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Robin Sylvester at the Fillmore, 2010
photo courtesy of Susan Weiand

Robin Sylvester, bass player for Bob Weir’s Rat Dog, has been a fixture of the San Francisco music scene for so many years that one might understandably forget his substantial musical accomplishments in his own native England. In the late sixties, as the British Blues explosion rocked the pubs, clubs and concert halls of London Town, Robin was one of those lucky sods who witnessed it all, and much like his American counterparts who descended upon Yasgur’s farm in the summer of ’69, he can legitimately point to those heady times and say, “Yes, I was there!”

Born in 1950 Post War London, Robin spent much of his youth singing with the London Boy Singers, a professional boys’ choir patronized by distinguished composer Benjamin Britten. The choir performed regularly at Covent Gardens, and even made an album of Christmas music at famed Abbey Road Studios. Although now primarily known as a bass player, Robin also plays keyboard and guitar. By the time he turned 15 he was playing double bass in a Jazz band called, the David Lund Trio, and then later, the folk-rock band ORA. In 1969 he started working as chief engineer at London’s Tangerine Studios, and for the next 5 years worked closely with some of the finest up and coming Jazz, Progressive Rock, and Blues bands of Great Britain — none finer, at least in this writer’s view, than Ireland’s favorite son, Rory Gallagher.

Recently, I had a chance to ask Robin about those heady times in London where he witnessed first hand the great British Blues & Rock explosion — attending incredible shows at famed nightspots like the London Marquee, and recording aspiring musicians at Tangerine Studios. In Part Two of the interview, Robin Sylvester talks about his days as chief engineer for Tangerine Studios, and working with Irish legend, Rory Gallagher, on his album Deuce. Part One of this interview can be accessed here: Rory Days Part One.

Part Two: Tangerine Studios

Shadowplays: Tangerine Studios was a small independent studio, with an 8-track console? So it was more for the bands “on a budget” so to speak, then say an Abbey Road or the larger record company studios? It no longer exists, but where was it located? Gerry McAvoy said there was a great pub around the corner they use to frequent during breaks in recording. He also said that if you listen closely you can hear the next door Bingo Hall in the recordings.

Robin Sylvester: It was on Kingsland Rd, and was an 8-track budget-studio. But 8-track was state-of-the-art in 1969. Trident was the only 16-track in town. Things were just progressing from 4-track, and some of the best studios were just adding modules onto their old boards to keep up! We worked well for bands on smaller labels like Deram, Transatlantic, Dawn & Dandelion. And back then everyone made studio demos, too.
The bingo hall was a feature of life at Tangerine. It didn’t interfere very often, but Medicine Head didn’t like it and left. I once arrived on the late side to find Atomic Rooster and all their equipment surrounded by hundreds of bingo-ladies, all waiting in this narrow hallway! Vincent Crane cowering like Neil from the Young Ones!!

Shadowplays: And there is a Joe Meek connection to the studio? He was quite an historic producer back then. I think his boxes of “outtakes” from his Holloway Studio days went for a good penny at auction after his death. How long was Tangerine Studios around?

Robin Sylvester: Joe Meek’s connection was that we bought the old console from Lansdowne Studios, built by Meek, and we had it brought up to 8-track spec by Ted Fletcher, his tech. A great sounding board; quirky and difficult to operate! Tangerine was in dire shape by the time I went free-lance and started playing more in 1974. The next time I was there , late ’75, there were new owners and new (16-track, finally) equipment. I don’t know what happened after that.

Shadowplays: During your time there, you worked with some interesting bands, including the forgotten Black Cat Bones. This was after Kossoff and Kirke left? And you also played piano on the album as well — on the song, “Please Tell Me Baby”.

Robin Sylvester:

Black Cat Bones

The band was in transition, with Rod Price (Foghat) on guitar. It was a fun quick project, and I was still learning about sound . . . much credit to producer David Hitchcock, who must have known I was a novice 19-yr old who was eager to learn. The piano came about simply because they decided that track needed some piano, and after trying out everyone in the band I boldly volunteered and went out and played one take on the already miked piano. I was not present at the re-mix, and the next thing I knew there I was on the record; they even faded out the rest of the band for an awkward stumbling moment . . . . I’m very proud to have had the credit: ” Superb bad-rock piano . . .” There is also a track called “Sylvester’s Blues”, which was not about me, but about a certain close female relative. My lips are sealed.

