John Leckie

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John Leckie is a British music producer, notable for producing many high-profile albums such as The Stone Roses's debut (The Stone Roses) and Radiohead's The Bends. Leckie has received several awards for his work including the prestigious “Producer of the Year” award by Jimmy Page at the Music Managers Forum in 2001.

Early career

Leckie began work at Abbey Road Studios on February 15, 1970 as a Tape-Operator, later graduating to Balance Engineer. During this early career he worked with artists such as John Lennon (Plastic Ono Band), George Harrison, (All Things Must Pass), Syd Barrett (Barrett) and Pink Floyd (Meddle and Wish You Were Here). With Paul McCartney's Wings Leckie worked on Red Rose Speedway and the then-controversial single Hi, Hi, Hi. He also produced and mixed Be Bop Deluxe's albums Axe Victim, Sunburst Finish, Modern Music, Live In The Air Age and Drastic Plastic.

Leckie left Abbey Road in 1978 and produced albums for Simple Minds (Life in A Day, Real To Real Cacophony and Empires & Dance) and post-Buzzcocks Magazine (Real Life). Leckie produced the debut single, Public Image for the post-Sex Pistols formation Public Image Ltd. while singer John Lydon was still technically with the Pistols. Leckie's work with XTC included 3D-EP, as well as the band's later albums: White Music, Go 2, 25 O'Clock and Psonic Psunspot which XTC issued under the pseudonym The Dukes of Stratosphear.

1980s work

High profile album productions in the 1980s included work with The Fall, Brix Smith's post-Fall project The Adult Net, Gene Loves Jezebel, The Posies, and Robyn Hitchcock. However, a landmark in Leckie's career came in 1989 when he produced The Stone Roses' debut album The Stone Roses. The album was voted the best record of all time on a music poll taken by BBC 6 and features as Number 1 on the Observer Music Monthly’s June 2004 “100 Greatest British Albums”.

1990s

Throughout the 1990s Leckie's work continued to garner awards being named Best Producer by Music Week (1995) and at the Q Awards (1996) and Brit Awards (1997), the latter accolade arriving almost exactly 27 years to the day after he first started at Abbey Road Studios.

With Madchester and Britpop dominating British popular music of the early and mid 1990s nineties, Leckie's talents were in constant demand. Notable production credits from this era include the Stone Roses' follow up album Second Coming, Lilac Time's And Love For All, Ride's 1993 (Carnival of Light), Elastica's 1994 eponymous debut album, Cast's albums All Change (1995) and Mother Nature Calls (1997), Kula Shaker's debut K (1996), Spiritualised's Ladies & Gentlemen and The Verve's A Storm in Heaven.

However, Leckie's work during the 1990s widened considerably to include the work of Dr John (Anutha Zone) and the Cowboy Junkies (Miles From Our Home) along with a series of world musicians. During the Real World Recording Weeks he worked with Papa Wemba, Shivkumar Sharma, Gopal Shankar and Rizwan Qualli. In 2000, John produced the album Missing You for Palm Pictures' African artist Baaba Maal. The music was recorded in challenging insect-plagued conditions, mostly after dark in Baaba Maal's house in rural Senegal. As the house had no electricity everything was powered from a Honda generator. Despite heat, biting insects and the sounds of cicadas sometimes so intense that the microphones had to be turned off, the album earned rave reviews.

Recent career

Leckie's career took another important forward step in 1999 when producing the debut album Showbiz for Taste Media’s then new signings Muse. This went platinum on the heels of the band's breakthrough 2001 second album Origin of Symmetry, also produced by Leckie, which reached No. 3 in the UK album Chart.

In 2002, Leckie produced a single for Suede (Positivity from the album New Morning), and the eleventh album of Latin superstars and three time Grammy winners Los Lobos (Good Morning Atztlan), for Mammoth Records at CGR Studio’s in California. The latter album entered the Billboard 100 at number 82.

In 2003, he oversaw the remastering of the Stone Roses compilation on Silvertone and produced the One Minute Silence album “One Lie Fits All” for Taste Media. At this time Leckie also did a stereo mix of “A Whiter Shade of Pale” by Procol Harum from the original four-track tape. This was done exclusively for Classic Records.com and vinyl release only. The track was mixed on an Edwardian houseboat called "Astoria” which belongs to David Gilmour of Pink Floyd. Leckie also produced a solo LP for John Power (from The La's and Cast) for Eagle Rock.

In 2004, he produced tracks for New Order, "Waiting For The Siren's Call" and highly acclaimed My Computer “No CV”. Working in the USA he produced an album for Longwave “There’s A Fire” with RCA.

In 2005, Leckie produced the highly critically lauded 4th album for My Morning Jacket entitled “Z”, also for RCA, recorded at Allaire Studios in upstate New York. Later that year, he produced a self-titled album for Mexican duo Rodrigo y Gabriella for Irish label Rubyworks. This album, after initially going straight to number one in Ireland, continued gaining ground across the world and was No.1 in the American 'Heat Seekers' chart and also a regular No.1 in the Billboard World Music charts.

