – Danny Lambo is a man with many different facets of his world. I will be delving into what makes this man tick and find out a bit more about what lays beneath the surface of the playboy figure that we see.
It has been a busy last 3months for Danny Lambo and he has recently delved into the beauty world, hosting the ‘Central London Heat’ of the ‘Miss Great Britain’ beauty pageant.
Tagged as “Britain’s flashiest Playboy” Danny got the licence forMiss Great Britain Central London and the pageant finals were recently held at the ‘DSTRKT club, Rupert Street, London’. On the night of May 11th, 2017, the Winner ‘Francesca Miles’ was crowned‘Miss Great Britain Central London’.
Danny Lambo Is also a musician who has a new song out called “Playboyz”, which he has also done a Bollywood version with prolific songwriter and legendary Bollywood Disco artist “Bappi Lahiri”, one of the first artists to bring disco to India.“Bappi Lahiri” has a massive following and the pair met in London at the ‘A Taj Hotel’ and he liked the song and will be releasing the Bollywood version in India in June. Check out the trailer on Youtube “Danny Lambo Playboyz” featuring American rapper “Affinity”.
Stephanie Amazigo – “How did you start your empire?”
Danny Lambo – “It all started when I was 16 years old and I had a band and we got involved in the whole ‘MTV unplugged’ scene that was big at the time.”
“In a club in Dean Street,I met a Japanese man who was a record producer for Sony records in Japan.He wanted us to come to Japan and perform, so we managed to get into the ‘Air studios’ run by ‘George Martin’ the Beatles producer and laid down 3 tracks and he took them to his boss at Sony who loved them and said, “Bring them over”. So literally weeks before my final exams I walked out of school and my headmaster said, “Danny where are you going?” and I said, “I am going to Japan to become a pop star” and he said, “You are going to fail in life”.Within 5 years I was a pop star not only in Japan but all over the Far East, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Brunei, Australia and New Zealand”.
By the age of 21 Danny had quit the pop business and returned to London with no qualifications or job but a load of money.
“Although I had no formal business qualifications I did have a lot of experience of the hotel industry after spending so much time in hotels. I decided to try to become a hotelier but I wanted to open a hotel with a difference where every door you open would be like walking onto the stage of a play.”
“I spoke to someone who I knew that was a businessman, (my Godfather) who was a restaurant owner and I asked him for some advice and he said “Danny, location, location, location”. So, I searched all around in various areas of London and came to Paddington which was quite a sleazy area 20 years ago (the hotels were renting by the hour if you get my meaning). I found a hotel which was on a good plot, 30 bedrooms and it was a good Central London location, just 10 minutes from Oxford Street. But the reason why I chose that spot was because I had done my research and found out that the government had just signed a contract with Paddington station to build the ‘Heathrow Express’ train service from Heathrow to Paddington.All the main stations were bidding for it and Paddington won the bid. It was a 3-year project and I knew that after the three years were up the area would be cleaned up, and I was right. Within 3 years the property I bought for £450,000 was worth £3,000,000 and I had no mortgage, so I had all this equity in there.
We done all the rooms up and all the hotel was fab.I had a 70s-themed room called “Honky-tonk Afro”, I had a Chinese themed room called “Enter the Dragon”, I had a Moroccan themed room called “Casablanca nights”, so after it was all done up I got back in touch with Sony and said “Look you have to send your bands over to stay here”. They were very cooperative and they sent bands like ‘Duran Duran’, ‘Morrissey’, ‘Pulp’, and as you know, where the rock stars go, the fashion models will follow, ‘Naomi Campbell’ etc. they were all there.
The hotel was very photogenic on camera and the models would tell their photographer friends that “the ‘Pavilion Hotel’ is a great place, you’ve got to shoot there”, so we were getting big photographers at the time ‘Mario Testino’, “Bruce Webber and all these guys were wanting to shoot there and over the next 3 years I was in all the top magazines ‘Cosmopolitan’, ‘Vogue’, ‘Tatler’ etc. I just called it the ‘Pavilion Hotel’ but when the press got hold of it they labelled it, “The Pavilion Fashion Rock and Roll Hotel”
Leading on from that I raised some money and started investing in more hotels, at one point I owned 7 hotels, I am with 2 now (the Pavilion and another close by) but I have been investing in property and built up a large portfolio and now 20 years on property prices have gone through the roof and now I can sit back and enjoy some of the things I enjoy doing which includes ‘Super Cars’.