Shadowplays: David Hitchcock produced this album as well as many of the progressive groups of the time; such as Caravan, Camel and Genesis. (I think he became an accountant years later.) I admit to a soft spot for those old prog days. You were involved with a few of the Caravan releases as well? That whole Cantebury scene was a melting pot of fantastic progressive rock and jazz bands. Caravan, Soft Machine, Camel, Hatfield and the North, National Health: just some incredibly gifted musicians in a small area in Kent. Some great keyboard players: Dave Sinclair, Dave Stewart, Peter Bardens, did you ever work with Peter Bardens? I still listen to some of his stuff with Peter Green. Late 60’s early 70’s was such an incredible, diverse time musically. You also worked in the studio with East of Eden? with David Arbus on violin? He did the solo in The Who’s Baba O’Riley.

Producer David Hitchcock

Robin Sylvester: East Of Eden was the first session I did with David Hitchcock. Very early on they came in to try the studio, and made some great demos. They came back to make the whole album, and with David’s guidance got a very reasonable sound. This was followed quite swiftly by Black Cat Bones and Caravan, with whom I formed quite a tight personal relationship for a couple of years. Lots of fun experimental stuff, all squeezed onto 8-track. Peter Bardens brought Marsupilami in, and did a few things of his own. There were SO many sessions in those days – I would frequently sleep under the piano! – a lot of jazz (John Surman), blues (Champion Jack Dupree, Aynsley Dunbar Retaliation) and a ton of hopeful writers (Richard O’Brien with bits of Rocky Horror material!!). The Move came in one day (as a 3-piece) and bashed out “Hello Suzie”. I was barely 19 and loving every minute!

Forgive me, but I would like to take this opportunity to thank David Hitchcock for lifting me out of the gutter one night when I was most embarrassingly incapacitated after a christmas party. My girlfriend had wisely abandoned me; but David bribed a taxi driver to take me home and everyone made fun of me for weeks. Doesn’t seem so funny now. Anyhow, I never had the chance to thank him: thanks David.

Shadowplays: You got to work with some great artists, but (at least for this writer) your greatest collaboration at Tangerine Studio was working with Irish legend, Rory Gallagher. Here is what Rory said about you in an interview in the mid-70″s. Sounds like with you at the boards, Rory didn’t need a producer!

I was working with a great engineer Robin Sylvester and he’s A-one. I’ve worked with him before and he’s caught us at gigs so I can leave a lot on his shoulders. — Rory Gallagher

Robin Sylvester: A-one! That’s a Rory turn of phrase all right! I can hear his gentle brogue saying that! Well, thanks for the confidence. I was a huge personal fan, so I gave his sessions my best. If he wanted to sing live in that tiny room with a loud band . .breaking every rule I had learned . . . then I would find a way to do it.

Shadowplays: Rory’s brother, Donal, has said that they first met you through your connection with Byzantium. Do you remember those times? I know they opened a few times for him at Sheffield Music Hall. Do you remember your first conversation with Rory?

Robin Sylvester: There was a management/agent connection. Someone probably said Rory would love this funky studio, and he came to try it out. I first met him in the studio; but it was very relaxed – just the 3 of them plus Donal. We hung out together on the break and talked about blues artists and the kind of sound he was after. He had more extensive knowledge of the blues than anybody else I’d ever met, and from the sound of it he had all those hard-to-find records, too!

Shadowplays: A very extensive knowledge of the blues. Watching old interviews of Rory is almost as enjoyable as watching him play. He was so knowledgeable about music, in particular about the Blues, and he spoke so articulately. How many albums did you engineer for Rory? And what was your favorite?

Robin Sylvester: Deuce, Live In Europe, Irish Tour 74, and Against The Grain were pretty much all my own work – I didn’t even rate an assistant at Tangerine! – I helped with the mixes on Tattoo, and there was other stuff that never saw the light of day back then.

Shadowplays: Let’s start with the first of these albums, Deuce. Johnny Marr called Deuce a major influence on his guitar playing:

I spent a day just playing along with the album. It was a complete turning point for me.” — Johnny Marr

Deuce

So Rory came into Tangerine Studios to have a look around, recorded a few tracks, then hired you guys to record his second solo album, Deuce? What do you remember about working on the project? The liner notes state that Rory was trying to “capture the raw feel of a live performance” and many of the sessions were recorded directly after or before gigs. That must have been exhausting going directly from a gig to recording. He was such a workaholic. And his approach to recording was a bare bones minimalist philosophy — hit “record” and see what we’ve got? Any favorites tunes from those sessions? I thought Crest of a Wave was a great way to end that album.

