London New Year's Eve Day 5

This is it, show day, with months of preparation, many production meetings, pages of paper work, risk assessments, method statements and site visits and after 4 days of intense set up with a crew of 36, the day of truth has finally arrived. The big surprise we have up our sleeve this year which we wanted to keep a secret was the new roof top location as we referred to it, the Great Clock Tower, which houses Big Ben. With 24 firing positions and associated firing equipment a crew of eight had to haul nearly 500 kg of equipment up 334 steps of the Tower.


I can not tell you how much was work required to get permission to achieve this very unique and stunning addition to the display, from a heritage and conservation point of view we new that getting consent would be the greatest hurdle to overcome, while we would be the first people to get gunpowder in to the Palace of Westminster, I did not want to be the first to be hung, drawn and quartered for damaging the structure. I did utilise this once in a lifetime opportunity to ask if I could visit the location where Guy Fawkes hid his terrible quantity of gun powder. To my surprise there is actually a plaque which reads as follows, "near this spot, beneath the old house of Lords Chambers, Guy Fawkes and his fellow conspirators hid thirty six barrels of gunpowder with the intention of blowing up King James I and the members of the House of Lords and House of Commons. The Plot was foiled on 5th November 1605 a few hours before the State Opening of Parliament". I could not resist the opportunity to get a photograph of this historic achievement we were about to embark on, 406 years later we would finally bring gun powder in to the Palace of Westminster with far less deadly intentions, but to entertain and celebrate.


The remainder of the crew were working hard to bring the final preparations together. As the day progressed all of the single shot fans on the barges and pontoons were rigged and wired in. The Pontoons were dropped in to the water and tied to their temporary moorings laid for us by the Port of London Authority, while the left and right hand barge were moved in to their show position. The middle barge could not be moved in to position until the last pleasure cruiser had left the London Eye Pier.


The weather looked as if it was going to be OK, not quite as as good as last year but well within the range where we were confident we could fire all the display. The winds were gusting to 15mph, although the wind was in the prevailing direction we were going to be close to the limit of the clock tower mines which would be pulled if the winds picked up any more, the comets would be fine but the mines which are lighter could in stronger winds cause us potential problems. There was also rain forecast for the early part of the evening, this did not worry us too much as everything was waterproofed and protected, including the pyro for the Eye, although this would not be rigged until later in the day.


The day was a hive of activity with multiple crews spread over many locations, we had the Clock Tower Crew rigging the 24 firing positions around the balcony, the waterborne crew in our rib boat together with General Marine craning the pontoons in to the water and moving them in to show position, we had the barge crews testing and checking all the wiring and covering the data cable with sand. Finally we had the Eye crew who were getting ready to start the crucial phase of loading pyro and fireworks on to the Eye.

We can not load any live material on to the Eye until it is closed to the public, at about 3.30pm the last flight or ride on the Eye commences, we wait for the thirty minute ride and watch the last of the tourists to vacate the area. As soon as the last member of the public has been escorted away the Eye and the immediate area around it is shut down and cleared of all people except for the show team. Stage Electrics start to load the moving head lights in each of the capsules while our crew move the middle barge in to its final position moored on to the London Eye Pier.

A very well drilled and rehearsed team spring in to action, all of the props for the Eye inner rim are laid out in a particular order and hoisted up to the Hiab level of the Eye where they will be stowed in the correct order for rigging, the first prop to be lifted up has to be the last one hoisted up. The Eye Hub crew start their journey with the pyrotechnics up the rear support leg of the Eye to the central spindle with over 400 single shot tubes which are rigged on to the crows nest on the Hub.

The lighting crew this year were very swift and completed their rig by 5pm. As soon as the last of the lights are loaded, the Eye is handed over to us, with all the props at the base of the Eye our riggers jump to action with the biggest challenge we face, loading 32 props on to the inner rim of the Eye containing over 1,000 fireworks which have to be rigged by 10pm so that the Eye can be locked down. This gives the lighting crew enough time to do their final checks before they run a full lighting show on the Eye, Shell building and County Hall as a type of warm show, a crowd pleaser, which helps the many hundreds of thousands of people who travel to central London to watch the midnight display, the chance to enjoy a bigger spectacle.

It is 5.20pm on the 31st December 2011 when the London Eye is officially handed over to us, this is the moment when all our crew have to get on and deliver, we are under such a time constraint and such pressure to deliver that I can safely say it is the most agonising few hours of my life as I watch the Eye slowly rotate one position at a time as another prop gets fixed and connected to the firing network, we have just over 4 hours to rig the London Eye.


Last year we were finished rigging the Eye by 21:45, this year Ian, Lee and Paul complete the task in record time, 20:30, just over three hours. The time has arrived, the London Eye is rotated to its lock down show position, our crew drop down the tails for the data runs and connect them to the home runs to the command and control where the firing panels and laptops are sitting waiting to run a our comms test, this involves a number of testing regimes which include a diagnostic check on all data networks, the control panels, each module and each individual igniter. Running this test is a very nerve racking moment, this is the first time we get to run a complete test and find out whether we have 100% or a major problem on our hands, with a little over two hours to midnight there is no time to rectify major problems. With a click of the mouse, the computer runs through the first diagnostic checks, one by one the 40 modules on the Eye show up green with a pass, we run the final continuity check of all 1,280 igniters, with a hold of the breath the results flash up, only one igniter out, which fortunately is on the Hub which is still accessible by our crew, we radio up to Tony who checks the cue and we wait for him to confirm when he is clear, we run the test again and we have 100%, a great task undertaken by our dedicated crew. Now we are ready for the midnight moment as many hundreds of thousands of people gather in the streets around central London to witness the New Year and the start of 2012.