| Obituary
John Simpson 1942 - 2022
We remember the Founder of Whitelight Earlier this year, we found ourselves saying goodbye to our Founder and former Chairman, John Simpson, following a short battle of cancer. One of the most renowned and influential figures in our entire industry, John was as a warm, kind and approachable individual; one who never believed in hierarchies and had time and respect for everyone he met. He was also an incredibly generous and selfless individual, as seen with his tireless work for Back-Up, and leaves behind him a lasting legacy filled with amazing achievements – with one of these being what he accomplished with White Light. John was born in 1942 in Devizes, Wiltshire. After leaving school, he found himself working a variety of ‘ordinary’ jobs, varying from a finance role in the city to working on building sites to even being a specialist teacher. He would eventually join the Arts Council as a Trainee Administrator before being
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appointed General Manager at a range of different theatre venues, including Watford Palace Theatre, Glasgow’s Citizens Theatre and the Royal Court Theatre in London – which is where WL’s journey really starts. It was at the Royal Court where John would meet Chief Electrician Andy Phillips and Rory Dempster and the three soon saw a gap in the market for theatre shows that required additional lighting. As such, alongside Angela Fox and David Henderson, they formed White Light – a name based on Andy’s preferred lighting style (although there were rumours it was also linked to John being colourblind). Following this, John would then go out and max his credit card (much to his mother’s dismay) to the tune of £350, which would purchase 16 Patt 23s and 16 Patt 123s, along with some cable and accessories. And whilst John’s mother may
have disapproved of this initial spending, it would soon prove to be a sound investment. Based in a tiny office round the corner of Sloane Square, there was clearly a very big need for a company like WL as many shows would immediately draw on their services – with one of these being a production at the Royal Court Upstairs called The Rocky Horror Show. Only supposed to have a limited run, the show became an unexpected smash and quickly transferred to the Kings Road Cinema, which John had to help convert into a theatre in less than a week! The show ran there for several years and John worked as its General Manager, in a quid-proquo understanding with the producer Michael White that John could use the theatre basement to store his lighting inventory! John would also always note how the original show was run on an 18 way Mini 2 preset with 106 cues in 98 minutes nonstop and that he still had the cue sheets somewhere; although these Set & Light | Autumn 2022
