About Us

Pushing the button when HM the Queen declared the London 2012 Olympic Games open and the 20 second pyrotechnic sequence chased around the stadium signalling the successful culmination of 10 months of planning and preparation. It just got better and better after that.

The events industry is very diverse and fireworks are no different. No show is the same even when firing at the same venue. The best thing about what I do is the many places I have visited and worked at, often giving me unparalleled access that members of the public never normally get to visit. From climbing up the leg of the London Eye and standing on the crow’s nest of the hub, fixing pyrotechnics to Big Ben or Tower Bridge, firing from the monorail in front of the Atlantis Palm in Dubai or getting the best seat in the house stood on the gantry above the royal box for the Olympic and Paralympic Ceremonies. One thing is guaranteed that this job is far from boring or predictable.

The worst bit for me is the last hour before the show starts, especially on the larger more high profile displays like London’s New Year’s Eve which has a live audience of over 250,000 and a broadcast audience of over 13 million, there is no chance for error, a bad day at the office is not an option. There is so much that can go wrong, that is the nature of live events. The last hour waiting for show time can be excruciating with so many external factors which can affect the display, there was one occasion when I was about to fire a display and my computer suddenly died and the screen went blank, my face dropped and as I turned to see what had happened the client had unplugged my desk top to charge up his phone, his face was hilarious as he realised what he had done. We quickly started up again and no one was the wiser. The responsibility to deliver displays like The Olympics, Commonwealth Games and London’s New Years Eve is very intense, the anxiety and stress levels can be off the scale, but with it comes immense satisfaction and euphoria, as soon as the first thud of the lift from the first shell fires, the fear and anxiety disappear and are replaced with exhilaration and a huge surge of adrenalin.

It would have to be the London 2012 Olympic Ceremonies; it does not get any bigger than the Olympic Games. The pressure is immense but when you get it right, so is the pay off. The best thing about working on this project was the fact that there were four ceremonies to deliver, with an opening and closing ceremony for both the Olympic and Paralympic Games. The best ceremony for me was the Olympic Closing, with the opening behind me the pressure was slightly lifted and the ability to relax and enjoy the show was easier. Overall the Olympics offered some amazing and unique opportunities, least of all the privilege to design and choreograph a live show with such names as The Arctic Monkey’s, Queen, The Who and Coldplay. It really was a once in a lifetime experience with some challenges which I have learnt a huge amount from and the memories will live on for many years to come.

It’s so hard to single one out– there are some shows we do annually which I always love, such as the Trinity Cambridge May Ball, which heralds the start of the busy summer season through to our New Year shows in London and Edinburgh which, for us, mark the culmination of our year’s work. One of my one-off favourites though has to be a large wedding display we fired across 500 metres of a frozen lake in Switzerland. The reflections in the snow and echoes from the surrounding mountains heightened the experience beyond any show I’d witnessed before.

Having the opportunity to fire some once in a lifetime displays in such a range of incredible locations.

Behind every exciting display there is a large amount of rather less exciting paperwork. It’s all a necessary part of the process of putting on any safe and spectacular event but it can become mundane unless you mix up your day’s work with other more exciting creative tasks.

The events industry as a whole was hit really hard by the pandemic, but we were incredibly fortunate to still have the New Year’s Eve display in London, albeit on a different scale to usual and created purely for TV audiences at home.

Planning these shows at locations around London, including Tower Bridge, Wembley the O2 and Greenwich Royal Naval College was a real challenge but simultaneously thrilling. Everyone involved understood that the shows, including fireworks, lighting, music and drones could only go ahead if the locations remained top secret.

It’s over a decade ago now but I have a large canvas print on my office wall of the display we fired from Tower Bridge during the Opening Ceremony of the London 2012 Olympics. It perfectly captures both the wall of mines erupting from the Upper Walkway and the waterfall tumbling from the bascules which appeared as David Beckham shot underneath the bridge in a speedboat carrying the Olympic Flame. The photo was also taken by my father which makes it extra special.