SOME firework displays are being cancelled this year following the atrocity at the New York Trade Center. But in St Albans the Abbey display will go ahead - as you might expect when its organiser is a former major in the Territorial Army.

"To cancel would just be letting the terrorists win, really," says Tom Dixon who has been organising the hugely popular event for the past 20 years.

"I was originally roped in by the then Sub Dean Colin Slee, now the Dean of Southwark. He said to me 'You're in the TA aren't you, know about things that go bang - you can organise our firework display'.

"At the first one we just had a couple of thousand people and we got loads of fireworks and let them off ourselves. It was very amateur.

"But because Verulamium is such an ideal venue and the Cathedral encouraged it by putting money in, like Topsy it growed."

It certainly did. He is expecting between 15-20,000 people on Saturday November 3 to what is now one of the biggest Guy Fawkes nights in the South East, and the spectacular 30-minute display of £16,000 worth of fireworks will be staged by local professionals Fantastic Fireworks, as it has been for the past 12 years.

"We were their first big contract when they set up and they have always been extremely good to us even though we are now relatively small in their world agenda," said Mr Dixon.

Even though it is Fantastic who now light the blue touch paper and stand well back, Mr Dixon and his helpers still have plenty to do. His team of 175 volunteers, mainly scouts, Rotary and Lions Club, administer the site, light the causeway and guide people to the six entrance points.

As he says, it is an amazing site for a son-et-lumiere. The fireworks are set up between the river and the lake. The spectators stand safely on the far side of the lake and see the fireworks cascading stars and glitter in the night sky over the Abbey.

Originally the event was organised by the social club at St Albans City Hospital to encourage people not to run the risk of being burned by letting off fireworks in their own back gardens.

"After the Abbey got involved, they called it the Body and Soul display," said Mr Dixon. He was asked to take over the organisation following the demise of the hospital.

"The driving force has always been a safety thing. It is not designed to make money, over the years we have made a surplus for charity but we try to keep prices very low to encourage people to come, £3 for adults and £1 for children - where else could a child see £16,000 worth of fireworks for £1?"

Last year they raised £18,000. This year the surplus will go to the Macmillan fund following the tragic death through cancer in February of Julia Foster, wife of Canon Chris Foster who will be ordained as Bishop of Hertford the weekend of the display.

As a safety measure it has paid off, too. There is a very low incidence of mishaps in St Albans district on Bonfire Night.

Tom Dixon feels it is his military, rather than his explosives, experience with the TA that qualifies him for organising St Albans' firework spectacular, but he certainly detonated his share of bombs during 33 years as a spare time soldier ending in 1997.

He began in the Royal Marines reserve because he had considered joining them as a full time career while at university but decided against it.

He transferred to the Royal Artillery - "hence knowing about things that go bang" - and was in Naval Gunfire Support as an army liaison officer on board ship to co-ordinate their fire with operations on shore, work carried out by specialist unit 148 Commando Battery.

As a TA officer he had the excitement of taking part in practice exercises in places like Belize or Norway without being in the front line - but that does not mean he's never faced danger. On firing ranges he's been called in to destroy "blinds " - bombs that fail to go off - and has handled plenty of explosives.

At the firework night they will have Smiths funfair, as usual, and the Mercury FM Roadshow - but this year Mr Dixon has put in a special request. He wants the musical background to the display to be Beethoven's Ode to Joy. "They performed it at the Last Night of the Proms and I feel it is a sort of link to events in America."

October 23, 2001 18:07

Susan Novak