In 2006, he produced the debut album by newcomers Tiny Dancers entitled 'Free School Milk' for Parlophone, the EP 'Fast', and the track 'Back To The Start' for Razorlight for Vertigo / Mercury.

2007 saw a union of two household names around Manchester, John Leckie and Doves. Leckie produced 3 tracks for the new album between Rockfield and Mickie Most’s RAK Studios. John also traveled to LA to produce further tracks by Rodrigo y Gabriella and was reunited with Babba Maal (this time in the more comfortable setting of Beethoven Street Studios in London) to produce his forthcoming album.

In 2008, Leckie produced a debut album for new signing to Mercury, Sergeant, and travelled to India, as part of a British Council led project to produce for local acts at Yas Raj Studios in Mumbai: Medusa, Swarathma, Indigo Children and Advaita.

Awards

• 1995 — Music Week award for Best Producer
• 1996 — Q Award for Best Producer
• 1997 — Brit Award
• 2001 — UK Music Managers Forum for Best Producer

Notable album credits as producer

• The Adverts: Crossing the Red Sea with the Adverts
• The Atrix: The Atrix
• BeBop Deluxe: Drastic Plastic
• Bill Nelson: Quit Dreaming and Get on the Beam
• Phillip Boa & Voodoo Club: Copperfield Germany
• Cast: All Change
• Cast: Mother Nature Calls
• Cowboy Junkies: Miles from Home Canada
• Denim: Back in Denim
• De Press: Block to Block and Product Norway
• Doctors of Madness: Figments of Emancipation
• Doves: Kingdom of Rust (album tracks "Winter Hill" and "10:03," and the B-side "Push Me On" only)
• Dr. John: Anutha Zone
• The Dukes of Stratosphear: 25 O'Clock, Psonic Psunspot (as Swami Anand Nagara, his sannyasin name, when he was a follower of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh)^{[citation needed]}
• Endgames: Futures Looking Fine EP
• The Fall: The Wonderful and Frightening World of The Fall
• The Fall: This Nation's Saving Grace
• The Fall: Bend Sinister
• Fear of Music: Fast. Faster. Fastest. EP
• Felt: The Strange Idols Pattern and Other Short Stories
• Gene Loves Jezebel: Immigrant
• Gopal Shankar Misra: Out of Stillness
• The Grapes of Wrath: These Days Canada
• Roy Harper: Bullinamingvase
• Robyn Hitchcock & The Egyptians: Respect
• Thee Hypnotics: Soul, Glitter,Sin
• House of Freaks: Tantilla USA
• Hamell on Trial: Tough Love USA
• The Human League: Holiday 80 EP
• Kula Shaker: K
• Let's Active: Every Dog Has His Day USA
• Los Lobos: Good Morning Aztlán USA
• Longwave: There's a Fire USA
• Lilac Time: And Love for All
• The Lucy Show: Mania
• Baaba Maal: Missing You (Mi Yeewnii) Senegal
• Magazine: Real Life
• Roger McGough: Summer With Monica
• Morgan Fisher: Seasons
• Muse: Showbiz
• Muse: Origin of Symmetry
• My Morning Jacket: Z USA
• My Computer: No CV Manchester UK
• New Order: Waiting for the Sirens' Call (certain tracks) as above..
• One Minute Silence: One Lie Fits All
• Mark Owen: Green Man
• John Power: Happening For Love
• The Posies: Dear 23 USA
• Public Image Ltd: Public Image 1st single
• Radiohead: The Bends
• Ride: Carnival of Light
• Rodrigo y Gabriela: Rodrigo y Gabriela
• Scarlet: Chemistry
• Scott Matthews: The John Leckie Sessions with Strings EP
• Shivkumar Sharma: Sampradaya
• The Skids: Masquerade EP
• The Silencers: Dance to the Holy Man
• Simple Minds: Life in a Day
• Simple Minds: Real to Real Cacophony
• Simple Minds: Empires and Dance
• Six By Seven: The Closer You Get
• Suede: "Positivity" (tracks)
• Starsailor: Shark Food (tracks)
• The Stone Roses: The Stone Roses 1st album
• The Stone Roses: "One Love"
• The Stone Roses: "Fools Gold/What the World Is Waiting For"
• Trashcan Sinatras: Cake
• The Troubadours: Gimme Love - Here Comes The Tide (Double A-Side)
• Tiny Dancers: Free School Milk
• The Verve: A Storm in Heaven
• Papa Wemba: Molokai
• XTC: White Music
• XTC: Go 2
• XTC: Explode Together: The Dub Experiments 78-80

External links

• Official website celebrating the 20th anniversary of The Stone Roses' debut album
• Sawmills recording studio
• The making of "Fools Gold"
• John Leckie's interview with Daily Music Guide