6. BACK IN THE (SWEDISH) HIGH LIFE AGAIN (1979)

 

 

LONDON (May 1979)

I was working in the little studio in Worcester with my friend Pete Green (a.k.a. Daniel Boone), and he said to me “You know, I heard Abba are opening up a studio in London and they’re looking for engineers”. I was ready for a change from the present routine, and a big new shiny studio in London had a certain appeal. I somehow made contact with their studio manager Chris who confirmed they were still building the place but definitely interviewing for staff engineers. An appointment was set up, and on the given day I took a very early morning train to London from my in-law’s house in York.

The place would be known as Marcus Music UK, and it was a sister studio to a very beautiful facility of the same name operating in Stockholm. The Swedish studio did in fact count ABBA as a client, but the band did not have any part in the ownership of Marcus Studios. The owner was a Swedish bandleader named Marcus (oddly enough) who was very popular in that part of the world, having originally made himself famous by being a member of a top-selling Pop band. The London project was indeed still a building site when I first saw it, hardly ready to view let alone use for recording, but I was there for the job interview. I realized that this new studio popping up in central London was causing quite a commotion amongst the recording community, and there would be a long list of established engineers going after a job. But I had the advantage of being trained at A&R Recording in New York, having worked with many established stars (albeit only as a second engineer- a point I did not be-labor), and most importantly I had “the Attitude” and was completely unafraid of recording large orchestras. I knew that Marcus Studios would feature a very large recording room in one of its studios. I found out later that most of the other applicants had rarely recorded groups larger than 4 or 5 musicians. I had a nice chat with Chris who must have been intrigued because I popped up completely out of the blue, so to speak. I had no studio reputation in London and was unknown to the other studio bosses at that time. Furthermore, I ended the interview by announcing that I had to leave, as I had another interview with another studio- Utopia, a would -be major competitor to Marcus. I was made to promise to come back to Marcus for a follow up chat once I finished at Utopia Studios, and off I went. Later that day I returned to see Chris and Marcus the owner of Marcus Music, and I was immediately offered the job of what they called Senior Engineer, in charge of the “A” studio, which at this point I knew absolutely nothing about. We talked for a bit longer, organizing details like pay, start date etc, then shook hands and I headed for the door. Just before leaving I had the presence of mind to ask Chris “So what kind of gear are you putting in that studio?” This is when I was told they were bringing in the first and latest Harrison 48 track console in England, with 2 of the latest Studer 24 track machines and a synchronizer. Well, my knees almost gave way- on the train down I was wondering about the console and prayed “anything but a Harrison!” It just looked so intimidating!

On the train back up north I was all about “What just happened? What in the hell did you just do?”

Be careful what you wish for.

MORE TO COME!


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