  The Record Producers
Episode 2: Clive Langler and Alan WinstanleyMonday 28 May
1900-2000
The second in this new series of the Record Producers concentrates on one of the most important and successful teams in British pop music. They are the men responsible for an amazing array of hits, from House Of Fun by Madness to Absolute Beginners by David Bowie, Morrissey’s November Spawned a Monster to Dexy’s Midnight Runners’ Come On Eileen. Elvis Costello, The Style Council, Robert Wyatt, They Might Be Giants, The Teardrop Explodes, Blur, Aztec Camera, Lloyd Cole and one of the UK’s biggest rock exports to America, Bush, have all benefited from their joint production techniques. Individually they’ve worked on recordings for The Specials, XTC, The Stranglers, Lene Lovich and others.
Like many of his generation, London-born Winstanley was inspired by the Beatles to pick up a guitar and as a teenager he played in a number of bands. But he soon realised that he wasn’t going to be the world’s greatest player and looked for a different path within music. He was taken by the sound of not only Beatles records, but also those of Motown and Phil Spector and realised that a great single was as much to do with the way it was recorded as it was the song itself. So he decided he would probably find success through working behind the scenes. His first job was in a small 4 track demo studio in 1970 - he stayed there for eight years, during which time this studio had grown to 24 tracks and attracted punk bands such as The Buzzcocks and Generation X. He worked as an engineer on many of these sessions and provided a solid foundation for his production partnership to follow.
Clive Langer was in a band called Deaf School that came in to use the studio, just as Winstanley was considering the transition from engineer to producer. Langer came from a different musical territory - he was proficient in flamenco guitar, had come up through the art house student rock route of listening to Dylan, Soft Machine, Crosby Stills and Nash and found himself a member of Brian Eno’s extraordinarily bad and surreal Portsmouth Sinfonia.
Remarkably their styles complimented each other perfectly and in the late 70s they began a partnership which spawned countless hit singles and albums.
Their production and arranging techniques have influenced other producers. For instance, Langer recalls the process of writing and recording the pizzicato strings for the Madness version of It Must be Love, only to be told at a later date by Trevor Horn that these same strings were an influence on The Lexicon Of Love. Winstanley comments on hearing Come On Eileen for the first time as a demo with lyrics about James Brown, Van Morrison and Kevin Rowland and wondering about its potential as a hit record.
Langer also recalls co-writing and producing Shipbuilding, not only for Elvis Costello, but also for Robert Wyatt - how a seminal song can have two completely different approaches and in the process working with jazz legend Chet Baker on one of his final recordings.
Richard Allinson and Steve Levine present this latest edition of the Record Producers, which includes comments and insight from amongst others Robert Wyatt, Suggs from Madness, arranger David Bedford and Langer & Winstanley.
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