We are delighted to present a new video interview with Tony Platt. We have kept the archive interviews and these can be found further down the page but this video uses the recording of AC/DC's legendary Back in Black album as an example of how he works to make every album that he records special.
Many thanks to Tony for taking the time out, to our amazing video crew and to Julie and Nikki at Townhouse Studios for making this possible. Tony is a leading member of the British Music Producer's Guild (MPG).
Tony Platt’s career in the music business started at Trident Studios in London but he made his name as an engineer at the now legendary Island Studios. Working his way from assistant engineer to engineer on sessions with the likes of Free, Traffic, The Who, Rolling Stones, Sutherland Brothers, Led Zeppelin, Paul McCartney, Jess Roden and Mott the Hoople to he came to engineer albums for a hitherto unknown Jamaican artist, Bob Marley, which would launch reggae music into the mainstream for good. This association led him to complete ”Funky Kingston” for Toots and the Maytals and work with several other notable Jamaican artists such as ZapPow, Lorna Bennet, Harry J’s All Stars, Aswad and The Cimarons.
However, although Tony Platt’s reputation is principally based on his work in the world of rock, at Island he gained other more eclectic experience working on the numerous orchestral, commercial and pop sessions that came through the studio and some fairly eccentric projects including a 30 piece avant garde jazz band and an album consisting entirely of Tibetan bells ! After working with the various spin off projects from the recently disbanded Free - Sharks, Toby, Peace and Kossoff, Kirke,Tetsu and Rabbit and as engineer for Muff Winwood on the debut Sparks album Kimono in my House he finally left Island and turned freelance.
Having recorded demos that prefaced deals for Thin Lizzy and the Stranglers he became engineer for Mutt Lange. With Mutt, Tony worked on the AC/DC albums Highway to Hell and Back in Black, Foreigner - 4, Boomtown Rats - Fine Art of Surfacing and Broken Home and AC/DC asked him to mix the soundtrack on their documentary film and then to work with them on Flick of the Switch.
When he joined the Zomba producer roster in 1980 Tony enjoyed immediate success producing and engineering the work of artists such as Samson (with Bruce Dickenson singing) & Iron Maiden, Krokus, Motorhead, Gary Moore, Cheap Trick, The Cult, Marillion , the list goes on.
His philosophy has always been to enhance music by the use of technology . He has always kept very much apace with the rapid advances in audio and music technology that are taking place - from computers to the new breed of all digital consoles - and so is incomparably well placed to achieve this.
His constant desire to try new recording techniques and musical styles has led him to involvement with ambient artists Low Pass and industrial metal artists Die Krupps and Spine Grinder.This knowledge of combining recording techniques has been invaluable to a new progressive band such as Anathema and his respect for the value of a good song has contributed to the high quality of work from Flowers for Breakfast and Buzztonic . Never losing that touch for the basic approach though, he recorded two albums for Buddy Guy - the Grammy winning “Damn Right I Got the Blues” and the follow up “Feels Like Rain”
More recently he has mixed an album for heavy indie rock band ‘Huge Baby’, worked on tracks with newly signed singer/songwriter Louise Dowd for Albert’s productions, AC/DC’s publishers and mixed an album for prog. rock band Terra Nova signed to JVC. He continues his work helping to develop Liverpool based rock band Deadline and has been producing vocals and mixing new tracks with Low Pass for BMG.
Mixing has also just been completed on a revival album for 80’s heavy rock outfit Krokus and a single recorded and mixed for BMG artist Akira has just been released. In conjunction with Bernie Marsden he is putting the finishing touches to some 3 hours of recordings with legendary New York bluesman Larry Johnson. Tony has also been at Rockfield Studios recording an EP with a young band from Kendall called Streem and at his ‘local’ studio Great Linford Manor with talent contest winners Fenside.
Projects completed recently include "Fubar" featuring Canadian singer/songwrtier Gered Stowe for Luc Van Acker's new BMG hosted alternative label "les enfants terrible". Development work is still in progress with Nottingham based "Dai Lo" and further tracks are soon to be recorded with pop/hop artists "Streem"
Contact Tony via e-mail by clicking tp@platinumtones.com
