We lost Martin Birch today. I haven’t seen why, but it’s a massive blow. The complete list of albums he was either producer or engineer on is astoundingly spectacular.
With Black Sabbath, he produced the first two Dio era albums, “Heaven And Hell”, and “Mob Rules”. He was there for the creation of my onramp to Black Sabbath. But it wasn’t just there. Rainbow Rising, Iron Maiden’s “Piece of Mind” and “Powerslave” (amongst others), Whitensnake’s “Slide It In”, it just keeps going.
Spin something of Martin’s today. Spin more than one, actually. His life’s work deserves more than one album’s remembrance.
It is with a very heavy heart I’ve just had verified my very dear friend & producer Martin Birch has passed away...Martin was a huge part of my life...helping me from the first time we met through until Slide It In...Mt thoughts & prayers to his family, friends & fans...💔💔 pic.twitter.com/J4UyDiG9zR
— David Coverdale (@davidcoverdale) August 9, 2020
Yep, a very capable hard rock producer who understood the sound of hard rock unlike some of the rubbish producers like Peter Collins (who basically ruined bands like Rush and Gary Moore with his godawful tinny overblown productions). Heaven And Hell, Mob Rules as well as stuff he did with other bands clearly shows this.
i have heard of him joe sounds like a wonderful man its a shame we are losing to many people that deserve longer lives
Don’t forget that he engineered all Deep Purple including In Rock, Fireball, Machine Head