FEATURE: Meet the man who makes things go bang

Wednesday 22 April 2020

Making things go bang has been something James Bevis has been doing since he was very young.

Like many of us, the founder and owner of Starbust Fireworks has always been fascinated by fireworks, and it was as a nine-year-old when his grandfather, Bernie, took him to buy his first fireworks that he got the bug.

“I clearly remember all the flash-bangs, the cracker jumpers, and those sort of memories will always live with me. The fires were lit then and here we are now.”

And where we are when we are having this conversation is deep underground, in a converted bunker that’s ideally suited for storing explosives. I was warned that should there be a fire, not to hang around, and to head for the exit sharpish. 

Pictured: James stores the explosives in a converted bunker. (Gary Grimshaw)

Starburst Fireworks is very much James’ baby, but he also has other business interests. There’s a landscape gardening business called Rent-a-Husband, and he runs Practical Pond Solutions. Just as well, because the fireworks business can be insanely busy, but it can also be very quiet during the autumn and winter months. 

But there is a little more to why James feels it necessary to make sure he has alternative income streams. People still want firework displays, but there are a very vocal group that complain whenever anything is let off.  

“It’s harder now, we’ve got a lot of issues. You are probably aware of the dog forums kicking off about noise. It’s caused us a lot of issues, but we really aren’t the problem.

“I’ve been working with animals all my life, horses, cats, pigs, cows. I know animals react, but the sheer furore over the last few years on social forums is just not acceptable and is very unfair.”

Pictured: Starburst Fireworks is very much James’ baby. (Gary Grimshaw)

He explains how the company goes out of its way to tell people when and where displays are due to happen, advertising on radio and on social media.

Many of the comments on social media are concentrated in the weeks and days around Bonfire Night, when members of the public can buy fireworks in shops. I often wonder what would happen if I posted on one of the forums I follow, asking if there is a group for dog owners whose dogs quite like fireworks.

Maybe I will, just to see what comes back. But one wonders what pet owners and others who are genuinely affected by the loud bangs did before social media came along.

As far as general sales of fireworks to the public are concerned, James can sell all-year-round - but he only sells those that meet EU guidance on noise.

“They don’t need anything above 120 db. They’ll still get their bangs, there’s no problem there, but we don’t want them to be above that level because the European Directive is set at 120. Jersey is not part of Europe and doesn’t follow that, but we have willingly reduced that down to 120 dB for shop sales.”

Pictured: James says the fireworks industry has been working to reduce its impact on the environment. (Gary Grimshaw)

The Justice and Home Affairs Department is reviewing the law on fireworks and the results of a public consultation are due about now. Currently, shop sales to the general public are confined to the two weeks leading up to Bonfire Night but that could change to include other dates that coincide with national celebrations such as New Year’s Eve, Liberation Day and Diwali.

A ban on fireworks during ‘night hours’ – that’s from 23:00 until 07:00 – could also be on the cards. James is hoping this will reduce the volume on some of the forums.

Concerns about the environment are never far from people’s lips and James is more relaxed about that, and talks about how hard the industry has been working to reduce its impact. 

“There are very few plastic components in fireworks now. Most of them are pressed cardboard which degrades over a period of time to nothing. As regards emissions and oxidising chemicals, all the perchlorates are now gone. That’s banned under a European Directive. We don’t have any fireworks with perchlorates in now. 

“Our fireworks are right up there with good, proper, safe products. Yes, they produce smoke, of course they do. But there’s nothing like what you would see from car emissions, for instance. It doesn’t even register on the scale.”

Pictured: The year is shaping up to be a busy one with lots of public and private displays planned. (Gary Grimshaw)

Leaving all that aside, the year is shaping up to be a busy one with lots of public and private displays planned. 

“We’ve got some cracking places. St. Ouen’s Manor, for instance, where we’re doing the Liberation Show. It’s going to be a big one and we’re going heavily on the red, white and blue theme; and the red and white theme of course. So, it’ll end with the British coming to rescue us, hence the red, white and blue. But we’ll have the Jersey colours in there as well. And with the backdrop of the Manor, it’ll look fantastic.”

The company employs nine people, including James’ son who is the only full-time employee. They come from different backgrounds, some are former firefighters, soldiers or bankers, all of whom James trusts 100%. 

“We can fire four displays at any one time in Jersey. I prefer to fire three, but we could fire four. We’ve got enough guys qualified to do that. That’s the beauty of having a disciplined team. You can say, ‘Right, you go here, you go there,’ they know what they are doing, and I can just sit back.”  

