Ignatius Jones A.M. 24 October 1957 – 7 May 2024
Ignatius Jones died after a short illness at his home in the Philippines on May 7 2024, aged 67.
HLA Management had the honour of representing Ignatius Jones for close to four decades. Ignatius had a distinguished career as a performer followed by an inimitable career as a creator and director of entertainment events both in Australia and abroad. It would be near impossible to find an Australian who has not witnessed an event that Ignatius has been involved in creating.
In the early eighties, Ignatius Jones was best known for being the lead singer and front man in one of the most popular and outrageous live acts at the time, Jimmy and the Boys. In 1981 the band achieved a top 10 single (Not Like Everybody Else). The band known for their shock rock antics, cemented Ignatius’ guise into the psyche of young Australians. In the mid-eighties Ignatius changed his stage persona completely and teamed up with his sister Monica Trapaga to form the stylish swing-jazz cabaret band Pardon Me Boys. The band were hugely successful, touring nationally and appearing regularly at festivals, on television and at corporate events. It was during this period that the publishers McPhee Gribble commissioned Ignatius to write two books entitled True Hip (1990) and The 1992 True Hip Manual. Both best sellers providing humorous explorations on how to be both stylish and successful in the 1990’s. During this period, Ignatius also received a platinum record for his recording on the soundtrack of Strictly Ballroom while also working as a journalist with RAM (Rock Australia Magazine), The Edge and Stiletto Magazine. He also acted in films, Those Dear Departed 1987; Pandemonium 1988 and was a presenter on the SBS-TV series Culture Shock. In 1992 Ignatius was appointed the first Artistic Director for the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras. A position he proudly held for many years.
In 1994 Ignatius teamed up with Ric Birch from Spectak Productions and his career path shifted from being a stage performer to being a man behind the scenes who created and directed unforgettable events. His first role with Spectak was to devise and direct the Dixie Stampede for Dolly Parton’s rodeo theatres across the southern parts of the United States. Ignatius’ production was awarded a Best Entertainment of the Year Award in the US. Following on from this, Ignatius went on to be the Artistic Director of the opening celebrations for the Crown Entertainment Centre precinct in Melbourne.
By 1997 Ignatius’ talent to produce large scale events was recognised and he was appointed the Artistic Director of the City of Sydney New Year’s Eve Celebrations. He held this position for 6 years. During his tenure, his drive and dedication revamped the harbour foreshore and surrounding areas into a place where people flocked to participate in the newly introduced family orientated annual celebrations. New Year’s Eve in Sydney became the biggest annual event in Australia, where even the world tuned in to view the pyrotechnics display that was taken to a new level under Ignatius’ direction. In this role he was also responsible for the unforgettable City of Sydney New Year’s Eve Millennium Celebrations where he devised the giant Eternity effect for the Sydney Harbour Bridge. In 2001 when the nation was celebrating Federation, the bridge was adorned with the Federation Star which was intertwined with the Indigenous Rainbow Serpent. Ignatius’ vision and design for this event encapsulated a unique and subtle understanding of Australia’s cultural diversity.
Sydney hosted the Olympic Games in 2000. Ignatius was at the centre of developing several of the most memorable spectacles for the Opening and Closing Ceremonies. Ignatius wrote and directed the inspirational Man From Snowy River sequence based on the Banjo Patterson poem that involved 121 horses charging into the Homebush stadium accompanied by a fan fare of musicians and a choir of thousands. The Opening Ceremony of the Sydney Olympics was the biggest television event of all time with an estimated audience of 3 billion. Ignatius was also the Artistic Director of the Harbour Spectacular for the Olympic Closing Ceremony which involved the River Lighting effect travelling from Homebush Bay to Sydney Harbour and eventually reaching the Harbour Bridge where the erected Olympic Rings erupted for 10 seconds and then literally exploded marking the closure of the Games. – the moment received front-page coverage from The New York Times as “Aussie Olympics go out with a bang!”
In May 2002 Ignatius was one of the few directors ever to direct the “opening night of a country”, when he staged the Independence Ceremonies of the Democratic Republic of East Timor in May 2002, at the invitation of Nobel Laureate José Ramos-Horta and President Xanana Gusmão. This ceremony, to mark the birth of the world’s newest nation, was attended by 175,000 people and over 40 world leaders, including Kofi Annan, John Howard, Megawati Sukarnoputri, Bill Clinton, and the presidents of Portugal, Angola, Cape Verde and Mozambique. The event featured indigenous cultural components from all Timor’s 13 districts, massed choirs, indigenous equestrian and dancing displays, contemporary, classical and traditional music, and mass choreography from 3,000 schoolchildren and 2,000 tribesmen and women. The following day Ignatius and his team staged the official Opening and Swearing-In of the Timorese Parliament. Taking place both inside and outside the country’s new state-of-the-art Parliament Building, the ceremony was attended by many of the VVIPs who attended the previous night’s Ceremony, and was also beamed around the world.
On his return from East Timor Ignatius plunged into another large and innovative project: Man From Snowy River —The Arena Spectacular, which he wrote, devised and directed with his Olympic colleague David Atkins. Snowy achieved several “firsts”: with a cast of over 250, 47 horses and two dogs, it was the largest commercial theatre event in Australian history — and the first such ‘arena’ event to be entirely Australian in conception, execution, and content. Snowy was also a resounding commercial success, playing return seasons in all the major capital cities, while the soundtrack received an ARIA Award for Best Soundtrack Album 2002.
