GERRY COTTLE: 1945 - 2021
We are all totally shocked & saddened by the passing of our great friend & the undoubted greatest showman Gerry Cottle
who passed away from Covid19 on the 13th January 2021.
His father was a stockbroker in leafy Surrey & Gerry went to the same school as John Major.
He became entranced by the circus from the age of eight when he saw his first show at Earls Court, and
in his early teens he completed the age old adage & ran away & joined the circus.
This began a life long love affair with the greatest show on Earth.
He decided early on that rather than perform he wanted to be the boss: “I never wanted to be the greatest juggler or trapeze artist – I wanted to be the big boss.” he explained to BBC Desert Island Discs on 1984 https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p009mh64
He married the Circus Queen Betty Fossett who came from the Fossett dynasty, the oldest Circus family in the UK.
His first Circus had just 5 people in it, including his business partner & life long friend Brian Austen.
Together they expanded their show until it became the largest Circus in the UK, before they went their separate
ways.
Gerry then formed 'Gerry Cottles Circus' and the TV spectacular Seaside Specials were filmed from his Big Top every Saturday during the summer months, it was a modern variety show and had the slot that the X Factor has now, it was prime time TV & Gerry became a household name. It was often hosted by Radio 1 DJs, and included top comedians of the time including Ronnie Corbett & bands including Abba.
In the 80s Gerry created the UKs first ever non animal Circus and went on to experiment with other more contemporary ideas such as Rainbow Circus & a Rock n Roll Circus. He also took his Circus to Hong Kong & the Middle East.
He did reunite with Brian Austen & they performed two huge Circuses in London at the same time, one with Jeremy Beadle as ringmaster in Wembley Stadium & one in Battersea Park.
The 1990s saw more experimentation with Gerry & Brian presenting The Moscow State Circus & Continental Circus Berlin before teaming up with rock singer Dr Haze to create the ground breaking Circus of Horrors making it's debut at the Glastonbury Festival 1995.
Shortly after, Gerry & Brian also toured the Chinese State Circus & recreated Cottle & Austen Electric Circus.
Three major Circuses touring the UK at the same time, making Gerry & Brian's company undoubtedly the largest Circus operation in the UK if not Europe.
While all this was happening the Circus of Horrors was going from strength to strength, touring Germany, Argentina, Uruguay & Chile before returning to the UK, this time to London's Roundhouse, where it performed for 28 week's, the longest a circus had performed in the same venue in London for over 100 years.
The show then performed in Holland, Japan, Ireland & as well as a return to the UK for a 2nd visit to the Glastonbury & Edinburgh Festivals.
In the early 2003 Gerry sold his half of Circus equipment to Brian Austen & auctioned everything else including a human cannon ball and bought Wookey Hole Caves, he always had the Circus bug though & created a very successful Circus school in Wookey.
In 2005 Gerry sold his shares in the Circus of Horrors to Dr Haze but the two remained great friends & spoke to each other only two days before his passing.
Gerry certainly wasn't finished with Circus though & created Gerry Cottles WoW Circus & Gerry Cottles Magic Circus, in fact right up to his death on Wednesday 13th January 2021 he was planning more Circus adventures.
If anyone ever had sawdust flowing through his veins it was Gerry Cottle.
Everyone at the Circus of Horrors would like you remember Gerry in a positive way, he was such an influential person our lives may never be the same again.
We were very proud to have Gerry as a friend & part of the Circus of Horrors dynasty.
He leaves behind his loving family, Betty, Polly, Sarah, April, Gerry Jnr, 7 grand children and 2 great grand children.
GERRY COTTLE - THE GREATEST SHOWMAN. RIP. XXXX
who passed away from Covid19 on the 13th January 2021.
His father was a stockbroker in leafy Surrey & Gerry went to the same school as John Major.
He became entranced by the circus from the age of eight when he saw his first show at Earls Court, and
in his early teens he completed the age old adage & ran away & joined the circus.
