Tracy Funk interviews the Boss:
How did it start? Back in 1979 Chas Jankel (Ian Dury and the Blockheads) asked me to build a studio for him in West London. I had trained as an architect: up till then, music had been mostly a hobby. I had had my eye on Kensal Road for several years, walking along the canal from my flat in Maida Vale and enjoying the semi-derelict Victorian industrial buildings. No 249 was then occupied by metal-bashers making parts for second-hand ’planes belonging to dodgy African airlines, and the distributor of "Furry Freak" comics. The vacant ground floor had once been the factory stables. The floor sloped for washing away the horseshit and there were several smithies’ forges. Saga (aka Trojan) Records was up one end of Kensal Road, but almost all of the music/media business was still in the west-end. So we built the first recordings studio in Kensal Road. Now there are perhaps over 50 studios within 1/4 mile.
Tell us about the first incarnation? Well, the first desk was a Trident Series 80 (now something of a cult desk) and we bought one of the first Otari MTR90's in the UK. There were some huge, horrible, JBL monitors. The first recordings came out dull as shit because the JBL's were so bright. Time management went out the window: each day we would start later, work louder and longer and finish later until once a week we'd loop the loop. The music was mostly white funk.
What about Bob Marley? Around '86 Chas and I were looking for a tougher sound: we found it with Jamaican engineer Steven Stanley at Compass Point studios in the Bahamas: MCI desk and Pultec equalisers. I came back to England, found a third-hand MCI for sale at Jerry Boys' Livingston Studios and bought a pair of Pultec's from Paul McCartney. The MCI was originally one of three boards’ custom built for Island Records in the early '70's for their studios in Basing Street and St Peter’s Square. After API, MCI made the premier tracking console in the States: in a way it was the American SSL, sporting the first commercially available automation system. The + 36 volt power supply (take note, ye boffins) gave humungous headroom; hence it's popularity with the Reggae guys. Our desk came out of Studio 2, Basing Street (now Sarm West, the Horn HQ) whence it was used, amongst many historic recording sessions, to mix "Exodus" by Bob Marley. If only knobs could speak!
How do you look after it? Like much US manufactured product of that era, the MCI's construction is a mixture of the sophisticated and the shoddy. Parts of it were built to survive a direct hit from a tumbling JBL Midfield, or pint of Glynn Johns' orange juice tipped on the VCA's (true story!). But the grouping switches were sourced from a vacuum cleaner manufacturer long since gone out of business. Three years ago I was offered its sister console from St Peter's Sq, so now I have spares of everything. My MCI-mentor Pete Clark re-capped the desk from top to toe, and now, apart from the even routing switches (due for imminent replacement) it's a very reliable board.
Spice Girls? Only once, to be sure. Just before Wannabe. The sofa collapsed under the weight of shopping. ProTools did the rest.
The Best and Worst Moments? Drummie sings "Don't turn Around" and everyone in the room knows it's No 1… Running out of Jack Daniel's halfway through Lemmie's bass part on a Nina Hagen track, with Sainsbury's due to close in 8 minutes… Ian Paice blows up 3 pairs of DT100's in one take… Wendy James's pubic hair poking through a crochet dress… I erase the time code on an orchestral slave recorded at Abbey Road…The lead singer of Wirschaftswunder solves his De-essing problem by removing his false teeth… Liz Hurley seeks my assistance with the adjustment of her Lavalier while reading erotic poetry by Judy Burchill…Tom Jones, naked from the waist up and dripping with sweat, hits top C ...
The future? Don't ask!
