Creatives

The Creative Team

Adrian Grant: Executive Director and Co-Producer
Gary Lloyd: Director and Choreographer
LaVelle Smith Jnr: Original Production Choreography
Yasmin Yazdi: Dance Captain
Jo Dyce: Assistant to Gary Lloyd
Nigel Catmur: Lighting Designer
Sam Maclaren: Associate Lighting Designer
Colin Rozee: Systems Content Generator
Jonathon Park: Set Designer
Julia Preston: Costume Designer
Marion Miller: Additional Costume Design
Chris Wybrow: Sound Consultant
John Maher: Musical Supervisor and Head Arranger
John Maher, Jerry Meehan and Nicol Thomson: Music Arrangers
Mike Stobbie and Mike Guy: Additional Musical Arrangements
Sarah Freestone and Evan Jolly: Music Chart Preparation
Jon Bath: V-Drum Programmer

Adrian Grant: Executive Director & Co-Producer

Adrian's association with Michael Jackson has spanned over twenty years, and in that time he has enjoyed seeing the megastar entertain millions of people all over the world.

In 1988 he launched the world's first Michael Jackson fanzine, entitled Off the Wall. Within 2 years it had a circulation of 25,000 and was read in over 47 countries around the world.

In March 1990, a year after Michael had moved into Neverland Valley, Adrian became the first person to write a feature story about his wonderful retreat. Published in the British publication Smash Hits, it was amazingly, the first time they had ever featured Michael Jackson on their front cover.

Adrian has been privileged to have had great access to Jackson's world over the years, i.e. during the recording of the Dangerous album, HIStory album, world tours, photo and video shoots, exclusive interviews, lunches, dinners and much more. In 1994 Adrian wrote the best-selling Michael Jackson chronology - The Visual Documentary, published by Omnibus Press.

Jackson has personally acknowledged Adrian's work many times, and in 1998 granted Adrian an exclusive interview for his third book, Making History.

In 2001 Michael Jackson personally attended the ‘Tenth Annual Michael Jackson Tribute' - a show Adrian had been producing since 1991. Michael described the show as "Beautiful and incredible!"

In 2006 Adrian created ‘Thriller Live', starting with a one-off production at the Dominion Theatre, including a cast of 80 performers. Later that year Adrian teamed the Thriller Live dancers up with American RnB star, Chris Brown, to perform before Michael Jackson and a TV audience of almost one billion at The World Music Awards, celebrating the record-breaking album, Thriller and Jackson receiving the Diamond Award.

The following year Adrian joined up with Flying Music to produce Thriller Live as a touring show, which is now on its third-run.

Away from Jackson, Adrian has managed performers for over 15 years, run a record label, and produced a variety of events, including ‘Gospel Singer of the Year'.

Adrian is also an experienced writer and art director, and has worked on the some of the UK's top titles including Elle, Heat and FHM, as well as publishing and editing two of his own national publications.

Thriller Live is a show Adrian has been planning for many years, and he is proud that it has been entertaining people of all ages across the UK and Europe, giving them a taste of the music and magic of Michael Jackson. The show has been acknowledged by the star himself, who has wished Adrian every success with the production.

Gary Lloyd: Director and Choreographer

Award winning Director/Choreographer Gary Lloyd has worked with many established artists which among others include: Cliff Richard; Dame Shirley Bassey; Robin Gibb; Leona Lewis; Ray Quinn; G4; Will Young; Gareth Gates; Emma Bunton; Robbie Williams; Pink; Anastasia; Lemar; Rachel Stevens; Natasha and Daniel Bedingfield; Kelly Clarkson; Girls Aloud; Liberty X; Ordinary Boys; Blue; Atomic Kitten; Basement Jaxx; ABC; Soul II Soul and S Club 8.

Gary's longstanding relationship with S Club 8 developed further with their own TV show for the BBC: ‘I DREAM' - Gary choreographed all 13 episodes on location, working with Back To The Future star Christopher Lloyd.

His recent work includes choreography for the Universal Classics artists; All Angels, RyanDan and Blake.