This began a life long love affair with the greatest show on Earth.
He decided early on that rather than perform he wanted to be the boss: “I never wanted to be the greatest juggler or trapeze artist – I wanted to be the big boss.” he explained to BBC Desert Island Discs on 1984 https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p009mh64
He married the Circus Queen Betty Fossett who came from the Fossett dynasty, the oldest Circus family in the UK.
His first Circus had just 5 people in it, including his business partner & life long friend Brian Austen.
Together they expanded their show until it became the largest Circus in the UK, before they went their separate
ways.
Gerry then formed 'Gerry Cottles Circus' and the TV spectacular Seaside Specials were filmed from his Big Top every Saturday during the summer months, it was a modern variety show and had the slot that the X Factor has now, it was prime time TV & Gerry became a household name. It was often hosted by Radio 1 DJs, and included top comedians of the time including Ronnie Corbett & bands including Abba.
In the 80s Gerry created the UKs first ever non animal Circus and went on to experiment with other more contemporary ideas such as Rainbow Circus & a Rock n Roll Circus. He also took his Circus to Hong Kong & the Middle East.
He did reunite with Brian Austen & they performed two huge Circuses in London at the same time, one with Jeremy Beadle as ringmaster in Wembley Stadium & one in Battersea Park.
The 1990s saw more experimentation with Gerry & Brian presenting The Moscow State Circus & Continental Circus Berlin before teaming up with rock singer Dr Haze to create the ground breaking Circus of Horrors making it's debut at the Glastonbury Festival 1995.
Shortly after, Gerry & Brian also toured the Chinese State Circus & recreated Cottle & Austen Electric Circus.
Three major Circuses touring the UK at the same time, making Gerry & Brian's company undoubtedly the largest Circus operation in the UK if not Europe.
While all this was happening the Circus of Horrors was going from strength to strength, touring Germany, Argentina, Uruguay & Chile before returning to the UK, this time to London's Roundhouse, where it performed for 28 week's, the longest a circus had performed in the same venue in London for over 100 years.
The show then performed in Holland, Japan, Ireland & as well as a return to the UK for a 2nd visit to the Glastonbury & Edinburgh Festivals.
In the early 2003 Gerry sold his half of Circus equipment to Brian Austen & auctioned everything else including a human cannon ball and bought Wookey Hole Caves, he always had the Circus bug though & created a very successful Circus school in Wookey.
In 2005 Gerry sold his shares in the Circus of Horrors to Dr Haze but the two remained great friends & spoke to each other only two days before his passing.
Gerry certainly wasn't finished with Circus though & created Gerry Cottles WoW Circus & Gerry Cottles Magic Circus, in fact right up to his death on Wednesday 13th January 2021 he was planning more Circus adventures.
If anyone ever had sawdust flowing through his veins it was Gerry Cottle.
Everyone at the Circus of Horrors would like you remember Gerry in a positive way, he was such an influential person our lives may never be the same again.
We were very proud to have Gerry as a friend & part of the Circus of Horrors dynasty.
He leaves behind his loving family, Betty, Polly, Sarah, April, Gerry Jnr, 7 grand children and 2 great grand children.
GERRY COTTLE - THE GREATEST SHOWMAN. RIP. XXXX
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Even in Lockdown The Circus of Horrors have received a lot of media coverage.
Helmut watches the daily briefing while swallowing swords hoping to hear that we are near the end of this Pandemic and Anastasia continues to keep her scalp intact by keeping up her hair hanging routine in her living room doorway.
While our Sinister Stephanie Mercury hangs only by her teeth to keep her jaw strong from an outside areal rig and finds new and unique ways of cleaning the cupboards, this time from the inside!
The Coverage featured in The Times, The I & The Daily Star and in almost every local paper in the UK.
CLICK IMAGES TO VIEW LARGER PICTURE
London Palladium
When the Circus of Horrors first performed at Glastonbury in 1995 people thought it would run for 25 weeks let alone 25 years, yet here we are a quarter of a century later. Still touring all over the World, still getting rave reviews & still getting loads of media coverage.
