The detailed history..........
1970 After playing bass in school bands and pursuing a short-lived university course in electronics, I began my adventures in the music industry within the maintenance workshop at Wessex Studios in North London, acquiring technical experience in studio maintenance and audio circuit design. After a short time, I was thrown in at the deep end one evening, when an assistant engineer fell sick. This was during the recording of "Lizard", the third album by King Crimson and led to my first experiences in session work, with many artists including The Moody Blues, Georgie Fame, Alan Price, Stevie Wonder, and numerous live orchestral sessions.
1970 After playing bass in school bands and pursuing a short-lived university course in electronics, I began my adventures in the music industry within the maintenance workshop at Wessex Studios in North London, acquiring technical experience in studio maintenance and audio circuit design. After a short time, I was thrown in at the deep end one evening, when an assistant engineer fell sick. This was during the recording of "Lizard", the third album by King Crimson and led to my first experiences in session work, with many artists including The Moody Blues, Georgie Fame, Alan Price, Stevie Wonder, and numerous live orchestral sessions.
1975 After a chance meeting with
Philip
Newell,
a contact from his days at Nova Studios, I was
offered the job of chief recording engineer at
Virgin Records residential recording studio in
Oxfordshire, known as The Manor. The studio had
been constructed by Phil and
Tom Newman,
producer of Mike Oldfield's "Tubular Bells". Tom
and TB engineer,
Simon
Heyworth,
were moving on to other projects, and Mick was
part of a radical rejuventation of the studio,
whose subsequent success eventually led to the
creation of one of London's legendary music
recording facilites, The Townhouse. This
opportunity brought me into contact with many
international recording artists including
Mike
Oldfield,
Mott The
Hoople,
Kiki Dee,
David
Bedford,
Tangerine
Dream,
Gong,
and led to my work with
Van Morrison
and
Frank Zappa.
1980 After some success as an emerging
producer/engineer, having worked with several punk
and new wave bands including The Ruts, The Skids
and Public Image, and power-pop band, The Records,
I left The Townhouse to become freelance. This
marked the continuation of a substantial career in
recording and music production, and was highlighted
by the success of many projects including 17 albums
with
Van
Morrison,
“Joe’s Garage” by
Frank Zappa,
four albums with
Lloyd Cole,
“Magic” by
Ian Gillan,
“Making Contact” by
UFO,
“The Whole Of The Moon” & “This Is The Sea”
by
The
Waterboys,
“Never Loved Elvis” & “The Size Of A Cow”
by
The Wonder
Stuff,
number 1 hit single, “Dizzy” by
Vic Reeves
and
The Wonder
Stuff,
and “The Happy Club” by
Bob Geldof.
I have worked on many music projects outside the
UK, having recorded and produced five albums which
have achieved platinum status for the Spanish
artist, Revolver, enjoyed success with the no.1
selling Italian artist,
Pino
Daniele,
and produced the Dutch band, The Crox, "Live At
The Montreux Jazz Festival", the first ever DVD
from
Van
Morrison,
Lloyd Cole,
Canadian singer/songwriters,
Jeremy Walsh
and
Rachelle van
Zanten,
and acclaimed American blues pianist
David
Maxwell.
There have been projects in most of the other
European countries, the USA, Canada and the Far
East. Click
here
for the full Mick Glossop discography.
During my career, I have maintained a personal
endeavour to keep abreast of technical advances in
sound production and processing techniques. Since
the early 1980’s, I have worked with MIDI
programming, digital samplers, and computer-based
mixing systems, and in 1994, invested in an early
version of Digidesign's Pro Tools hard disk
recording and editing system. This has evolved
through different incarnations into to the current
HD Accel 3 status. These have been major tools in
my work over the past 12 years. Although, like many
of my contemporaries, my work has traditionally
encompassed the analogue domain, I have fully
embraced the latest developments in digital
technology. This has culminated in the construction
of
my own production
studio,
designed by the team of Andy Munro at
Munro
Acoustics.
A developing interest in film sound has led to my
involvement in many projects involving sound design
and film post-production; one of the most prominent
being the role of music editor and music mixer for
the “The 51st State” starring Samuel L. Jackson
& Robert Carlyle. Further film work has
included sound design and mixing for several
independent films.
The Townhouse, Studio 1
At the same time, my previous experience in the
technical side of studio operations was enhanced by
direct involvement in the re-design of The Manor
Studios .
1979 The subsequent success of The Manor Studio led to the building of a brand new studio complex for Virgin in West London. The Townhouse (now unfortunately closed by later owner, EMI Music) acquired an international reputation as one of the top recording facilities in the world.
1979 The subsequent success of The Manor Studio led to the building of a brand new studio complex for Virgin in West London. The Townhouse (now unfortunately closed by later owner, EMI Music) acquired an international reputation as one of the top recording facilities in the world.
1974 Accepting an offer from a French-Canadian rock
group,
Offenbach,
with whom I had worked in Montreal, I spent four
months recording and mixing the music and live
soundtrack to a documentary movie based on a
national tour of France by the band. This was
directed by
Claude
Faraldo,
anarchist director of “Bof” and “Themroc”, both
major cult films in France. The recordings were
made using a mobile recording truck on loan from
The Chateau Herouville, the "Honky Chateau"
where Elton John had recently recorded his album
of the same name. The truck was a modest
vehicle, about the size of an ice-cream van, and
housed a very small 16 channel mixer of dubious
heritage, a Scully 16 track tape machine, a pair
of semi-pro powered monitors and a meagre
selection of microphones. Luckily the band's
lineup was simple; drums, bass, guitar, organ
and vocal.
The Manor Studio
1972 I moved to Nova Studios in Marble Arch for
further work as an assistant on sessions with Joe
Cocker, The Sweet, Paul Ryan, Jade Warrior, Billie
Davis and many more. I moved up to the role of
recording engineer, working on albums, singles,
film soundtrack and jingles projects.
1973 I received a call from Canadian recording engineer, Nick Blagona, who had previously worked at Wessex; it was an irresistible offer to work in Canada, and I flew over to Montreal for a nine month engagement at Studio Son Quebec. This studio was sited on the east side of the city, and most of its clients were from the French sector of the Canadian music business. It was very different from the London scene.
1973 I received a call from Canadian recording engineer, Nick Blagona, who had previously worked at Wessex; it was an irresistible offer to work in Canada, and I flew over to Montreal for a nine month engagement at Studio Son Quebec. This studio was sited on the east side of the city, and most of its clients were from the French sector of the Canadian music business. It was very different from the London scene.
Wessex, Studio 1