My first contact with this media was as a result of an enquiry from Tony Gottelier and his company Meteor Illusion. He and his partner, Colin Cadle, had a loft showroom in Carter Lane, very close to St Paul’s cathedral in the City. I was impressed with their demonstration of lighting effects, mainly projection, using liquid wheels and moire patterns.
The were totally under-capitalised and so a deal was done and Meteor Lighting was incorporated and the lighting activity moved to Lamb House, just off the Hogarth Round about in an old brewery building that housed the rest of my ventures. This was in the early seventies and the product was then introduced into the US market through my operation at Michael Drive in Syossett Long Island.
Interest in Disco grew and before long we were importing more lighting lines as well as making some of our own product. One of our greatest missed opportunities was turning down “Saturday Night Fever.” This came about as a result of my deputy, David Rich, being approached for a lighting rig for a new “disco related movie”. I can understand why David rejected this proposal as we had had some bad experiences lending equipment to “film makers” who often never made a film but went off with the goods! Anyway one of our dealers in Chicago took up the challenge and thereby became a leading supplier in this then growing market. You will seen their name, Litelab, on the credits at the end of the movie.