The show has already this year performed for the 4th consecutive year at this years Download Festival & returned to the Glastonbury Festival.
As part of our 25th Anniversary tour the show performed with The Damned at The London Palladium, a show promoted by Hammer House of Horrors and announced by Jonathan Ross, there was also a torch light parade along Argyle St and a new Guinness World Record for over 1040 Vampires in the same place at the same time.
This event sold out within 5 days of going on-sale.
The show has already this year performed for the 4th consecutive year at this years Download Festival & returned to the Glastonbury Festival.
As part of our 25th Anniversary tour the show performed with The Damned at The London Palladium, a show promoted by Hammer House of Horrors and announced by Jonathan Ross, there was also a torch light parade along Argyle St and a new Guinness World Record for over 1040 Vampires in the same place at the same time.
This event sold out within 5 days of going on-sale.
Celebrities...
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Over the years The Circus of Horrors have performed with a whole host of celebrators, either at Festivals or on TV show and not forgetting those that have come to watch the show. Here is a selection of some Celebs who dared to Cavort with The Circus of Horrors. |
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NEWS CONTINUED...
"The world tour - history of the past few years
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welcome to the
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From scream queens to ............
to killer Queens... I mean klowns!!
The Hex Factor
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Recent years have been incredible for the history of The Circus of Horrors. Performing in a huge amount of Theatre’s, as well as at Festivals and then jetting around the globe visiting and performing in many countries including; Finland, Holland, Germany, France, Belgium (twice), Japan, Hong Kong, Ireland, Italy, Jersey and Russia.    
In June 2017 we performed at ‘The Isle of White Festival, before returning to the Fuji Rock Festival in Japan after a 14 year break. Playing alongside us were some great acts, including; The Foo Fighters, Muse, Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds and Motorhead; in one of Lemmy final gigs. We've performed twice in 2 years at Scotland's Belladrum Festival as well as at the 'Beautiful Days Festival and at Download Festival, where we played along side; Rammstein, Iron Maiden, Black Sabbath, Five finger Death Punch, Aerosmith and Rob Zombie and that’s not forgetting our annual visits to The Great Dorset Steam Fair. 
One of our proudest achievements happened when The Circus of Horrors became Britain s greatest circus export, appearing in the 3,700 capacity Stadium Live at the heart of Moscow and becoming the first UK circus ever to perform in Russia. To give this some perspective we did 5 shows in 'Stadium Live' then just a few days later the ‘Prodigy did 2 shows’ in the same venue. It was a huge success with mass amounts of media coverage, it made us feel how the Sex Pistols must have felt back in 1977. We were on every news programme, politicians called for us to be banned and the alternative people of Moscow turned out in their droves and they went wild.    Both tours as normal started in Wookey Hole. The tour though also included a larger version of the show when we appeared for 10 nights in the 1350 capacity Moscow State Circus big top which had been built in London's O2 complex and re-titled ‘Circus of Horrors Extreme. Again a huge success with the show amplified with ‘Planet Circuses brilliant ‘Globe of Death riders, where 5 whirlwind bikers revolve at break neck speed inside a mesh globe, which then splits in two, with riders rotating above and below the gap in the cage. Plus, we also added the amazing ‘Wheel of Death, which was a flash back to 1995/6, when Willie Ramsay and Jeff Jay performed the act at the birth of The Circus of Horrors in Glastonbury and beyond. 
There was also shows RAI in Amsterdam, Jersey, Belgium twice and Germany.
In addition to the tours there was the release of a DVD of our Zombie tour and a new CD Something Wicked this Way Comes. And front page news when we killed of our Killer Klown and when Doktor Haze stood to become an MP in the 2017 election. Great tours, Great performances and Great audiences, with every review 5 stars and almost every-night a standing ovation. Often copied but never equalled. The one and only 
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"In June 2017 Dr Haze stood for Parliament:
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In this World of Horrors your country needs a Ringmaster.In 2017 Dr Haze decided to stand as an independent candidate for
BRIGHTON KEMPTOWN. press button below to load a pop-out window and read the full manifesto |
"WITH SOME GREAT MEDIA COVERAGE AND A LOT OF CANVASSING:
"THE ODDS WERE IN...