Other television credits include; Ant and Dec's Saturday Night Take Away; Brits 25;The Royal Variety Performance; I DREAM; Eurovision Song Contest; Bump N Grind (Trouble TV); Comic Relief; ITV's Avenue of the Stars; Daz "I'm Too Sexy" commercial; Debenhams "Styling The Nation" commercial; Simon Cowell's X-Factor and Westlife's TV special promoting their Rat Pack album ‘Allow Us to be Frank'

Arena tours as Director/Choreographer include The Ray Quinn Tour 2007, X-Factor Live 2007; Sweetbox "Addicted To Japan" tour 2006; American Idols Live US Tours 2002-2004; G4 UK Tour 2005; Superstars Germany Tour 2003; S Club United Tour 2003 and the Will and Gareth Tour.

Theatre credits include choreographer for My Fair Lady (Cyprus and Singapore); City Of Angels at the English Theatre Frankfurt; director and choreographer for Jesus Christ Superstar (Scandinavian Tour), the US production of Spirit of Christmas at the prestigious Kodak Theatre, the 2006 UK Tour production of What A Feeling; Associate Director/Choreographer for Oh! What A Night; Zorro the Musical (workshop Dir; Chris Renshaw).

Gary was also director and choreographer for I Can't Stop Loving You - The Music Of Ray Charles (Theatre Royal Haymarket, UK and US Tours) and for the 2005 Royal Variety Performance in the presence of Her Majesty the Queen at the Wales Millennium Centre.

Other credits include two Royal Gala Shows at the London Palladium and Theatre Royal Drury Lane; Associate Director/Choreographer for Oh! What A Night; Zorro the Musical (workshop Dir; Chris Renshaw), involvement with the UK & European Premieres for High School Musical 1 and 2; Superman Returns; Moulin Rouge; Shall We Dance; Hitch; Pearl Harbour; Spiderman; Britney Spears' Crossroads; Minority Report; the 2002 & 2006 BAFTA Awards as Choreographer and Artistic Director and involvement in The Queen's Golden Jubilee Concert at the Palace.

Gary has just worked as choreographer on the UK tour of Andrew Lloyd Webber's Aspects Of Love and as Movement Director on Amadeus at the Sheffield Crucible.

Gary's can currently be seen on the BBC's "The One and Only" as choreographic expert and mentor.

For more information please visit www.gary-lloyd.com

Lavelle Smith Jr: Original Production Choreography

A long-time innovator and respected artist, LaVelle Smith Jr. is on the cutting edge of today's entertainment industry with his award-winning dance routines for stage, television, video and film.

As a choreographer, he has created the steps that grabbed our attention for artists such as Michael and Janet Jackson, The Rolling Stones, TLC, En Vogue, Teena Marie, Diana Ross, Rod Stewart, Destiny Child and Beyonce. Whether he's working on a music video, film, television show, commercial, or even a live tour he makes movement a part of everything we see. It's no wonder he's at the top of his game.

He has been the five time winner of the MTV Video Music Award for Best Choreography - 1992 for My Lovin', 1993 for Free your Mind, 1994 for Whata Man, 1995 for Scream, and 2003 for Beyonce's Crazy In Love, as well as the recipient of the Music Video Producers Award twice for Outstanding Choreography.

He is one of the youngest inductees into the Millers Gallery of Greats, and has also received numerous other award nominations, including the Emmy and the winner of the SSDC Bob Fosse Award for Best Choreography.

It is an honour for Thriller Live to have such a celebrated choreographer working on the show. Of course, having choreographed many of Jackson's most stunning performances, it makes a perfect partnership, but for every dancer involved in the production it has been a dream come true to learn directly from LaVelle - a legend in his field.

Jonathan Park: Set Designer

For over 25 years Jonathan Park has worked with some the biggest names in popular entertainment, creating some of the most spectacular events ever staged - including Pink Floyd's 'The Wall', Nelson Mandela's 70th Birthday Tribute, U2's 'ZOO TV', the Rolling Stones 'Voodoo Lounge' and Michael Flatley's 'Lord of the Dance'. His work has appeared in many TV broadcasts and books.

In1995 he designed the Peace Globe and Concerts for the VE Day celebrations in Hyde Park and the later VJ Day commemoration concert in Horseguards Parade. Then in 2002 he was honoured to create the 50-Year Parade of History in the Mall for the Queen's Jubilee, followed a year later with a pageant of "Fabulous F.I.S.H." for Dublin's St Patrick's Day Parade.

