EM-CON NOTTS HIT BY STAR WARS CANCELLATIONS

This weekend saw the return of the much-delayed EM-Con Nottingham convention, taking place at the Nottingham Motorpoint Arena. Previously running events in both Derby and Worcester, EM-Con’s roster is currently limited to their main event in Nottingham and, despite several delays due to the pandemic, the show was able to retain many of its previously announced guests. In fact, several big-name guests were even added to the original line-up during the enforced delay. The guest list included names from franchises such as Game of Thrones, Doctor Who, Power Rangers, Lord of the Rings, James Bond, Harry Potter and, as always, there was room for a few Star Wars guests.

Sequel-era Chewbacca, Joonas Suotamo, was listed to make a rare UK convention appearance at the show alongside sequel-era R2-D2, Jimmy Vee. The original trilogy was also represented with convention favourite, puppeteer Mike Quinn. Other signers announced included Rogue One’s Guy Henry, and The Mandalorian’s Richard Brake. For Star Wars video game fans, Battlefront II voice talent Mark Rowley was also signing.

In addition to on-screen stars, artists Sheikh Islam and Rich Perotta were also appearing at the show. Rich Perotta is an artist with credits including the Star Wars Droids series from Dark Horse in the mid-90s. Sheikh Islam has worked on various licensed card sets for TOPPS, including Lucasfilm-approved Star Wars artwork.

Unfortunately, the show suffered severely from guest cancellations. Joonas Suotamo, Guy Henry and Richard Brake all cancelled with Brake cancelling on the day of the show. Outside of Star Wars, Catherine Tate and Kevin McNally also cancelled close to the show date.

The convention is based at the Motorpoint Arena in the heart of the city of Nottingham, one of the East Midland’s biggest event venues. Travelling to the venue by car was relatively easy and there is ample parking local to the arena. Unfortunately due to venue rules, food or drink was not allowed to be taken in to the arena, even water in drinking flasks, so no chance to save a few pounds for autographs by taking your own snacks.

With regard to Covid measures – the venue sent out an e-mail to all attendees prior to the event explaining their current policies. All measures such as masks and track-and-trace logins were advisory rather than mandatory – although testing prior to the event was recommended. These fairly relaxed measures meant the event felt very much like a pre-pandemic convention.

Although queue management outside of the venue was slightly confusing; once the show opened, getting though security and ticket checks went smoothly. Some of the merch stalls and guest artists were set up on the concourse around the arena but the majority of the show was located on the arena floor. The layout allowed lots of room to move around and browse the merchandise stalls. One frequent criticism of convention organisers is that there is often limited seating available at cons – meaning that people end up sitting on the floor. With a venue that has over 9,000 seating capacity you would think that this wouldn’t be a problem but unfortunately most of the seats weren’t accessible and I did see a few complaints about this online.

The show had an unusual setup for their autograph zone with all the guest tables arranged in a circle in a small area just off the main arena floor. There was no real queue management in place but luckily relatively low attendance numbers meant things didn’t get too crazy.

With Joonas Suatamo and Guy Henry cancelling, my planned Star Wars pickups were limited to Mike Quinn. Mike had a large selection of Nien Nunb table images from both the original trilogy and sequel-eras. I was getting images some of Mike’s less well-known characters signed – Sullustan pilot Ten Numb (cut scene from Return of the Jedi); Loj Nella, and Ghoel – both from Jabba’s palace. Mike explained how he and Anthony Daniels had a whole routine worked out between Threepio and the Ghoel puppet but this was cut due to being too comedic. We also talked about how he has continued the Henson tradition of having specific autographs for each character’s name.

Jimmy Vee had a wide selection of table images as R2-D2 and his other roles in Doctor Who and Harry Potter. I noted that Mark Rowley didn’t seem to have any Star Wars Battlefront images on his table so if you are collecting video game autographs you might want to bring your own images to any future signings he does.

Outside of Star Wars guests, I also met John Rhys-Davies, famous, among many other things, for playing Sallah in the Indiana Jones movies, which is often considered Star Wars’ ‘sister franchise’. John was on good form as usual. I had to leave before his talk but many people online have commented that it was a highlight of the con. Danny John-Jules, most famous for playing Cat in sci-fi sitcom Red Dwarf, signed an image from Lucas-produced film Labyrinth where he lent his dance and vocal talents to some of the Firey creatures.

I also met Tony Way who currently features in Ricky Gervais’ Netflix comedy series After Life. Tony signed an image from Game of Thrones where he played Ser Dontos Hollard; and an image from his bit-part in cult geek comedy Spaced. Tony was great to chat to and commented on the Rogue One t-shirt I was wearing. He reported that he filmed a part as an x-wing pilot in Rogue One (all cockpit scenes) but his part was entirely cut from the movie. So, if you are an ultra-completist he’s someone you may want to meet if you get the chance.

I will be at @emconcouk all weekend! Signing, chatting, posing for pics and all that good stuff. See you there! https://t.co/cColbJ0wZp
— Tony Way – Bloke Off The Telly (+ films) (@tonypaulway) August 27, 2021

Rates for Star Wars guests were posted on the EM-Con website as follows:

Joonas Suotamo – Autograph £30, Photoshoot £30 CANCELLED

Jimmy Vee – Autograph £25, Photoshoot £25

Mark Rowley – Autograph £25, Photoshoot £25

Richard Brake – Autograph £20, Photoshoot £25 CANCELLED

Guy Henry – Autograph £20, Photoshoot £20 CANCELLED

Mike Quinn – Autograph £20, Photoshoot £20

In addition to autograph guests, there were the usual photoshoots and talks. On the convention floor there was also a replica of Short Circuit’s Johnny 5, a DeLorean photo opportunity, Zombie Cages and a Velociraptor display/photo-op. The East Mids Garrison was also in attendance and the UK R2 Builders Club had a stall displaying impressive droid builds from throughout the Star Wars saga. Outside of the venue was a display of Transformers cars with photo-ops in exchange for small donations to charity. Most of the convention floor was taken-up by merchandise stalls. Due to the nature of the venue and space available, the number of stalls was more limited than at a convention-centre based con. However, I was able to pick up a few vintage figures and some Star Wars comics for my collection.

Ultimately the convention suffered due to the number of high-profile guest cancellations. Last-minute filming requirements are perhaps understandable at this point as filmmakers play catch-up for lost time during the pandemic. Hopefully this is a problem that will ease as things get back to more normality over the next few months and into next year. Nevertheless, it was great to get back to a larger-scale convention and meet guests in person again.

EM-Con recently announced 2-year deal with the Motorpoint Arena and the next EM-Con Nottingham is scheduled to take place on 28^th – 29^th May 2022.