AND THEY WERE GETTING BETTER!!
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The Argus : Brighton & Hove | 22nd May | Original article : HERECircus star among independents to throw his hat in the ring for KemptownReporter – Joel Adams |
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THE ARGUS : BRIGHTON & HOVE | 25th MAY | Original article : HERE60 seconds with... Doktor HazeREPORTER – THE TIMEOUT TEAM |
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THE STAGE | 24th MAY | Original article : HEREDiary: Doktor Haze to fight political horrors in BrightonREPORTER – TABARD |
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THE GUARDIAN | Original article : HEREThe outsiders: some of the UK's more unexpected candidates"When I decided to stand I thought it would be fun but I wouldn’t have a chance of winning, the bookies obviously agreed and were taking odds of 500 to 1, the same odds as for finding the Loch Ness monster. |
The Vote with Kemptown candidates for the general election 2017
NEWS CONT...
"CIRCUS OF HORRORS : TURNING JAPANESE
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In 2001 The Circus of Horrors were asked to perform in a brand new Arena at The Fuji Rock Festival in Japan.
The Palace of Wonder. It was brilliant, we played alongside Oasis and Eminem to name but a few and we created a real stir as well as creating history by becoming the first UK Circus ever to appear in Japan. It took a long 14 years before we were asked to return, we jumped at the chance and in 2015 we designed a new show, or 4 new shows, to be precise. A round cage like structure which was originally made for an Emma Bunten video was transported to Japan and this became our new home for 3 days. |
First we did a show in the 10,000 capacity Red Marquee, which is one of the biggest stages in Fuji and then for 3 days after, we did 4 different 15 minute shows between the bands performing on the stage.
It worked a treat, while the bands were changing over we were Rockin & Shockin in our cage right in the middle of the crowd. I love Japan and I love the Japanese crowds, they certainly seem to love The Circus of Horrors. We shared the bill with The Foo Fighters, Muse & Motorhead, but the biggest thrill was meeting people who had seen us at the same Festival 14 years earlier, still wearing their COH T-Shirts and showing me picture's they had taken with me all those years ago. |
'Smash, Thank you and let's not leave it as long next time.
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NEWS CONT...
"Circus of Horrors : Rocks Russia
For many years The Moscow State Circus had visited the UK, but never before had the roll been reversed - until now.
In October 2015 The Circus of Horrors continued it's tour of the world and created history by becoming the first UK circus to perform in Russia. The 3700 capacity Stadium Live was to become home for Britain's greatest circus export for 5 fantastic days, a great rock venue in the heart of Moscow and promoted by our great friend Albert Arslanov. |
To give you an idea of the scale of things, Korn played 1 night in the venue and The Prodigy 2 nights, so for us to do 5 was simply amazing.
There were LED posters the size of skyscrapers announcing our pending performances, the sides of buses adorned 'The Circus of Horrors logo and images. This brilliant cultural metropolis was buzzing as we rolled into town. We performed on loads of TV shows and their equivalent of Radio 1, on one occasion 6 TV crews turned up at our press call, then the inevitable happened, a Muscovite MP called for the show to be banned and asked how we were allowed to enter the country, brilliant another media frenzy ensued and the crowds at the shows got bigger and bigger - if the Sex Pistols ran a circus, this would be it! Aside from the solitary MP, who of course had not seen the show, the crowds went wild from the beginning to the end and at the end of the shows we were getting mobbed by an awesome alternative Moscow audience. |
Спасибо, Россия, надеюсь скоро увидеть тебя
Thanx Moscow - Hope to see you all again soon.
Thanx Moscow - Hope to see you all again soon.
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