His wide ranging design work includes the London ‘Hippodrome', 'FERROPOLIS', the City of Steel near Leipzig, and the 1996 lighting of the monumental Thyssen ironworks, which became one of the most photographed attractions in the Rührgebiet in Germany.

In 2005 he created the setting & visuals for the Pink Floyd's memorable return concert at Live 8, also designing the sister G8 concert in Edinburgh. Then, in 2006, he designed the first ever fabulous stage version of Jeff Wayne's ‘The War of the Worlds'.

Julia Preston: Costume Designer/Ward Mistress

Since leaving college, Julia has worked extensively in theatre, television and film as a costume designer and supervisor for companies such as Bourne Leisure,Tussards, Alton Towers, Jean Anne Ryan and Qdos productions.
Her film and television credits include long running Welsh soap Pobol y Cwm, BBC drama First Degree, childrens drama Cawl Potsh for S4C, Peter Greenaways Palm D'or nominated trilogy 'Tulse Luper Suitcases' and Bafta nominated short film 'Heavy Pockets'.
During the past few years Julia has been lucky enough to visit several exotic places whilst working as a costume supervisor on board various cruise liners around the world.
More recently Julia has toured with Sprit of the Dance and with Elaine Paige for her Essential musicals tour.
Julia is delighted to be a part of the Thriller Live company which promises to be a fantastic
show.

Jo Dyce: Assistant to Gary Lloyd

Jo started dancing at the age of 3, where she trained at 'The Dance Studios' in Nottingham. From the age of 11 she was part of 'The Carlton Television Workshop' where she gained the part of Ruby Cherrytree, a featured part in the children's series The Worst Witch.

Theatre Credits include, swing, featured dancer and dance captain in the 'Genius of Ray Charles' (Haymarket Theatre, UK & US Tour, Monte Carlo)

T.V credits include, The Royal Variety Performance, Avenue Of The Stars and The One & Only where she was both a dancer and assistant.

Jo is thrilled to be given this opportunity in assisting and also to work along side Gary again. She would like to thank her family and friends for all their love and support.

BAND

John Maher: Musical Supervisor, Musical Director, Guitar 2, Keyboard 2

After completing a Music degree at the Sydney Conservatorium, John became one of the busiest and most successful Musical Directors in his native Australia. He was MD of RENT, The Rocky Horror Show (8 productions, so far...), Return To The Forbidden Planet, Oh! What A Night, The Complete Millennium Musical, Chair In the Landscape, Lipstick Dreams, Songs From Side Show Alley, Pizza Live On Stage, Who Let The Wogs Out?, Long Gone Lonesome Cowgirls, Virtual Unreality, Ricordi, and many other shows.

Since moving to London in 2002 John has been MD of Dancing In The Streets (West End and European Tour), Hedwig And The Angry Inch (London), Jesus Christ Superstar (Scandinavia), The Next Big Thing, Grease, Departure Lounge, RENT (again!), Rocky Horror (again!!), What A Swell Party (Cyprus) and on the cult hit Dude, Where's My Teddy? (Wimbledon and Edinburgh). He was also one of the regular conductors of the Queen musical We Will Rock You for several years. Other work in the UK and Europe includes Godspell, Fame and Evita (Lebanon), as well as numerous concerts. He has played keyboards and guitar with The Guild Of Thieves (13 piece soul band) and was the guitarist for some time with legendary band The Drifters. In 2007 John was the Music Supervisor and Musical Director of the UK and European tours of Thriller Live.

John also composes music for stage and film. He worked for many years with Australia's national Shakespeare company, Bell Shakespeare. A particular highlight was his score for Steven Berkoff's acclaimed production of Coriolanus. Other scores for Bell included Much Ado About Nothing, The Tempest, and A Midsummer Night's Dream. John also appeared as a live musician in Bell's productions of Twelfth Night and Pericles. Other music for theatre includes Death And Taxes (by Andrew Upton), Ashes To Ashes (with Toni Collette), Paradise, Animalia, Telling Tales, Then The Mountain Comes, Faust's House, Eat Cake, Jingle Belrose, and the ballet scores Of Dust And Men and Thermopylae Revisited.