Robin Sylvester: That’s basically the story. I remember after the try-out I made some rough mixes, trying to impress him with wild Hendrix-y effects . . he must have HATED it! But he came back and politely steered me to the rough-edged sound he was after. He always wanted more bass on the guitar, liked to feel the room moving sympathetically. It was always sweaty in Tangerine, no matter the weather – and unbearable on summer days. Didn’t bother Rory! We would work in sensible time parcels, with decent breaks and Chinese take-away or Fish & Chips, and the pub before closing time. We did schedule some stuff after shows, yes. I don’t remember specifics. I was always amazed that Rory could rip off an overdub passage early in the morning with as much feeling as late at night. Actually the whole project was very quick. We mastered at Apple, by the way . . .it was always a thrill when they were still at Saville Row, just being in that Apple building!

Shadowplays: Did you ever meet the Beatles, or see any of their shows?

Robin Sylvester: Well, yes and no (however wiki-pedia has it!) I certainly saw them several times at the Finsbury Park Astoria, and their Christmas show at Hammersmith Odeon. Can’t say I really HEARD them, though, – the screaming was unreal. Never met any of them in any significant way . . . I saw John in an antique store in Weybridge in the summer of ’67, along with the painted Rolls-Royce, which was quite a thrill. Also saw him strolling down Amsterdam Avenue with Yoko in ’76, which somehow felt very normal! Ringo turned up at a Wardour St drinking club one day, but didn’t stay long. That’s about it. I learned bass from listening to Paul, and I was mixing at Abbey Rd one day when the Beatles were in the middle of making the AR album, – but they were not present that day. I was shown the studio. There was a note on the board not to touch anything because Paul would be coming in early to complete some vocals. I was, of course, quite a novice then, trying to remember everything, like the linen dish-cloths used to damp the drums; but mostly I remember the bed for Yoko, the toaster, the hang-out area behind the huge screens.

Shadowplays: For our interview you’ve gone back and had another listen to the albums you engineered for Rory. What was your impressions of Deuce, after so many years?

Robin Sylvester: I first put on my original Polydor UK album. In pretty good condition for 40 years of frequent playing! A little surface noise, but I can hear everything we did quite clearly. I’m very fond of it, as of one’s first-born, and I could never pick a favorite track. Every tune evokes a dozen memories, at least half of them technical. The drum sound is . . .very old-school. If we used 3 tracks for them it was a rare extravagance! No digital effects of any kind, of course, even in our dreams. We used no DI (direct feed) on the bass. Why not? Because we didn’t have one!
Most of Rory’s guitars were played live, along with the vocals. Some rhythm parts were doubled and added under the solos. I’d forgotten about the 12-string . . . And what a great harmonica player, too! All the slide parts and the open-tune rhythm-parts were played on the Telecaster; the rest on the Strat. This was still the Vox AC-30 with Treble-Booster period. Nothing else!

Shadowplays: I never thought about there being a difference in the sound between the UK release and American release of the same album. I might have to expand my collection. Thank heavens for ebay!

End of Part Two

This ends Part Two of my interview with Robin Sylvester. In Part Three, Robin talks about working with Rory on two of his live albums: Live in Europe, and Irish Tour ’74

Robin Sylvester © Soundpress.net

Robin Sylvester, bass player for Bob Weir’s band, RatDog, has been a fixture of the San Francisco music scene for so many years that one might understandably forget his substantial musical accomplishments in his own native England. In the late sixties, as the British Blues explosion rocked the pubs, clubs and concert halls of London Town, Robin was one of those lucky sods who witnessed it all, and much like his American counterparts who descended upon Yasgur’s farm in the summer of ’69, he can legitimately point to those heady times and say, “Yes, I was there!”

Born in 1950 Post War London, Robin spent much of his youth singing with the London Boy Singers, a professional boys’ choir patronized by distinguished composer Benjamin Britten. The choir performed regularly at Covent Gardens, and even made an album of Christmas music at famed Abbey Road Studios. Although now primarily known as a bass player, Robin also plays keyboard and guitar. By the time he turned 15 he was playing double bass in a Jazz band called, the David Lund Trio, and then later, the folk-rock band ORA. In 1969 he started working as chief engineer at London’s Tangerine Studios, and for the next 5 years worked closely with some of the finest up and coming Jazz, Progressive Rock, and Blues bands of Great Britain — none finer, at least in this writer’s view, than Ireland’s favorite son, Rory Gallagher.

Recently, I had a chance to ask Robin about those heady times in London where he witnessed first hand the great British Blues & Rock explosion — attending incredible shows at famed nightspots like the London Marquee, and recording aspiring musicians at Tangerine Studios. Of particular interest to me was his work with Blues and Rock guitarist extraordinaire, Rory Gallagher.

