Page 334 - They Also Served

Stepping into the role of producer of the Royal Tournament in 1974, the first and biggest military tattoo in the world, he expanded the extravaganza each year until 1999. By this time, ticket sales were failing to cover the cost of the event, and it closed after the 1998 Strategic Defence Review. In 1977, he was involved with the Queen’s silver jubilee celebrations, including a nationwide chain of beacons, with the first lit by Her Majesty. To prevent a ‘damp squib’, he loaded the bonfire with fireworks and had a Royal Signals major stationed with a detonator close by. When the Queen lit the fuse, it fizzed ineffectually at her feet while, on a signal from Parker, the beacon ignited spectacularly 60 metres away. The Queen thought the whole episode was hilarious.
Concurrently, Parker ran the Edinburgh Military Tattoo, the Berlin Military Tattoo and the Wembley Military Music Pageant and, in 2000, produced the Royal Military Millennium Tattoo on Horse Guards Parade. Firmly established as the ‘go to’ man for event management, he also organised Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother’s 80th, 90th and 100th birthday celebrations and the firework display for the wedding of Prince Charles to Lady Diana Spencer, as well as the commemorations of the 50th anniversaries of VE and VJ days. His reputation as an unflappable, consummate professional made him much in demand globally, organising events for King Hussein of Jordan and the coronation of King Abdullah II.
During the silver jubilee bonfire difficulties, a firework mortar went off instead of a flare. Deciding to ‘fess’ up to the mistake, he exclaimed: ‘Your Majesty – I’m afraid it’s all going terribly wrong!’ The Queen, used to everything running like clockwork in her presence, replied: ‘Oh Good! What fun!’ Parker was old-school and ran epic shows without an office, a production company, or a PA and, unmarried, worked deep into the night on his projects. Simultaneously, he ran a profitable antique business with his aunt Maggie. His event management plan was to ‘compromise and then do it my way’ thrashed out with performers and their agents over lunch and several bottles of wine. His address book ensured that he could call on Dame Judy Dench or Sir Cliff Richard to bolster events at the last minute.
Slowing down in his sixties, Parker finally employed a PA, then married her and subsequently retired. Altogether, he ran some 320 events and once reckoned that the total cost of his 30 years of events was less than the opening ceremony of the 2012 Olympics. Awarded KCVO and CBE for his achievements and having written an autobiography entitled It’s All Going Terribly Wrong: The Accidental Showman, Major Sir Michael Parker died in 2022.
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