In 2006 John arranged and conducted the strings for the animated feature film Snow White: The Sequel (narrated by Stephen Fry). He has composed music for many short films, including Jacko, The Bill, Putting Kids First, The Other Half, Trattoria Paradiso, '98, and Love, Mickey.

John also works as a director. His credits in Australia include Miracle City, Angry Penguins, Up The Shops, Meet You At The Mona Lisa and Long Gone Lonesome Cowgirls. In the UK and Europe he has directed Jesus Christ Superstar, Departure Lounge (twice), Hedwig And The Angry Inch (twice), and the wonderful new British show Unzipped - The Ultimate Package Musical.

John was recently the MD of Dream On at the London Palladium, featuring contestants from the hit BBC TV show Any Dream Will Do. He will shortly be directing a workshop production of a wonderful new show with the startling title Everything's F**cked. John is delighted to be back for a third season of Thriller Live.

Mike Guy: Assistant Musical Director, Keyboard 1

Across a professional music career of more than ten years, Mike has been involved in a wide variety of musical genres and performing situations. In conjunction with a busy touring schedule, Mike is also involved in a host of ensemble projects featuring original compositions.
Mike moved to Canberra in 1997 to pursue his musical studies, graduating from the Australian National University in 2000 with a Bachelor of Music (Jazz Studies). During this period he received the Michael Foster Scholarship for up-and-coming students, and performed with a host of local talent including Miroslav Bukovsky ('Wanderlust') and visiting Sydney players.
Mike was also a member of SLIP, a 10-piece ensemble performing original works, with which he performed at the Manly Jazz Festival, Sydney, and the Wangaratta International Jazz Festival in regional Victoria. Mike also composed for this group, which released its self-titled debut album in 2001.
In conjunction with various Jazz involvements during this time in Canberra, Mike was also a key member of local Salsa orquesta 'Mi Tierra', performing at numerous venues around Canberra and Sydney, including the Bacardi Festival at Darling Harbour to an audience of five thousand people.
To further his Australian music career, Mike moved to Melbourne in 2002, where he quickly began performing with a host of local luminaries on the Jazz scene, as well as the vibrant Latin scene, performing with various Salsa orquestas throughout the city and regionally, including the Tropicana Festival in Adelaide in 2004.
During that year, Mike was involved in a number of contemporary ensemble projects, including Anton Delecca's 'The Situationists', a six piece world-jazz ensemble playing entirely original material. Three of Mike's tunes were recorded on their self-titled debut album.
To continue his career on the international stage, Mike spent some time in the Caribbean before moving to London in 2005. To date he has played with a variety of local talent including Carl Orr, Nina Ferro, Richard Shelton, Roberto Pla, and others, and has continued his involvement in various ensemble projects including Organum, a two-saxophone organ band, featuring original compositions by band members.
In May last year, Mike was appointed associate musical director on 'Thriller Live' for it's month-long debut tour throughout the UK and it's second six-week tour of the UK and Scandanavia in September. Throughout this year Mike was also associate musical director on 'Dancing In The Streets', a musical theatre tribute to Motown, on it's six-month tour of the UK and Germany.
In addition to a busy touring schedule, Mike performs regularly at a host of venues in central London, including The Spice Of Life, Oxo Tower, The Black Gardenia, and others.

Damien Cooper: Guitar 1

Damien Cooper is a guitarist from Sydney, Australia. He began playing guitar at 12 and was touring the country circuit by age 14 before studying guitar with renowned Aussie guitarist Jim Kelly. After 20 years of playing and touring around Australasia with acts covering styles from jazz to rock to cabaret Damien relocated to London. Since then he has worked on Jesus Christ Superstar, Hegwig and the Angry Inch, Godspell and as a session player with many other original artists recently including Son Veneno, and Hip Hop MC Mystro.

Oliver Latka: Bass

After graduating from the Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts (Lipa) in 1999, Oliver has worked as a bass player on many theatre productions. Shows include Dream On (London Palladium), Dancing In The Streets (UK & European tour), Rocky Horror Show (UK tour & West End), Promises, Promises (Crucible Theatre, Sheffield), Hedwig And The Angry Inch (London), Fame (UK tour), Jesus Christ Superstar (Scandinavian tour), Footloose (UK tour), Summer Holiday (UK tour), Tonight (Oslo, with Norwegian Radio Symphony Orchestra), and Rent (London & UK tour).

