Steve Lillywhite first got a foot in the studio door aged 17 making demos for Ultravox and became a producer with credits on over 500 records. He doesn’t have a copy of any of them but kept his Grammys and his CBE. The job involves being a lightning-rod, cheer-leader, editor, finisher and “as diplomatic as Henry Kissinger”. He looks back here from his ‘Lillypad’ in Bali at the milestones along the way, among them …
… “I’d done my 10,000 hours by the age of 22”
... “If it ain’t broke, break it!”
… when he screwed up as a tape-op: “you only do it once”
… why bands never want to leave the studio
… breakthrough hits with Johnny Thunders, Siouxsie and the Psychedelic Furs
… “there’s been no new technology in the last ten years”
… the radio plugger who heard Sunday Bloody Sunday and said “sounds like a hit but you’ll have to lose the word Bloody”
… “when Mick and Keith weren’t talking they communicated through me”
… why Muff Winwood wanted to fire Larry Mullen
… why producers can’t hear a hit
… Adam Clayton and Nick Rhodes “aren’t musicians”
… “make the drums less Huntley & Palmers!”
… the Wrecking Crew versus the “One-Man Show" production of today
… and memories of making Vertigo, Fairytale of New York and Making Plans for Nigel.
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