'Plan all you want you never know what you'll get': Meet the Black Country man behind the biggest fireworks displays

Chris Pearce knows how to make a firework display go off with a bang.

He has been illuminating the night sky with breathtaking and colourful pyrotechnics for more than three decades.

It all started as a hobby but now he runs one of the world’s leading fireworks companies.

Jubilee Fireworks is responsible for some of the country’s biggest events including the annual spectacular at Alton Towers.

WATCH the 2018 Alton Towers Fireworks Spectacular:

As well as large-scale extravaganzas, it also designs magical displays for wedding ceremonies, community and corporate events and private celebrations.

The firm has also put its skills to the test in competitions including the biggest and most prestigious – known as the ‘Olympics of Fireworks’ – L’International des Feux Loto-Québec in Montreal.

Nothing beats a firework display when it comes to adding a bit of ‘wow factor’ to an occasion, according to former school teacher Chris.

“Fireworks are an art form. They are exciting and fascinating. The great thing about fireworks is that you can plan all you want but you are never exactly sure what you’re going to get when you press the button.

“They may be exactly the same fireworks but because the wind and atmospheric conditions will always be slightly different, every display is unique,” says the 58-year-old.

Started in the shed

A physicist by profession, Chris started the Kingswinford-based business as a part-time enterprise in 1987 alongside his day job.

“I started in my garden shed. I wanted to get hold of good quality fireworks but I was struggling.

“I thought if I’m having these challenges, other people must be too, so I set up a business supplying display fireworks then people started asking me to do displays for them.

“It grew from there and now we do 200 professional shows every year, mostly in October and November.

“We also supply fireworks to people wanting to do their own displays and we have good links with some of the best factories in China and Europe.

“We can do anything from providing fireworks for an event for 100,000 people on the other side of the world to providing sparklers for a birthday party,” says the University of Birmingham graduate.

An exploding firework is essentially a number of chemical reactions happening simultaneously.

This is kick-started by the addition of heat so that the solid chemical compounds packed inside the firework react with oxygen in the air and convert themselves into other chemicals, releasing smoke and exhaust gases.

The intense colours that light up the sky come from the metal compounds within the fireworks which glow when they are hot.

Sodium compounds glow yellow and orange, copper and barium salts are green or blue, and calcium or strontium make red.

Variety

Chris believes variety is a key component of any good firework display. “I like to see lots of different colours, different sequences and to see all of the sky used with fireworks at different heights,” he tells Weekend.

Since starting the business, he has seen changes made in the industry – from the chemistry to produce the firework explosions to the technology used to fire and choreograph the displays.

“When I first started we had to hand-light all of our fireworks so we would be running around with a taper.

“We rarely do that now because there have been real advances in that area and it’s now done electronically, controlled by a laptop.

“The technology has also made it possible to choreograph our displays to music which never happened 30 years ago.

“The fireworks are also richer and more vibrant and there is a wider range of colours because the chemistry has improved. There are also now glittery and crackly special effects,” says Chris, who is a member of The Institute of Explosives Engineers.

“The industry is trying to improve the production of fireworks to make them more environmentally friendly with less smoke emission.

“They don’t actually produce as much as you expect because they burn quite cleanly but we want to reduce the environmental impact further,” he adds.

Alton Towers spectacular

Since 2010, the firm has produced the Alton Towers fireworks spectacular – a highly choreographed integration of fireworks, pyrotechnics, lasers and lights.

As the largest seasonal fireworks event in the UK, the display, attended by thousands of people, is repeated on three consecutive nights and brings the attraction’s annual season to a close.

This year the festivities will run from November 8 to 10 and the firm’s award-winning display director Andrew Wiggins has been busy putting the finishing touches to the show. It’s a huge operation as every night 10,000 fireworks will be launched during the 25-minute display.

“We received the music from Alton Towers about a month before and he uses specialist software to translate his vision into a computer programme.

“Every single note of music will be represented by a single firework and in his head is an inventory of all of the different fireworks and he knows what fireworks will suit the music.

“He knows how long it takes between the firework being fired and it bursting in the sky so that’s all taken into consideration,” explains Chris, who lives in Penn.

A team of up to 15 technicians will spend a week on site setting up and carrying out all of the necessary safety checks.

It includes many fireworks enthusiasts who enjoy helping to bring the large-scale shows to life.

“They are from all walks of life and they love fireworks. If they didn’t they wouldn’t do it because it’s a hard and filthy job at times,” says Chris.

Each of the fireworks in the display area will be wired back to an electrical distribution box and triggered by firing panels.

This is where the computer programme takes over ensuring each illumination is fired at the right time.

“With fireworks, there are no second chances and you don’t really know for certain what you’re going to get until it starts.

“If a group of fireworks have failed to fire because the wireless signal was lost, it will not be obvious to the audience but we will know. It’s very rare that we have any problems in the field,” says Chris, who is a former chairman of the British Pyrotechnics Association (BPA)

Prize winning

Jubilee Fireworks also provides the annual Battersea Park fireworks display in Wandsworth, London, and stages the Festival of Fireworks at Catton Hall, near the Derbyshire and Staffordshire border.

It has also taken first prize in many competitions including The British Fireworks Championships and the World Fireworks Championships.

But Chris says the firm’s biggest achievement has been winning the Gold Jupiter Award at L’International des Feux Loto-Québec in Montreal on two occasions.

The team first went head-to-head with the world’s best in front of a crowd of 50,000 people in a specially-built stadium at La Ronde amusement park in 2015.

They went all out with a 30-minute display featuring more than 6,000 fireworks and wowed the judging panel made up of members of the public.

“We were competing against some of the best fireworks display designers in the world so it was amazing to win first place,” says Chris.

Two years later Jubilee was invited to represent the UK and the famous event for a second time – and again went home with the top prize. “In the fireworks world, it’s the equivalent of winning a gold medal at the Olympics, so to do that twice is a significant achievement,” says Chris.

Jubilee, which also provides fireworks for the Isle of Wight Festival, is also on hand to provide advice to television and film production companies featuring fireworks in their scenes.

“What I dislike more than anything is seeing CGI fireworks because they never look real, or a programme like Downton Abbey using the wrong type of fireworks for the era.

“As a firework historian, I provide advice on how it was done in the early days,” explains Chris, who has a vast collection of fireworks and memorabilia from bygone eras.

But while he’s had a life-long passion for fireworks, Chris understands that they are not everybody’s cup of tea.

“A lot of people don’t like fireworks and I appreciate that. They’re a bit like Marmite – people either love them or hate them.

“They are not for everybody and that’s why we like to educate people to use them sensibly.

“When I was young all of the corner shops would stock and sell fireworks but the way they are sold has changed and now it’s difficult to find a specialist like us because there’s very few of us around.

“People trust us to sell them the right fireworks for what they want and the space they have. A lot of modern houses have small gardens so that has to be taken into consideration.

“Occasionally people will come to us and we will advise them not to have fireworks because we don’t think it’s safe for them to have them.

“Safety is very important and we couldn’t just sell people fireworks knowing that there could be a problem.

“We want people to enjoy fireworks and have a memorable and safe experience,” says Chris.