Andy Collier …

Today’s diary is dedicated to the memory of Andy Collier.

Andy Collier was a friend, colleague, a fellow director and business partner in the enterprise we started together in 1999, trading under the name of Technical Marketing Ltd. This weekend marks the first anniversary of Andy’s untimely death on 12th July 2013. He was on his way to a meeting of the Association of Lighting Designers (the ALD). Andy’s particular involvement in the ALD was as editor of the Association’s magazine –Focus –a publication which Andy succeeded in elevating to global prominence within the theatre lighting community  thanks to his editorial and design skills . As well as writing and editing, the honorary role brought together two of Andy’s great loves  –lighting and the theatre.V

I first met Andy in late 1985 at Strand Lighting’s premises on the Great West Road in Brentford, in a building Fred Bentham  mischievously referred to as ‘the toothpaste factory’ owing to its former ownership by Colgate. I was about to take on the role of Marketing Director and had asked to meet the marketing team. Andy had somehow found china tea cups and a teapot, pouring tea for us all with a casual elegance that marked out his attention to detail in everything he did. To say he was multi-skilled would be an understatement. He was a great communicator and his new product launches were legendary. Perhaps Steve Jobs took some tips from Andy when he performed his famous launches for Apple some years later. Andy was also technically knowledgeable both on the theory and hands on making things, but most of all he related to people.

In the year that has gone by I find myself thinking Andy is still at the end of the phone. Perhaps to run an idea past him, to help with some computer problem, or just to pass on something I thought might interest or amuse him. Of course Andy’s finger-prints are all over Technical Marketing not least in the systems he set up and his detailed instructions for operating them. Andy would from time to time say, “I am documenting this in case I am run down by a bus”, or latterly “perish at the hand of a mad cyclist”. It was neither bus or cyclist that took Andy. It was at Leicester Square underground station his heart was to fail him. Fittingly maybe in the centre of theatre land and a station to and from which I  myself commuted  when I  worked at Thorn House many years before. 

So, on this sombre anniversary we remember Andy and his contribution to our lives His memory will live on and we recall the celebration of Andy’s life in words and music on that bright sunny late July afternoon beside the River Thames in London as we exited ‘stage left’ to the haunting ‘Rhapsody in Blue’.