BRADFORD, U.K. – Michael “Mick” Anthony Thornton, lighting/ production designer and tour manager, died Nov. 25, 2021 just short of his 57th birthday. Thornton was most known for his many years touring with The Moody Blues, along with The Cure, Black Sabbath, Bruce Dickinson, Slayer, Opeth, Roger Daltrey, Thin Lizzy, Alice Cooper, Gipsy Kings, Judas Priest, Andrea Bocelli and many others.
Thornton was based in Bradford in West Yorkshire, England. He spent much of his life there, including his years as a student at Bradford Art College, where his studies in graphic design and photography earned him a National Diploma in 1983.
He began his career in the industry as a lighting tech at Prism Lighting from 1984-1990, while he also started his lighting design business as Mick Thornton Designs from 1984 to 2021.
In 2008 Bradford College celebrated its 175-year anniversary by hosting an exhibit featuring the successes of 175 of its former students. Thornton was honored, and provided the following story about his career start:
“I often wonder what direction my life would have run if I had continued my studies in graphic design,” Thornton wrote. “But I left college and met a very special guy named Robb Heaton, who was the drummer in a band called New Model Army. They were touring Europe in a mini bus and needed a light/crew guy. He said that he had seen me dancing at Pickwick’s and that I was artistic. A simple ‘do you fancy coming on tour and having a go?’ The following day I set off for Scandinavia, followed by Japan. I remember looking out of the airplane window with a large vodka and tonic and seeing the Great Wall of China and thinking not many people from my life would ever see this. Sentimental old dog! But a great experience.”
Thornton continued, “And many more were to come my way, from watching Ozzy being coaxed on stage in Brazil to having breakfast with Alice Cooper in Germany and hearing his stories about the good bad old days. At 44 I have travelled around the world countless times with hundreds of acts and feel very fortunate to have met and worked with the people I still continue to respect and love. It has got harder being away now that I have a beautiful wife and son. I try and arrange as much design work (AutoCAD) and media server design which I work from home, but this year I am away about eight months of the year.”
In 2013, Thornton became creative director of We Are Art, located in the Victorian model village of Saltaire in Bradford. While there, he looked after the talents of those who needed artist management and retail help for their artwork.
Bandit Lites’ Dizzy Gosnell says he got the text at 5 a.m. on Nov. 26 about Thornton’s passing on the previous day, Thanksgiving, from Mark Hogue, production manager for the Moody Blues. He quickly called back to find out more. Gosnell told PLSN, “We (Bandit) first started working with Mick when he was the LD for Alice Cooper. That was our first year working with Cooper, a long sought after tour by Michael Golden, Michael Strickland and myself as we are all die hard Alice fans from the ’70s. After that tour ended, Mick was offered the job of LD for the Moody Blues and worked with them for about 18 years until they called a halt to touring. I worked with Mick on dozens of projects, both for U.S. or just European tours.”
Hogue, who is also grieving the recent loss of Moody Blues drummer Graeme Edge, told PLSN, “Mick was a wonderfully talented man. And a good friend.”
PLSN was a friend to Thornton, and conducted the following short On The Road interview in 2018 onsite during the Moody Blues concert in Texas:
Gosnell provided a video of the hit “School’s Out” featuring Thornton’s work on Alice Cooper’s Brutal Planet Tour in 2000:
