Martin Rushent, English record producer (Buzzcocks, Human League, The Stranglers) died he was , 63

Martin Rushent  was an English record producer, best known for his work with The Human League, The Stranglers and The Buzzcocks died he was , 63.


(11 July 1948 – 4 June 2011)

Early life

Rushent was born on 11 July 1948 in Enfield, Middlesex. His father was a car salesman. Rushent attended Minchenden Grammar School in Southgate, Middlesex.^[1]

Career

Early career

Rushent's first experience in a recording studio was at EMI House in London's Manchester Square, when his school band (of which he was the lead singer) had the opportunity to record a demo.^[5] After leaving school, Rushent, who had already experimented with his father's 4-track recorder, worked at a chemical factory before working for his father while applying for studio jobs. After numerous rejections, Rushent was employed by Advision Studios as a 35mm film projectionist. After approximately 3 months, Rushent began working in the audio department as a tape operator alongside Tony Visconti. He worked on sessions for Fleetwood Mac,^[6] T-Rex, Yes, Emerson, Lake and Palmer, Petula Clark, Jerry Lee Lewis and Osibisa.^[7] Rushent stated that while at Advision, Jerry Lee Lewis threw a tantrum as Yes had been booked into the studio when he was not ready to leave, and chased the studio staff around the complex until they locked themselves in a different studio.^[8]
Rushent progressed to senior assistant engineer, staff engineer, and eventually head engineer. He then began working freelance, where he built his reputation and was employed by United Artists (UA).^[5] While with UA, Rushent recorded sessions alongside Martin Davies, recording artists such as Shirley Bassey and The Buzzcocks, as well as convincing the company to sign The Stranglers provided that he produced the band's material. Rushent produced the group's Rattus Norvegicus, No More Heroes and Black and White albums and recorded demos for Joy Division, before tiring of his commute to London and leaving UA at the end of the 1970s.^[1][5]

Synthpop

Rushent expressed a desire to move away from guitar bands, and bought a LinnDrum,^[8] Roland MC-4 Microcomposer and Jupiter-8 synthesiser to learn sequencing and synthesis techniques.^[5] Rushent set up his own studio, Genetic, with Synclavier and Fairlight CMI synthesisers^[5] and an MCI console.^[7] He spent £35,000 on air conditioning alone, and had a Mitsubishi Electric digital recorder costing £75,000.^[5] Rushent used his Roland equipment to record Pete Shelley's first solo album, Homosapien. Originally aimed to be a collection of demos, the recordings were signed to Island Records. They were heard by Simon Draper of Virgin Records, who asked Rushent to produce The Human League. Rushent's work on the group's 1981 album Dare earned him a BRIT Award in 1982 for Best British producer.^[9] Rushent's production on Dare frustrated the group's guitarist Jo Callis, as the only guitar on the album was used to trigger a gate on the synthesiser. Singer Susanne Sulley was also frustrated by the lengthy process of Rushent's synth programming. Rushent walked out of his own studio and never worked with the band again after Sulley made an off-the-cuff comment toward him.^[5] After the Human League, Rushent worked with XTC, Generation X, Altered Images and The Go-Go's.^[10]
Rushent decided to take a break from production in 1984,^[11] and sold his assets – including Genetic Studios. He briefly took up a consultancy position with Virgin, but retired from the industry to raise his children.^[5]

Later career

Rushent returned to the music industry in the mid 1990s when he established Gush, a dance club on Greenham Common. The club's opening night was headlined by The Prodigy.^[5] Rushent soon began redeveloping his interest in recording, and decided to catch up on the technological advances he had missed.^[5]
Rushent built a home studio around a Mackie console, Alesis ADAT HD24 recorder and Cubase 5,^[7] with which he produced music by The Pipettes,^[9] Does It Offend You, Yeah?^[8] and Killa Kela.^[12] In 2005, he produced Hazel O'Connor's album Hidden Heart.^[5] The following year, he was involved with the BBC Electric Proms when he recorded Enid Blitz at a 15th-century manor house in Brentford, using a BBC truck as the control room.^[7]
In 2007, Rushent produced the recording Cherry Vanilla by The (Fabulous) Cult of John Harley. The recording was used by the American singer and actress Cherry Vanilla in the launch of her autobiography Lick Me: How I Became Cherry Vanilla.^[13]
At the time of his death, Rushent was working on a 30th anniversary version of Dare, remixed like Love and Dancing but using musical instruments instead of synthesisers.^[5][7]

Personal life

In 1972, Rushent married Linda Trodd, with whom he had three children – sons James and Tim and daughter Joanne.^[1] They separated in the 1980s, and Rushent later married Ceri Davis, with whom he had a daughter named Amy.^[1] Rushent lived with Ceri and Amy in the Berkshire village of Upper Basildon.^[1][14] Rushent's son James is the lead singer for the dance punk band Does It Offend You, Yeah?.^[3] Rushent died on 4 June 2011.^[3]

Discography

This list of songs or music-related items is incomplete; you can help by expanding it.