Part One … The London Marquee

Shadowplays: Hi Robin, thanks for taking time out from your busy schedule to answer a few questions about those times. Are you still playing with RatDog?

Robin Sylvester: My pleasure. My “busy schedule” is restricted at the moment, health concerns making on-the-bus travel impossible. I’m “sitting-in” a lot locally with some great bands, – mostly from the loose greater-Dead family. In fact I just heard they will release a cd of a recent night at the Filmore where I played with The David Nelson Band and also bluegrass legends Jesse McReynolds and Peter Rowan. So life continues to be exciting! RatDog seems to be fast asleep . . . but not dead!! Just last week Bob Weir mentioned something interesting . . . but I should probably not say anything. I am however involved with a project Bob is undertaking with the Marin Symphony Orchestra: he’s augmenting the orchestra with a “quartet”. Concert in May. By the way, that’s a very good concise resume .. I could never have written that myself. It takes us through about 1975, anyway!

Shadowplays: I saw recent mention of the “Fog City Geezers”? What was that about?

Robin Sylvester: Where on earth did you see that!! Last summer I played at a book launch with some friends elsewhere known as Jemimah Puddleduck. The book was a rock & roll mystery novel by Deborah Grabien, and there is an opening band in the book called The F.C.G’s. Hence we changed our name for the occasion, just as a quick joke – I had forgotten! Turned out to be really appropriate as the keyboard player got stuck in traffic and we played as a 3-piece. Still fairly loud and blues-y, though!

Shadowplays: Speaking of the Blues, let’s talk about those exciting times in London when you first started going to the Clubs, in particular the London Marquee Club, and seeing all those great bands. Did you go to the Marquee a lot? Did you go when it was in the basement of the old Academy Cinema or had it already moved to its Wardour location?

Robin Sylvester:

Marquee Club, London England

I only ever went to Wardour Street, but YES! that was the place I got my true education. It was affordable, done in time to get the last tube home and had no bar (until the 70’s) – and so was open to all ages. I would skip games afternoons to clean peoples’ houses for pocket money, hide my school blazer and head to Soho with my mate to see bands right from the charts at extremely close quarters. This included (between 65-68) The Who, Yardbirds, Cream and most of all the legendary Jimi Hendrix night.

Shadowplays: That Jimi Hendrix show was one of the defining moments of Rock! The Marquee Club seemed to have its fair share of those kind of moments. Melody Maker once described the Marquee as the “melting pot of today’s hip music, where jazz, folk, and pop meet on equal terms. Where trends are born, and stars emerge.” Such an incredible list of bands that appeared there! Looking at just one month of gigs there in March of ’65 they had: Long John Baldry and the Hoochie Coochie Men, Mike Cotton, Alex Harvey Soul Band, Manfred Mann, Moody Blues, T-Bone Walker, The Who, and The Yardbirds. They also added a recording studio in ’67 – a no-brainer considering the talent that came through the Marquee’s doors. What are your favourite memories of the Marquee?

Robin Sylvester: Well, you already got me started & now you’re encouraging me! That was the Beck Yardbirds, by the way, – opening band The Spencer Davis Group. I noticed Jeff Beck walking up to The Ship (pub on the corner) and stood watching musicians go in and out. Soon as I was old enough (maybe sooner..) I became a regular there myself. Quite convenient, half way between Trident Studios and the Marquee! The recording studio behind the Marquee really was nothing until they installed an MCI board in the 70’s. Then it was first class. Seeing Hendrix in that tiny crowded room in January ’67 was truly such a transcendental experience for me. I was privileged to be there. He didn’t even have original material yet! In late ’68 Yes (original line-up) had a Thursday night residency I went to several times. One rainy night I counted 11 people in the room! We asked them (while they were packing up their gear) why they didn’t have a record out and they said they were waiting because they wanted to sign with Atlantic!!!

Well, the Marquee was one of the main places and on a night you could see the Yardbirds supported by some other important group. I mean I saw the Spencer Davis Group there. I saw the Who there. The other clubs you could play included the Ricky-Tick, the 100 Club on Oxford Street, down in Richmond, the Tennis club the Yardbirds would play, tons of places, and lots of college gigs as well, and lots of pubs. — Rory Gallagher, 1991 interview for Goldmine Magazine

Robin Sylvester: If I looked through a book about mid-60’s bands I could make a pointless shopping-list of bands I caught here [at the Marquee] or elsewhere, notably Middle Earth/UFO/Roundhouse, the Saville Theatre and various colleges. Some more notable Marquee moments include: Muddy Waters, where drummer S.P.Leary was so drunk he fell off his stool; the night we went to see Lowell Fulsom, partly because Fleetwood Mac were billed to back him up. When we got there we found out The Mac were apparently “charging too much” and he would use The Aynsley Dunbar Retaliation instead: ok, we took a front row seat (& I use the term loosely!) in the fairly empty room and the opening band Navy Blue came out, announcing that from that night on they were calling themselves Jethro Tull, “The man who invented the seed drill”. How were they? Great! Another band whose blues roots were pure. Ian Anderson and Mick Abrahams did a couple of great acoustic blues tunes, I recall.

