Universal's man with a plan.

Grabbing a few days' holiday before he officially moves into his new Sussex Place office today (Monday), Universal UK's incoming chairman/CEO might have been expected to take things easy. Think again. A lunch with S Club 7 svengali Simon Fuller, meetings with other key artist managers, a trip down to the studio with Trevor Horn, a BPI council meeting -- there was little sign last week that Lucian Grainge was taking time off.

But then that should not come as a surprise to anyone who knows him, for Grainge -- mobile phone clamped constantly to his ear- is nothing if not driven. "He's always been ambitious -- after all he's a nice Jewish North London boy," says ...