About

Ged Moran, the founder of Legend Productions, began his training with the Karate Union of Great Britain in 1967 and from 1970 trained regularly at the instructors' morning classes at the famed Liverpool Red Triangle, under Andy Sherry. He obtained his black belt in 1974 and remained with the KUGB until 1988, a period that he looks back on with pride and fondness. During those years, he was privileged to travel extensively with both Andy Sherry and also Bob Poynton: in 1976 Ged was instrumental in introducing Shotokan to Merthyr Tydfil, South Wales, now a rich area of KUGB clubs and talented fighters. Ged's frequent trips down to Merthyr resulted in the establishment of 5 new KUGB dojos, under the local instruction of Lyn Powell and Frank Price; two excellent karate-ka. Ged had his own dojo - Salford Shotokan Centre, which won several major kata and kumite events and also produced some top class Shotokan fighters, including three KUGB junior squad members, as well as Gary Harford; now a full time KUGB senior instructor.

In the mid 1980s Ged purchased some early video equipment and started recording fights and kata at various world wide events that he attended with the KUGB, in-between judging and refereeing duties. This eventually developed into Legend Productions, and eventually became so time consuming that Ged resigned from the KUGB in June 1988 to concentrate more on developing Legend Productions. At this time, the company started to collect other material, often purchasing old footage, and now hold an archive of over 600 hours of karate material, 95% of which is Shotokan based.

Legend has now developed into a production company that also produces corporate work, but remains predominantly a world leader in martial art programmes, having its own state of the art equipment and with access to broadcast professionals, including awarding winning director Allan Bardsley. Ged was fortunate enough to meet Allan during the filming of a television commercial that Ged worked on as part of the crew, and today some 24 years on, remain close friends. Legend Productions has had the benefit of Allan's television background, which has given the company a leading edge in the field of martial arts productions, which have also included creating master class videos of such names as Richard Amos; Frank Brennan; Terry O'Neil; John Mullin; Peter Consterdine; Geoff Thompson; Elwyn Hall and Grand Master Ip Chun. Legend has also produced promotional videos for organizations such as the WTKO - SSKA - JSKA - Protection Publications, and many others.

Legend no longer records at karate events due to the constraints that Health and Safety have placed on the art: there is no longer the fierce level of combat that made Shotokan the breathtaking thrill a second experience that it was in the 70s and 80s. Instead, concentration is focused on obtaining more vintage film and video, and creating additional programmes that can still let the watcher relive all the power and brilliant techniques of those early days.

Peter Consterdine
8th Dan