RIP David Richards

For the exception I did hop to Brian's soupbox to read his words about the news that David Richards did pass away. One of the Queen (and for all Freddie Mercury) song producers. 

One by one .. 

TRIBUTE TO DAVID RICHARDS A sad day in Montreux and for Queen people around the world. Today we lost a very fine rock music producer and a great friend. Very sad to say that David Richards passed away today in Switzerland - after recurrent bouts of illness. We, as Queen, met David when we first stepped into Mountain Studios in the 1980s - and we instantly 'clicked'.  Dave was one of those people with a magic touch. Softly spoken and always absorbed in his work, David became our producer/ engineer of choice for half a dozen Queen studio albums - which is quick to say, but sums up an enormous volume of work. He had an innate talent for blending sounds - it was as if the studio was an extension of his body, so intimately in control of its workings was Mr Richards. David saw us through the changes from Analogue to Digital recording - but everything still ended up physically on reels of tape in those days. David was particularly adept at manipulating tape, synching up more than one multitrack at a time so we could effectively work on an unlimited number of parallel instrument tracks in any one song at a time. With us he pioneered the use of 'slave' reels which were used to store material which was to be needed later, freeing up the ‘master’.  In those days prior to the now all-pervasive hard disc and Protools technology, David used an early programming technique to make rhythmic loops from drums and sometimes bass, which he had an uncanny knack of combining with already recorded backing tracks, giving them a distinctive 'easy' feel. While we were out on our various tours, David worked successfully in Mountain Studios with other artists - notably David Bowie, Chris Rea and Iggy Pop ... Always at max quality. David was our lynch-pin during all those final days when we knew Freddie was near the end. When, months later, we got close to assembling the final versions of all those precious fragments into the tracks which made up the ‘Made in Heaven’ album, most of which we'd worked in Roger's and my own studios in England, we once again returned to Montreux and David.  Together we tied up every loose end, polished and fine-tuned the mixes.   One of my favourite moments with him was the creation of "Track 13" for that album. David and I lit up joss sticks and candles in the control room, powered up every machine in the building, and sat 'painting pictures’ with synthesisers and samplers against a slowly changing backdrop of drones - for the whole night - something like 8 hours, by the time it had evolved.  Roger wafted in, enjoyed the vibe, and played a 'solo' half way through, and wafted out.  Then somehow we got to a place where it seemed like the music had taken us all the way through some kind of worm-hole and out the other side. In the refreshing emergence we thought we could hear Freddie laughing - still not sure where that particular sample came from, but we left it in ... it's all mixed in with echoes of classical themes - the music seemed to have a life of its own. And - no - we didn't take any drugs !!!  Well, dear David ... We will miss you badly.  But I’m happy that we saw you one more time just a few days ago at the opening of the Queen Studio Experience.  I'm happy that, in my small speech, I remembered to say that one of the greatest reasons for always coming back to Montreux was David Richards.  And I'm happy you said afterwards, "I'm one of the luckiest men on the planet, to have shared all those times with you guys".  I would add, "And one of the most talented".  Rest in Peace, David. Our recorded music will carry a testament to your great work forever.  Bri

David Richards, Engineer/Producer to QUEEN.

Bri

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Roger Taylor - Official

• David Richards RIP
  
  Best known to Queen fans as the producer of their last four albums, David Richards' career was varied and distinguished.
  
  Born into a musical family in London in 1956, his father Bobby Richards worked as an orchestrator and arranger on various movie and stage productions, most notably with John Barry.
  
  David began piano lessons aged three, and by five he had already won a prize playing to an audience of over three hundred. He also became a championship-winning ice-skater and, whilst preparing the soundtracks for his skating routines, discovered a talent for editing music on audio-tape with a razor-blade and sticky-tape.
  
  As a boy of eight, David witnessed his father working on a movie soundtrack in a big London studio and later recalled: "There was a huge sound, all these knobs and guys with smart clothes, very cool, behind the console. I realised that this was what I wanted to do".
  
  David secured his first job in 1973 at Chappell Studios in London where he worked as assistant to chief engineer John Timperley recording many of the greats including Bing Crosby. He said of the time: "I learned to respect the musicians and to never interrupt them while they were searching for an idea".
  
  In 1975 John Timperley relocated to Montreux, Switzerland, as chief engineer of the brand-new state-of-the-art Mountain Studios within the recently re-built casino building, and asked David to accompany him. Within two years John had moved on to other things and David became chief engineer at the age of 21.
  
  By this time David had married Collette McCready and had two children together.
  
  During his time working at Mountain Studios, David encountered a huge range of artists plus hundreds more coming through the Montreux Jazz Festival. All this music, recording and mixing provided an enormous wealth of experience and, with his natural musical talent and his calm, discreet and efficient manner, it was unsurprising he was soon in demand as a record producer racking up countless gold and platinum discs and production credits for Queen, David Bowie, Chris Rea, Iggy Pop and Duran Duran to name a few. He won a Juno award in 1978 for Best Jazz Recording and at one point in 1994 David was Billboard Magazine's Producer Of The Month with three Number One records.
  
  David eventually bought the studio from Queen in 1993 and continued to work there until 2002 when he relocated Mountain Studios to the village of Attalens, not far from Montreux. Needless to say, his production work took him all over the world for months at a time but he always returned to his home near Montreux and Mountain Studios.
  
  After his first marriage ended David had a longstanding relationship with the cellist Nathalie Manser, producing a number of CDs together. Latterly he was married to Vivian Wong.
  
  David Richards passed away on the morning of Friday 20th December 2013 after a long illness. He will be remembered by many as a good friend. He was funny and generous and great company, a talented and capable man who had an instinctive "magic touch" in the recording studio. His creative productions and will be enjoyed for years to come.
  
  He is survived by his daughter Wendy and son Christopher.
  
  (Photo: Brian May, Roger Taylor, Claude Nobs, Freddie Mercury, David Richards and John Deacon)
  
  www.rogertaylorofficial.com