My name is Danny Lambo for a reason, I have 2 Lamborghinis and another one on the way I also have a few other cars including ‘Aston Martins’ as cars are a passion of mine ever since I was 10 years old when my dad took me to ‘Harrods’ to buy a birthday present for my mum and there was a white ‘Lamborghini Cortege’ outside and I thought “Wow!” it was like a spaceship had landed and I said to myself, “If I ever make money one day, I am going to buy one”.
“By the age of 21 I was able to buy my first ‘Lamborghini’ and I have always kept that first purple ‘Lamborghini’. My parents weren’t rich (they were teachers) and they were not able to buy me a car, so I kept it, as I thought that if I ever had a son, I would give it to him on his 18th birthday”.
“When I was 21, I used to just enjoy cruising around in my car for fun, but now I get a lot of pleasure from giving back to the community especially to kids. Recently I have taken a kid (who is dying), who’s dream was to have a ride in a ‘Super Car’ out for a spin and I am always doing things like that. It makes me feel good to do something like that and I inspire a lot of kids who message me when they have seen me on TV shows and they say,“Danny I left school without any qualifications, how can I become like you?” and I always message them back and try to give them advice on what they should focus on etc.”
“Funnily enough, about a year ago I was at a ‘Super Car’ event and a guy came up to me in the carpark, (there were about 50 Supercars there) and I was standing by my Orange Lamborghini and he said, “You’re Danny Lambo! … do you remember me?” He said, “10 years ago I was 18 and I had just failed my ‘A’ levels and I was depressed and I didn’t know what to do and I was coming out of Kensington High street station and I saw you standing there beside your Purple Lamborghini with the door up looking all cool and I came up to you and asked you about your car and you said, “do you want to go inside and have a picture?” and I couldn’t believe it because other Lamborghini guys wouldn’t even talk to me but you let me sit in the driver’s seat and take a picture”. I said, “Well I was the same like you once”. He said, “I remember asking you, Danny how can I have one of these cars? And you said to me (and I never forgot it), you said “Work hard, play hard but always be passionate about what you do otherwise don’t bother with it” and I (the young man) said if I will I have one of these one days? And you said yes”. He then said excitedly as he took me by the hand and said, “come with me I want to show you something”. He led me through the carpark and showed me a red ‘Lamborghini’ and said, “That’s my ‘Lamborghini’! That was a great moment for me as I had physically met someone who I had inspired, and that means a lot to me.
Stephanie Amazigo – “So what message would you give to the youth of today then?”
Danny Lambo – “Education is good and important, but you can make it on your own.The best wisdom and education I ever received was from travelling around the world and meeting different people of different cultures, these people inspired me and yes there is a lot of luck involved (being in the right place at the right time), maybe if I wasn’t in that pub 20 years ago and that Japanese guy wasn’t there then who knows? But I know for sure that I would have gone on to do something else because I am always passionate about what I do. If I do something I want to give it 100%, I want to make it a success, and if it doesn’t at least I know that I have tried it my best. To me, money is a bonus, succeeding is more important to me than the money. I think a lot of kids today are more driven by the money aspect, they just say I want to be rich, I want to be famous. I think, stick to something that you are passionate about and go for that, let the money and the fame and success be a bonus.”
Stephanie Amazigo – “Thank you Danny, I did just want to ask you a little about your last event and what you have got planned for the future?
Danny Lambo – “Well after the last event, I have got a big project lined up for next year which will be a global beauty pageant which will be televised with a TV reality series behind it on a major network, so this was my foot in the door to show that, not only have I been a judge, but I have also run a successful beauty pageant. It was a local heat, the ‘Central London Heat’ it was mentioned in the ‘Daily Mail’, the ‘Sun’, 2 national newspapers and for me, it was a success. We got a beautiful winner ‘Francesca Miles’ and the sponsors were very happy”.
Stephanie Amazigo – “Well thank you very much for your frank and interesting interview with FAB UK Magazine”.
