About Me
30+ years delivering world-class stages; on time, under pressure, and without a fuss.
That’s 3 decades over wandering around on stage with a radio on, one eye on the clock, and RSI in my pointing finger.
I’m a Stage Manager working across festivals and live events in the UK, Europe, and the Middle East, including Glastonbury Festival, Reading & Leeds, Latitude, Electric Picnic, BBC Radio 1’s Big Weekend, and a long list of fields, stadiums, and backstage compounds.
The job, really, is making sure thousands of people have a brilliant time without ever noticing the planning, timing, and coordination happening behind the scenes to make that possible.
Most of my work is about keeping things moving:
artists, crews, production, schedules, changeovers, vehicles, timings, and all the other little moving parts that make live events work properly.
And live events do like to test you occasionally.
Timings move.
Stuff goes wrong.
Traffic happens.
Flights get delayed.
The bloody weather gets involved.
And there’s usually a whole heap of problems needing to be solved immediately.
That’s the job.
The important bit is staying calm, making the right call, keeping good people around you, and getting the show on stage safely and on time without everybody backstage losing their minds.
I run a tight but friendly ship: clear communication, quick changeovers, experienced crews, and no shouting unless something is actively on fire.
Which, thankfully, is rare.
If the audience leaves happy, the artists walk off smiling, and the stage finishes on time, that’s usually a good day.
Alongside stage management, I also started writing The Stage Clock, sharing backstage stories, near misses, lessons learned, and the sort of things audiences never see happening six feet behind the stage barrier.
Because after 30 years of doing this job, you end up with a lot of stories.
Some of them I can even legally repeat.
I’m UK-based, hold £10m global public liability insurance, and recently passed the Showstop® Procedure course — an internationally recognised and CPD-certified qualification for live event safety and emergency response.