TONY PLATT - DISCOGRAPHY
(a selection of the early days)
1973 Bob Marley & The Wailers “Catch A Fire” Eng Island
1973 Toots & The Maytals “Funky Kingston Eng Island
!973 Bob Marley & The Wailers “Burnin’ “ Eng Island
1973 Sharks “Sharks” Eng Island
1974 Sparks “Kimono in my House” Eng Island
1974 Ducks Deluxe “ Ducks Deluxe” Eng RCA
1976 Aswad “Aswad” Prod/eng Island
1978 Cimarons “Live” Prod/eng Polydor
1978 Cimarons “Maka” Prod/eng Polydor
1979 AC/DC “Highway To Hell” Mix Atlantic
1979 Boomtown Rats “Fine Art of Surfacing” Eng/mix Ensign
1980 Broken Home “Broken Home” Eng/mix WEA
1980 AC/DC “Back In Black” Eng/mix Atlantic
1980 Foreigner “ 4 “ Eng Atlantic
(From Zomba onwards)
1980 Iron Maiden “Phanton of The Opera Prod/eng EMI
1980 Samson “Head On” Prod/remix GEM
1981 Trust “March ou Creve” Prod/eng CBS
1981 Samson “Shock Tactics” Prod/eng GEM
1981 Starfighters “Alley Cat Blues” Prod/eng Jive
1982 Steve Warley “Steve Warley” Prod/eng Jive
1982 Krokus “One Vice at a Time” Prod/eng Arista
1982 The Dogs “Too Much Class....” Prod/eng CBS
1982 Starfighters “In Flight Movie” Prod/eng Jive
1983 Motorhead “Another Perfect Day” Prod/eng Bronze
1983 AC/DC “Flick of the Switch” Eng/Coprod Atlantic
1984 Manowar “All Men Play On Ten” Remix/prod Virgin
1984 Gary Moore “We Want Moore” Prod/eng Virgin
1984 Billy Squier “Signs of Life” Eng/Coprod Capitol
1984 Marillion “Fugazi” Remixes EMI
1984/5 Gary Moore “Emerald Aisles” Prod/eng Virgin
1984/5 Uriah Heep “Equator” Prod/eng CBS
1985 Shy “Brave the Storm” Prod/eng RCA
1985 Y & T “Summertime Girls Remix A&M
1985 Mass “New Birth” Prod/eng RCA
1985 Cheap Trick “Standing on the Edge” Remix/prod Epic
1985 VowWow “Nightless City” Prod/eng EMI
1986 Krokus “Live & Dangerous” Prod/eng Arista
1986 Cheap Trick “The Doctor” Prod/eng Epic
1986/7 Jeff Paris “Wired” Prod/eng Phongram
1987 The Cult “BBC-Late Night in Concert Prod BBC
1987 The Alarm “Eye of the Hurricane” Eng/coprod IRS
1987/8 Light a Big Fire unreleased album Coprod/eng Siren
1988 Celtic Frost “Cold Lake” Prod/eng Noise
1988 Vamp “Renegade” Prod/eng Atlantic
1988/9 Lillian Axe “Love & War” Prod/eng MCA
1989 No Excuse “Too Hard To Handle” Prod/eng Mercury
1989 Jagged Edge “Trouble” Prod/eng Polydor
1989 Johnny Crash “Neighborhood Threat” Prod/eng WTG
1990 Thunderhead “Break For The Border” Prod/eng EMI
1990 Sweet Addiction “E.P. Prod/eng Survival
1990 Depp Jones “Return to Caramba” Prod/eng CBS
1990 Crossroads “Wild One” Prod/eng EMI
1990 Ronnie James Dio “Lock Up The Wolves” Coprod/eng Polygram
1991 Bonham “Mad Hatter” Prod/eng WTG
1991 Moody Marsden Band “Never Turn Your Back ..” Coprod/eng Castle
1991 Buddy Guy “Damn Right I got The Blues” Eng/coprod Silvertone
1992 New England “Earth Mother” Prod/eng Streetlink
1992 Les Casse Pieds tracks Prod/eng PEM
1992 Testament “The Ritual” Prod/eng Atlantic
1993 McQueen Street unreleased album Prod SBK
1993 Mighty Mighty Bosstones “Don’t Know How To Party” Prod/eng Mercury
1993 Buddy Guy “Feels Like Rain” Eng/coprod Silvertone
1993 Walter Trout “Tellin’ Stories” Prod/eng Silvertone
1994 Moody Marsden Band “Live in Hell” Coprod/eng Castle
1994 Moody Marsden Band “Real Faith” Coprod/eng Castle
1994 Blue Blot “YoYo Man” Prod/eng BMG
1994/5 Flowers for Breakfast “Nervous” Prod/eng CBS
1994/5 Buzztonic “Arcade Babies” Prod/eng Pure
1995 Die Krupps “Odyssey of the Mind” Prod/mix Rough Trade
1995 The Godfathers “Afterlife” Prod/eng Intercord
1995 Bernie Marsden “Green and Blues” Coprod/eng Castle
1995 K’s Choice “Paradise in Me”(addl.tracks) Prod/eng CBS
1995 Stabbing Westward “Shame” Remix Columbia
1995 Horsepower Album tracks Prod/mixer TBA
1996 Feed Album tracks Prod/eng TBA
1996 Soul Wax “Kill Your Darlings” Prod/eng Play It Again Sam
1996 Spine Grinder “Meat Greed” Prod/mixer Antler Subway
1996 Low Pass “Circles In The Square” Prod/mixer BMG
1996 Pop in Wonderland “Sunshine Pilots” Eng/remix BMG
1996 Anathema “Eternity” Prod/eng MFN
1996 Fraser in production Prod/eng TBA
1996 Normahl Normahl Prod/remix BMG
1997 Ten tracks Prod/eng RCR
1997 Terra Nova “Break Away” Remix JVC
1997 Mau Mau tracks Prod/eng RCR
1997 Greg Darling “Greg Darling” Prod/mix Monaco
1997/8 Huge Baby to be released Prod/mix Alberts Prods.
1998 The Snakes “The Snakes” Mix Castle
1998 Low Pass singles Prod/eng BMG
1998 Lazy Dollies in production Prod/eng Brilliant Records
1998/9 Deadline album Prod/eng Map Management
1999 Low Pass singles Prod/mix BMG
1999 Terra Nova Make My Day Prod/mix JVC
1999 Akyra Future Days Mix BMG
2000 Larry Johnson Live tracks Mix Lottie Prods.
2000 Micky Moody “I Eat Them For Breakfast” Mix Armadillo
2000 Fubar “Fubar’ Prod/Eng lesenfantsterribles
