In January 1987 I stepped into Air Studios on the first day of my employment there as a tape operator, what later became known as an assistant engineer. As soon as I walked into the reception at Air, I knew I had walked into a serious, professional studio and needed to up my game immediately. So I was nervous, insecure and fairly certain that (at some point) I’d be found out. At which point I was informed by the studio manager that my first session would be assisting George Martin. We would be working on Beatles material using the original 4 track masters.
With an older brother and sister to guide me, I had grown up with The Beatles. The first album I ever owned was Help. It is no exaggeration to say I was terrified. So that day found me in Studio 2, sitting next to George at the desk, with engineer Jon Jacobs, playing the Beatles masters, spooling those incalculably valuable tapes back and forth, unable to utter a single word. George, gentleman that he was, clearly saw how nervous I was and went out of his way to make me feel a part of the project, speaking to me, drawing me out of myself, telling him who I was and what I hoped to do as an engineer. And I found he was delighted to talk about the work he had done with the band, why we were doing what we were doing (preparing the first four albums for mono and stereo CD release), revelling in the stories and the memories behind the recordings.
I stayed at Air for a further 8 years, engineered on a number of occasions for George (he once let me loose on some original recordings by The Action); not every session was as remarkable as that one though many came close. I felt then that I had the best job in the word in the best studio in the world; a studio imbued with his philosophy of how to get the very best out of people. If ever anyone asks me “well, what does a record producer actually do?” I just say “what he did”. A true gentleman and an exceptional talent. We have much to be thankful for. SticksMeister5
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