Mike Bradley: Drums

UK-based drummer Mike Bradley is much in demand both on the pop/funk session and jazz scene in the UK and internationally. He is featured on the albums of international artists Natalie Cole and David Cassidy as well as numerous jazz albums comprising his own original material.

He is and has frequently been first call for many of London's leading big bands and several West End shows, including Dirty Dancing, Rat Pack, Dancing in the Streets, the Genius of Ray Charles, Jesus Christ Superstar, Soul Train, Blood Brothers and Hedwig and the Angry Inch.

Mike is currently working extensively in London and Europe with several leading jazz vocalists and with John Etheridge's Frank Zappa tribute band, Zappatistas. This follows a worldwide tour with the acclaimed jazz close harmony group the Swingle Singers (USA, Asia, Europe), a UK tour with pop singer Rick Astley and appearances supporting Mike Stern in Austria.

In 1989 he co-founded the popular fusion band Roadside Picnic, making two critically acclaimed albums and appearing at the Montreux Jazz Festival. The band featured jazz saxophonist Dave O'Higgins, with whom he went on to form the award-winning band Gang Of Three with virtuoso bassist Laurence Cottle.

Mike has worked closely over two decades with some of the world's greatest jazz musicians, notably Mark Murphy, Georgie Fame, Ronnie Scott, Rosemary Clooney, John Dankworth and Cleo Laine, Acoustic Alchemy, Ernestine Anderson, Nelson Rangell, Andy Sheppard, Claire Martin and Jason Rebello.

Mike is also an extremely popular artist at major jazz festivals in both the UK and Europe and after 20 years on the scene he continues to delight both jazz and rock audiences alike.

Matthew Green: Percussion, Keyboard 3

Born in Norfolk, Matthew Green began his musical training at the age of three. At sixteen he attended Colchester Institute School of Music to study A Levels and later a BA Hons Degree, on the way winning competitions for solo and ensemble playing. Matthew obtained a place to study at Birmingham Conservatoire, where he gained a Post Graduate Diploma in Performance with Distinction. During his education, Matthew was a member of the Britten-Pears Orchestra for six seasons where he held the principal timpani chair for five of them.
Matthew is freelancing around the country and has played with such orchestras/ensembles as City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, English Symphony Orchestra, Birmingham Opera, Birmingham Contemporary Music Group, Northern Sinfonia, Nash Ensemble, Endymion Ensemble and worked in theatre on productions with The Rep Theatre Birmingham and Music Theatre Wales. He is also a regular musician with the Royal Shakespeare Company. Matthew has worked on shows including Jesus Christ Superstar, ABBA The Show and of course Thriller Live.
Matthew took over as musical director of the Alvechurch samba band, Banda Sem Nome, in February 2003. He is in demand as a band trainer and workshop leader within the samba community. In 2004, Matthew worked with Ravi Shankar at the Dartington Summer Festival on a new project collaborating between Eastern and Western musicians. In 2006 Matthew joined the UK's leading nasheed group, SHAAM.
With Simon Limbrick, Matthew set up Ritmatic Percussion Ensemble for the purpose of playing new styles of percussion music and educational projects. Ritmatic have just released their first album, RITMATIK. For more information about Ritmatic or Matthew himself please visit http://www.mattgreen.org.uk/

Crew & Suppliers

Company Manager: Adrian Basketfield
Production Manager: Martin Rodwell
Deputy Stage Manager: Becky Potts
Front Of House Engineer: Simon King
Backline Technician and Systems Technician: Aaran Buck
Wardrobe Master: Johnny Palmer
Wardrobe Assistant: Margerita King
Wigs Mistress: Jessica Plews
Lighting Operator: "Dangerous" Dave Tozer
Lighting Rigger: Leo Tierney
Sound Supplied by John Saunders Productions
Trucks supplied by Frank McGuinness for McGuinness Forwarding
Lighting Supplied by Stage Electrics
LED Screen supplied by GLUX AC TECH
Crew transport supplied by Mike Carter 
Press and PR: PPR Publicity: 020 8746 4600
Artwork Design: Huw Jenkins of Snow: 020 8613 6111
Advertising: Sold Out: 020 7704 0409