Pictured: James is authorised and insured to train his staff. (Gary Grimshaw)

But he isn’t really sitting back. It’s a bit of a joke among the team, but James suffers terribly from stage fright.

“Prior to a show I am freaking out, because I’m thinking, ‘have we staked this, have we tied that, has that been wired in properly.’ My mind is just racing. But the minute the ‘go’ happens, you’ll never see a calmer person. Nothing will faze me. I’m totally focused on the show. 

“Some of the other lads will suffer afterwards. They’ll start shaking and that’s the adrenaline. They know that they’ve produced a safe show, and nothing’s gone wrong, but at the end of the day, once you light the fuse, you lose control. So, we have to do what we do very responsibly. You’ve got to be switched on.”  

James is authorised and insured to train his staff, but he likes to send them away as well, so that he can show his people have had professional training elsewhere. That’s expensive of course, but worth it to prove that his staff have some of the highest qualifications attainable. 

Pictured: James says one of the difficult parts of the job is knowing when to cancel a show. (Gary Grimshaw)

One of the difficult parts of the job is knowing when to cancel a show. The weather being what it is, holding a display on November 5^th can be touch-and-go. 

“I have control, as do any of my staff, and if they feel that they have to pull a show they’ll do it. And they’ll get 100% support from the directors for doing that. The last thing I want is someone getting hurt and it’s difficult, really difficult. 

“Sometimes we’ll be firing a show and we’re not happy with the drop of a certain firework, let’s say it’s Golden Rain, and we don’t like what it’s doing. We’ll pull them out and we’ll stick with Comets, or whatever’s going on. We build other things into the show, like fail safes, so the customer gets their money’s worth.” 

Things like a change in the wind direction are more predictable. But it’s the more unexpected things that make the best stories, such as what happened when an unseen bystander suddenly wanted to crash the party. 

“We were doing a beach show at a wedding in St. Brelade’s Bay and with the best will in the world you think you’ve got it covered - when some guy underneath the seawall in the shadows runs towards the fireworks. I shouted out ‘John, get him!’ And John’s running and rugby tackles this guy on the beach.

"The entire wedding party stopped watching the fireworks, watching these two tussling on the floor. These are the things that can happen.”

Pictured: The Battle of Flowers display is fired from the Normandy Trader, is a former military landing craft. (Gary Grimshaw)

Every job is different - a straight forward wedding one day, a short but stomach-churning sea trip in a force six wind to reach the mooring in St. Aubin’s Bay to fire the Battle of Flowers display on another.  

The boat they use, the Normandy Trader, is a former military landing craft, designed to operate in war zones. On one memorable night, the fire service asked to come out to observe a display being fired from sea.

It was a still night, and as the 10- and 12-inch shells went up, those on board felt the 18,000 pounds per-square-inch ‘down force’ produced when large professional fireworks leave a confined space. 

“The fire service guys absolutely loved it. They said to me at the end, ‘We have never been inside a firestorm before,’ because they could feel the vacuum. As the shell leaves the gun, it takes the air with it. And because you are ‘danger close,’ you get this massive thump in your chest.”

Pictured: Every job is different for James. (Gary Grimshaw)

Another memorable job involved rigging a marital bedroom for a bride and groom with confetti bombs which had to be fired at, shall we say, the critical moment. Happily, it all went to plan, but it involved the parents, guests, hotel management and James listening from the corridor for the right moment.

“They both screamed. He ran out the bedroom door into the corridor in panic. All you heard was loads of expletives. He ran back in and the two of them were screaming with laughter. Everyone had their phones out; my stress levels were through the roof because I couldn’t see, and I had to go on pure faith that they were in the bed and not on the sideboard where we’d set up all the confetti.”

One of the more sensitive sides of the business, and something that’s becoming increasingly popular, is fulfilling someone’s final wish. There’s the ‘Peaceful Goodbye’ which is a relatively quiet show where someone’s ashes are launched in a rocket, and there’s the louder and most popular one called ‘Going Out with a Bang.’

Pictured: James has been fascinated with fireworks since a young age. (Gary Grimshaw)

“It can be very emotional. One we did was a fisherman who came here on holiday with his wife and family every year. He always fished down at St. Aubin. In his will he wanted to go up in a firework over St. Aubin’s Fort and that’s exactly what he got.

“Everyone knew about it, because you know what Jersey is like, the word spreads and everyone was coming out of the restaurants. It was wonderful. But Facebook lit up and they were all moaning about it. But I can’t say on Facebook that we were doing a funeral. They just think it’s somebody having a good time. Well they were. It was their last good time.” 

This article first appeared in Connect Magazine, which you can read by clicking HERE.