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Inaugural TAO Awards Recognise Industry's Finest Workers
November 5th saw the inaugural TAO Awards, designed to celebrate the hard work and expertise of the day-to-day crews that make an event happen. Held at The Apartments in Wiltshire the awards credited those who have shown exemplary work on TAO Groups events over the previous twelve months.
TAO Group's Andy Cotton said: "There are a number of superb awards events in the calendar including the TPi Awards, NOEA Awards and the TESA Event Awards, some of which we as a company have been honoured to win. The idea of these awards was to recognise the work of the stage builders, truck drivers, humpers and all the other disciplines required to make an event happen. We wanted to award the ‘blood, sweat and tears' of the workers on TAO events as opposed to the companies, as without these people events don't happen."
The awards were hosted by Ian Sandy and presented by various industry personalities including Beats International singer Lindy Layton, actress Michelle Gale, footballer Fraser Digby, The Marques of Abergavenny, Commitments movie actors Kenneth McCluskey and Dick Massey and celebrity fitness guru Angie Best, ex-wife of probably the world's greatest footballer, George Best.
The awards were sponsored by Fineline Lighting, TAO Group, Powerline, WGS Power, Major Tom Sound, Serious Stages, A Plant, Rugbi Corporate Clothing, Safe & Sound Security, FAST and Fonix AV.
With an attendance of over 250 people from the industry, presentations were followed by champagne and dancing to performances from Lindy Layton, The Stars from The Commitments band and DJ Shaun Skinner from GCap.
TAO Awards 2008 Winners:
Stage Crew of the Year
Presented to the people who have worked so hard to erect stages under in some cases extreme conditions thanks to the great British weather
Winner - Denis Cole of Serious Stages
Runner Up - Simon Carr of Aztec Enterprises
Site Electrician of the Year
Presented to the site electrician who provides safe power supplies for production and site
Winner - Derek Fuller of Powerline
Runner Up - Matt Slade (freelancer)
Sound Crew of the Year
Whether FOH sound engineer or stage guy with mics
Winner - Gareth Lewis (On tour with Steve Coogan)
Runner Up - Malcolm Giles
Lighting Crew of the Year
Presented to lighting crew, with this year's runner up never going on site but he makes sure every item needed is there from the warehouse
Winner - Nic Ayres of High Resolution Lighting
Runner Up - Rob Sangwell of Fineline Lighting
Crew Member of the Year
Presented to crews from other disciplines, the winner being a truck driver that gets onto a ramp across all sorts of surfaces and the runner up erecting miles of fencing over a year with nothing but a smile
Winner - Dave ‘Chips' Baker (Truck Driver Freelance)
Runner Up - Luke Harrison (Fencing erector and general crew)
Most Helpful Person Award
The person who goes the extra nine yards to make an event happen
Winner - Chris Fitzgerald of A Plant
Runner Up - Jamie Johnstone of TAO Fire
The Venue of the Year
The most enjoyable and helpful venue to work with
Winner - Harewood House, Leeds
Runner Up - Stadium: MK
Most Memorable Moment of the Year
Voted by crews for the incident that sticks in their minds
Winner - Duxford Firework Incident
Runner Up - Wynne Evans, Opera Singer
The Management Award
For exemplary work throughout the year on TAO events
Winner - Ben Price
Runner Up - Graham Jones
The John Cotton Memorial Award
In memory of Andy Cotton's father who died in 2000, he inspired Andy and this award was presented to a person whose work and achievements inspire an industry
Presented to Peter Brightman, CEO of The Creative Entertainment Group
In picture: winners and presenters at the event.
1st December 2008
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