Ignatius also directed the Opening and Closing Ceremonies of the Sydney 2002 Gay Games, the sixth international Gay Games and the biggest sporting event in Australia since the Olympics. The Opening Ceremony, featured international artists kd lang and Jimmy Somerville, 14,000 athletes and 2,500 volunteer performers — and was described by the Sydney Morning Herald’s Bryce Hallett as “…a triumph… thoughtful, historic, stylish and jubilant… an absolutely fabulous night.” Ignatius received the 2003 Sydney Star Observer Pride Week Award for Best Event for the Sydney 2002 Gay Games Opening Ceremony. He was also awarded the Sydney Gay & Lesbian Business Association’s inaugural award for Eminent businessperson for Services to the Community.
In 2003 Ignatius directed Offenbach’s Orpheus In The Underworld for the Australian Opera, which the Sydney Morning Herald’s Peter McCallum described as “… with its non-stop invention, ubiquitous fireworks and every trick post-millennial Sydney could throw at it… It triumphantly came together…” while Michael Easton in the Melbourne Herald-Sun described it as “…outstanding, totally irreverent, hilarious. An Orpheus for all.” Ignatius received a 2004 Australian Green Room Award nomination for Best Director of an Opera, for Orpheus in the Underworld. Ignatius also devised, and co-wrote a new translation of Orpheus from the French, with colleagues Philip Scott and Jonathan Biggins. The three of them received an AWGIE Award for Best Adaptation of a Dramatic Work from the Australian Writers’ Guild.
In 2005 Ignatius also wrote and devised The Australian Outback Spectacular, an AUD$23 million arena attraction for Warner-Village Theme Parks on Australia’s Gold Coast. The show opened in April 2006 to great acclaim, and has been consistently sold out ever since.
In January 2005, Ignatius produced the Jeddah Economic Forum in Saudia Arabia (Feb 19-21, 2005), the largest corporate event of its kind in the Middle East. Speakers included Madeleine Albright, Zbigniew Brzezinski, Afghan PM Hamid Karzai, Nigerian PM Olusegun Obasanjo, Egyptian First Lady Suzanne Mubarak, President of Senegal Abdulaye Wade, Czech President Vaçlav Klaus, Pakistani PM Shawkat Aziz, Prince Sultan bin Salman (Saudi Minister for Tourism and Education, and the first Arab in space), Malaysian PM Abdullah Badawi, and Prince Andrew of Great Britain.
In 2006 Ignatius was appointed Artistic Director of the Ceremonies of the 2006 Asian Games in Doha, Qatar. An Olympic event, the Asian Games are the largest sporting event after the Summer Olympics, and the Ceremonies were watched by an estimated 3 billion people, across Asia and the world. The Ceremonies were the first truly multi-media Olympic event ever staged and featured a 120m wide by 45m high LED screen – not only the largest LED screen ever attempted, but also the largest lighting device in history (until the screen created in Shanghai). The Ceremonies also featured the world’s first ‘kinetic’ cauldron, a massive sculptural device that never stopped moving and rotating, and evoked both the rings of an atom and the planetary orbits of our solar system.
In 2010 Ignatius Jones was appointed Artistic Director of the Opening Ceremony of World Expo 2010 Shanghai China, the largest major event in peacetime history, as well as Artistic Director of the Ceremonies of Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games, which featured ground-breaking technological innovations, including the largest scenic projection set-up ever attempted. The Vancouver Opening Ceremony was awarded three Emmy Awards, for best direction, best lighting and best music. The Shanghai event featured an unheard-of set-up of 12,000 7-kilowatt full-colour searchlights, 12 x 16-watt and 4 x 23-watt full-colour lasers, a choreographed parade of 240 catamarans on the Huangpu river, an LED screen 280m wide and 40m high, and approximately 12 times the number of fireworks fired on a Sydney New Year’s Eve celebration over a quarter of the space. Together, the Shanghai and Vancouver Ceremonies were the two biggest events in 2010, and both were directed by Ignatius Jones.
In 2011 Ignatius Jones was appointed Executive Producer of the Vivid Sydney Festival – the annual festival of light music and ideas. Ignatius was immediately elevated to Creative Director. His inspirational vision and ability to reinvent this festival annually, enabled the festival to grow considerably each year. A new attendance record was achieved in 2017 while Ignatius was at the helm, with 2.33 million people attending the festival, contributing over $143million to the New South Wales economy.
Ignatius Jones achievements in the field of entertainment have been abundant. Ignatius was deservedly appointed a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) for significant service to entertainment, as a writer, director, author, and performer in the 2019 Australia Day Honours.
Ignatius was a passionate innovator when it came to large scale events. His talents were in demand internationally however he always returned to Australia as he had an undying determination and commitment to celebrate Australia’s cultural identity through his work.
Ignatius proudly developed and poignantly articulated our nation’s identity through his large scale events. His prodigious talent as a performer, ascended to even greater heights as a creator of mass spectacle events – yet with all the accolades bestowed upon him, Iggy remained a devoted son, a loving brother, committed husband and dear friend.
Vale Ignatius Jones
