This book came out in 2010 and is a great look at the 50 year recording career of audio engineer Phill Brown.

Even though the name may not be familiar to everyone apart from those in the recording industry - the classic albums and artists he has been involved is the A to Z of popular music.

Starting as tea boy and tape operator at Olympic Studios in London in 1967 - he worked with The Rolling Stones, Jimi Hendrix, and Joe Cocker.

His apprenticeship under such engineering legends as Eddie Kramer and Glyn Johns -as well as the methodology in recording Hendrix for example - and bouncing multiple instruments to single tracks to free up extra tracks on 4 and 8 track analog recorders- is fascinating.

In some ways the extra options with more tracks available as the recording technology progressed to computer based workstations, turned out to be stifling for creativity.

Endless substitutions of instruments and cutting and pasting - instead of a group of musicians vibing off each, other cutting the track live is dealt with.

In fact the painstaking process of Brown recording those three huge Talk Talk albums in the 80’s and 90’s sums up progress with a price.

The price being health issues -mental and physical.

Additionally Brown discusses the intrusion of record companies dictating the style of albums and interfering in artistic vision and recording versus the 60’s and 70’s where the artist was more in control.

Its a great read - and a great reminder of the golden period of albums, a vibrant recording industry and artists with global appeal -with his work at Island Studios in particular.

The live Bob Marley record recorded at the Lyceum in 1975 is a cultural milestone and the recording captures it.

Check it out!