Year	Artist	Record	Type	Role	Reference
1970	Andrew Lloyd Webber	Jesus Christ Superstar	Studio album	Engineer	[2]
1971	T-Rex	Electric Warrior	Studio album	Engineer	[15]
	Gentle Giant	Acquiring the Taste	Studio album	Engineer	[2]
	Compost	Compost	Studio album	Engineer, producer	[2]
	Stone the Crows	Teenage Licks	Studio album	Engineer	[2]
	Fleetwood Mac	Future Games	Studio album	Engineer	[2]
1972	Groundhogs	Hogwash	Studio album	Engineer	[2]
	Gentle Giant	Three Friends	Studio album	Engineer	[2]
	Gentle Giant	Octopus	Studio album	Engineer	[2]
	Stone the Crows	Ontinuous Performance	Studio album	Engineer	[2]
	Shirley Bassey	I Capricorn	Studio album	Engineer	[2]
1973	Curved Air	Air Cut	Studio album	Producer	[16]
	Chaos	Down At The Club/You Could Be My Girl	Studio single	Composer & Producer
	Johnny Harris	All to Bring You Morning	Studio album	Engineer, remixing	[2]
Badger	One Live Badger	Live album	Engineer	[2]
1974	Riff Raff	Original Man	Studio album	Engineer	[17]
	The Sensational Alex Harvey Band	The Impossible Dream	Studio album	Engineer	[2]
	Snafu	Situation Normal	Studio album	Engineer	[2]
	Premiata Forneria Marconi	The World Became the World	Studio album	Engineer	[2]
1975	Danny Kirwan	Second Chapter	Studio album	Producer	[18]
	Banco del Mutuo Soccorso	Banco	Studio album	Engineer	[2]
	Shirley Bassey	Good, Bad but Beautiful	Studio album	Engineer	[2]
	Zzebra	Panic	Studio album	Engineer	[2]
1976	Roderick Taylor	New Nation	Studio album	Engineer	[2]
	McKendree Spring	Too Young to Feel This Old	Studio album	Engineer	[2]
1977	The Stranglers	Rattus Norvegicus	Studio album	Producer	[5]
	The Stranglers	No More Heroes	Studio album	Producer	[5]
	Téléphone	Téléphone	Studio album	Producer	[2]
1978	The Stranglers	Black and White	Studio album	Producer	[5]
	The Buzzcocks	Another Music in a Different Kitchen	Studio album	Producer	[19]
	Generation X	Generation X	Studio album	Producer	[20]
	The Buzzcocks	Love Bites	Studio album	Producer	[15]
	999	Separates	Studio album	Producer	[21]
	Ian Gomm	Gomm with the Wind	Studio album	Producer	[2]
	Dr Feelgood	Private Practice	Studio album	Producer	[2]
	Ian Gomm	Summer Holiday	Studio album	Producer	[2]
1979	The Stranglers	Live (X Cert)	Live album	Producer	[5]
	Téléphone	Crache Ton Venin	Studio album	Producer	[22]
	The Buzzcocks	A Different Kind of Tension	Studio album	Producer	[23]
	Jean-Jacques Burnel	Euroman Cometh	Studio album	Producer	[24]
1980	Téléphone	Au Cœur De La Nuit	Studio album	Producer	[22]
	Rachel Sweet	Protect the Innocent	Studio album	Producer	[25]
1981	The Human League	Dare	Studio album	Producer	[5]
	Pete Shelley	Homosapien	Studio album	Producer	[5]
	The Raybeats	Guitar Beat	Studio album	Producer	[26]
	Altered Images	Happy Birthday	Studio album	Engineer, producer	[2]
	Deke Leonard	Before Your Very Eyes	Studio album	Engineer, producer	[2]
	The dB's	Stands for Decibels	Studio album	Mixing	[2]
1982	The Human League	Love and Dancing	Remix album	Producer	[5]
	Altered Images	Pinky Blue	Studio album	Producer	[27]
	The Members	Uprhythm, Downbeat	Studio album	Producer	[28]
1983	The Human League	Fascination!	Studio album	Producer	[5]
	Pete Shelley	XL1	Studio album	Producer	[29]
1984	The Human League	Hysteria	Studio album	Programming	[2]
	Hazel O'Connor	Smile	Studio album	Producer	[2]
	The Go-Go's	Talk Show	Studio album	Engineer, producer	[30]
1985	Associates	Perhaps	Studio album	Producer	[31]
1988	Do-Re-Mi	The Happiest Place in Town	Studio album	Producer	[30]
	Associates	Heart of Glass	Single	Producer	[30]
1997	Ian Gomm	Come On	Single	Producer	[30]
1990	The Human League	Heart Like a Wheel	Single	Producer
2005	Hazel O'Connor	Hidden Heart	Studio album	Producer	[5]
	Carl Barat	Under the Influence	Studio album	Producer	[30]
2009	Killa Kela	Amplified	Studio Album	Producer	[32]
2010	The Pipettes	Earth vs. The Pipettes	Studio album	Producer	[33]
2011	Does It Offend You, Yeah?	Don't Say We Didn't Warn You	Studio album	Producer	[30

 

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