History

Nigel Catmur started lighting professionally in 1988 when he joined the Kenneth More Theatre, Iflord as Deputy Chief Electrician. He was promoted to Chief Electrician where he became responsible for designing the lighting for virtually all the productions staged at the theatre. During this period he was designing a different show every week plus Sunday Concerts. With the opportunity to experiment, the theatre proved a fantastic training ground for lighting design.

After four years responding to the urge to tour he joined the Lewis London Ballet, as production electrician with the responsibility for re-lights. Whilst working for them he was asked to design the lighting for 2 new works by choreographer Dominic Marshall and Janet Lewis.

In 1994 he moved into the ever expanding world of automated lighting. As a programmer for Coemar Spa he got the experience of large and varied moving light rigs with nothing but the music and a blank canvas on which to create a stand alone light shows.

It was through this portal that he travelled into the world of Television and large scale events. He worked for many years as a moving light programmer (and still does). Owning a variety of lighting consoles over the years has allowed him to collate a wealth of experience as a programmer on shows of all different scales including (at the larger end): 7 Royal Variety Shows and The Brits and The Eurovision Song Contest.

The progression to lighting director was an obvious one having developed a wealth of knowledge about television lighting but it was the encouragement of comedian Jim Davidson that persuaded him to take the plunge as Lighting Director on the final ever series of The Generation Game.

This led on to SMTV and CD:UK which he took over as resident Lighting Director from 2002 to 2006 including setting up CD:USA in Los Angeles. The show was a fast paced Saturday morning kids shows with live music performances, comedy sketches and the brief was to try to make the show look as different as possible every week.

Around this time he designed the lighting for many other shows both television and stage whilst continuing with the lighting programming. The main thrust of his work was in television but other productions included What a Feeling for Flying Music, the L'Oreal Colour Trophy, Oh What a Night and Viva La Diva starring Darcy Bussell and Katherine Jenkins and directed by Kim Gavin.

In 2008 Flying Music decided to relaunch its touring production of Thriller Live the show created in tribute to the music of Michael and the Jackson Five. The show had been conceived by Adrian Grant and previously co-produced the year before. Working for a second time with director Gary Lloyd the show was revamped and given legs incorporating the latest lighting and screen technology. In January 2009 the show took up residency at the Lyric Theatre in London's West End. Michael Jackson's untimely death in June 2009 prior to his widely publisized dates at the O2 created a massive out pouring of grief which led the audiences to Thriller Live. Now with two World Tours plus the West End production and plans to grow further the show is Flying Music's most successful ever.