GLITZ, glamour and several hundred hired dinner suits were all on show as the region's top business bods gathered at St George's Hall for the Daily Post Regional Business Awards.

Trading Gossip was there, although not everyone was pleased to see us.

Awards host Peter Sissons, below, was fresh from his recent controversy over his comments about attractive female newsreaders.

It wasn't the first time in his life Peter has caused a kerfuffle, though.

Back in the 1950s, when young Sissons was knee-high to a grasshopper, he was, even then, a studious chap. One day he was walking home from school and one local urchin proceeded to attempt to knock his cap from his head.

Peter's grandmother witnessed this and came running out with her broom to defend her kin, at which point the other boy's grandmother appeared and a scuffle ensued. Happy days.

TESCO and Sainsbury's are set to go head-to-head in a battle of the superstores at Liverpool's Great Homer Street regeneration project.

But first they will clash on Old Hall Street, when Tesco Express opens in Downing's Capital Building next week, opposite a well-established Sainsbury's Local.

Tesco chief executive Sir Terry Leahy often likes to drop in on stores unannounced and he also sits on the board of Liverpool Vision, located in the same building. Canny employees might want to check the dates of Vision board meetings.

IF BUSINESSES played music, the economy could save £764m a year, according to the imaginative folks at Music Works.

Relying on a survey which found one-third of employees are less likely to take time off sick if music is being played at work and aided by some spurious number-crunching, they decided up to 7m days of “non-genuine absenteeism” could be saved each year.

We’re not sure, though, that the figures would stack up if Dolly Parton’s Nine to Five song was played on a loop.