Royal Tournament returns for charitable causes

Preparing for and executing the field gun race alone, where four navy teams competed to transport artillery pieces over a series of obstacles, landlocked the equivalent of half the crew of a frigate for six months, and a scaled down show in 1999 was the last of it. Until now. Back in the hands of Major General Sir Evelyn Webb-Carter, who was chairman of the Royal Tournament Company, and answering to charity rather than directly to the MoD, the 2010 model managed to maintain the essence of its ancestor, the Massed Bands and The Musical Ride of the Household Calvary et al, but steer studiously clear of the pitfalls. It hung the action on a script for the first time too.

Rebranded the British Military Tournament, it didn’t feature the RAF or the Royal Navy, although Webb-Carter hopes to encourage their participation in due course. In fact, the show used few operational troops. They were mostly ceremonial, and based in London. The gun race, meanwhile, was contested by teams from the Wellington College Combined Cadet Force, slashing that particular expense to a fraction of the 1999 rate.

“It was called ‘The Royal Tournament – The Last Run’ that year, and it made a thumping great profit funnily enough,” Webb- Carter mused just before the doors opened at Earls Court 2010.

On for a comparatively succinct four shows across two days, the British Military Tournament was written and directed by Christopher Joll, and narrated live by Brideshead Revisited star Anthony Andrews, with prerecorded contributions from Joanna Lumley, Stephen Fry and Dame Judi Dench. The story was a potted lesson in the army’s history, from an English Civil War engagement, with a full-scale cavalry charge, to a re-enactment from the present day in Afghanistan, presented by soldiers returned from Helmand Province, replete with replica Chinook helicopter. And Webb-Carter took the pressure off by bringing in a production specialist. 

“Part of the problem before was having a lot of soldiers involved in the admin,” he told this magazine. “We’ve got IMG now, a bloody good team, and it makes a dickens of a difference. They’re part of the reason we’re making money. With retrospect, I would have brought them in for the Royal Tournament.

“The army, the navy and the air force are very good, but they are not a professional event company,” he added. “In fact, the army and navy are still hugely suspicious that this is resource heavy, but it really isn’t, and the charity stands to do much better as a result. We should make £300,000 direct profit, compared to £40,000/£50,000.”

“The public’s appetite for shows like this, and their support for British servicemen and women, is truly incredible.”

Major General Sir Evelyn Webb-Carter

 

 

 

 

 

Base Instinct

Stephen Flintwood, managing director at IMG Entertainment, initially looked to the Tower of London for a site, try as he might though, it didn’t have the space. From there, in keeping with the common contemporary solution, he went to The O2. But the backstage didn’t meet with the wants of 150 horses and some 500 troops. The dogleg in the arena precluded the gallops, the Kings Horse Artillery needs 85 metres to stop, and the capacity to run field guns. So it was over to Earls Court, where, with no Boat Show, and an axe over its head, the hand must have been beckoning frantically. Then, it was just a question of when.

“There were various dates in mind when the planning started, some in summer, some in winter. There was even a suggestion of putting it on in 2009, so a great deal of relief our end when that didn’t happen,” IMG operations manager, Nick Mattingley, said. “The MoD wanted it later, because the troops are in such big demand, so we settled on December.

“Obviously, technology has moved on since 1999,” he added. “So we had big end projection and moving lights, and while you’ve got all the favourites, we used military vehicles this time, it was more theatrical, fl ying scenery and props in rather than moving everything by hand like they used to.” Equal then, but different.

Back In The Saddle

The make up of the participants meant the tournament build had much in common with the Royal International Horse Show at Olympia (see Access issue 127), which followed some 10 days later. On the back of PRG and Delta bringing in lights and sound respectively, the two week process saw Martin Collins Enterprises deliver and fi t 1,065 tonnes of its lauded Ecotrack in 40 artics, coinciding with 15,000 Arena seats. “A big moment for traffi c management,” Mattingley smiled.

Held in the round, in front of 60,000 over four shows, and coupled with an exhibition, the nature and makeup of the show required a complex security system, house team, Showsec, providing 230 operatives to both days.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“It was a unique format, with the exhibition surrounding the main show and 150 horses and 500 military personnel ‘backstage’ in Earls Court 2,” London area manager Paul Legge said. “There was a wider range of audience ages than we see anywhere else, from eight to 80, so the customer service requirements were very diverse as well. And while they had tickets allocated to a specifi c show, they could come in to the exhibition throughout the day, which made it difficult to predict when they would arrive and leave. It meant we had to have the fl exibility to respond to unpredictable peaks in numbers. We got there though.”

There was no place of course for the fi lm industry maxim about not working with animals, but the sheer volume of man and beast did require perfect control behind the curtain. Discovering that traditional stage techniques would struggle to cope with the four fronts of action, two entrances to the show fl oor and two prep areas, the organisers put in a late call to Event LED Signs, which provides principally to the festival market.

“Looking after those sorts of numbers, simultaneously, in different locations, the British Military Tournament needed split second timings, where at festivals we use more graphics and it’s a much slower process,” co-owner/ technician George Mayne explained. The solution was four sets of the company’s wirelessly networked LED signs, linked together and displaying relevant text in pertinent red, yellow and green.

“It’s a vital part of the show,” he added. “When you’ve got a team of horses that takes that long to stop, for instance, you have to make sure the area is clear. And while we would probably have been OK with what we had, we adapted it, modifying the software, making it more friendly to the cuing process, just to be sure. We were very proud to be involved, actually, and it’s a side of the company we will look to develop as a result.”

Cover Me

You could reasonably argue that the British Military Tournament helps to cover for government inadequacy. It’s been said before, but when any Prime Minister orders his/her armed forces into combat, he/she should be wholly responsible for providing them with the best equipment, for looking after any that are injured and any families that are bereaved. Of course, the economics don’t stack up like that, they never have done, so the likes of Help For Heroes and The Soldiers’ Charity deserve all the public attention and money they can muster. And having tucked more than a quarter of a million pounds in the coffers, the tournament’s worth to the cause is considerable, so hats/helmets off to Webb-Carter, and his long term ambition.

“It’s a very different type of animal to what it used to be,” he said. “And all things being equal, I’d like to start on Friday next year, and lose the Sunday night, which would give us one extra show. Ultimately of course it’s an annual event for the three service charities, running from Wednesday to Sunday, a real part of the calendar. But slowly, slowly catchy monkey,” he smiled.

 

The Soldiers’ Charity began as the Army Benevolent Fund in 1944. The demobilisation after the two World Wars had put an enormous strain on regimental funds, highlighting the need for a national charity to give practical help to British soldiers and veterans. Hundreds have been killed in Afghanistan and Iraq, with many more injured both mentally and physically. The human costs of these confl icts are still to be realised, psychological injuries can take up to 13 years to manifest themselves. The charity currently raises £7m per annum, and helps more than 4,000 soldiers and their families. In the last two years though, it’s seen a 30 per cent increase in numbers seeking help, and will need to raise £14m a year by 2015 to continue its work.