Long John was always around, and always had great bands. Manfred Mann, yes. Paul Jones was really friendly; we talked about R&B records one night & I went home and made a want-list of hard-to-find singles. Alex Harvey . . .Ah, Milo! The memories you are unlocking! But my Alex stories would come a little later. There was some rivalry between Geno Washington and Jimmy James & The Vagabonds. Seems silly now! Geno had a slick soul outfit, and Jimmy had a looser more Jamaican sound which I enjoyed. I’m still going to resist looking at a list!

Shadowplays: In an Adam Perry interview you mentioned that you watched the evolution of Fleetwood Mac from 3-piece to 4-piece to 5-piece. From Peter Green to Danny Kirwan? What a “long, strange trip it’s been” for them. I remember when they were called “Peter Green’s Fleetwood Mac”. He played with such incredible feeling. I like Santana’s take on Black Magic Woman, but Peter’s original version was so beautiful.

Robin Sylvester: Ah yes. A sublimely beautiful player. Played from somewhere deep inside, like our Rory. A couple of us used to go from gig to gig in London following PG’s FleetwoodMac – they played a lot. I was probably thinking of the early shows when they were technically a 4-piece, but used to do the serious stuff as a 3-piece – without Jeremy Spencer who would get up and do his Elmore James schtick every now and then. When Danny Kirwan joined (very suddenly) they became more integrated.

Shadowplays: Speaking of Rory, I remember reading that Rory was surprised when The Mac came out with the single “Albatross”. Rory was very much against “the single”. Were you involved in any of Mac’s later releases?

Robin Sylvester: Rory had his purist side! But I never heard him say anything negative about anything really. I could hear him laughing at it!! I never had a direct connection with The Mac, only individual members.

Shadowplays: Wikipedia has you down as playing with Christine McVie later on. Interesting since she started out with Chickenshack with ANDY Sylvester as band leader and bassist. No relation I guess? Did you play or work with any other FM splinter groups? For instance Bob Welch?

Robin Sylvester: Wiki has it right this time! This was around ’81 and the Mac was slowing down giving Christine time to stretch out as a producer and solo artist. We did some good stuff with singer/songwriter Robbie Patton, and got very close to doing Christine’s solo album. We had a good relationship, I thought, but things moved too slowly and there was a sort of L.A. shuffle while I was up in San Francisco by then.
Subsequently I did work some with Bob Welch, including a big show released on Laser Disc (!!) and some of which I’ve found on You Tube. One tune has all the Mac sitting in except Lindsey. I stayed on stage to cover his vocal part, and Stevie kept coming over to sing with me . . . It looks very strange!!! (Who IS this guy??)!!
No relation to Andy, nor the guy in the Hollies.

Shadowplays: Was this Bob Welch and Friends, Live at the Roxy 1981? I’ve seen videos of the concert on youtube.

Shadowplays: Well, let’s get back to the 60’s then. By the late 60’s Rory Gallagher was getting some attention with his band Taste. In a New Musical Express interview, John Lennon called Rory Galllagher and Taste: an especially “bright spot” in an otherwise dull year. The original Taste with Eric Kitteringham and Norman Damery played the Marquee on several occasions in early ’68 and then the new Taste with Wilson and McCracken did their first few shows there late that summer after signing with Polydor. Was it at the Marquee you first saw Rory Gallagher play, or somewhere else? What kind of impression did he make?

Robin Sylvester: A high-school band I was sitting in with opened for Taste at The Country Club, Belsize Park in mid-’68. Rory blew me away, but not the rhythm section. Years later he astounded me by remembering tunes from our setlist on that night!!

Shadowplays: The owner of the Marquee, Harry Pendleton, also organized the Reading Festivals, using it, among other things, as a way to promote the bands that had a residency at the Marquee. Taste played the Reading Festivals in ’68 and ’70, and the Rory Gallagher Band played it in ’71, ’73, ’76, and ’80. Did you ever go to the Reading Festival or other large festivals like the Isle of Wight that were popular back then?

Robin Sylvester: No. Sadly, once I started engineering in ’69 I just didn’t have that kind of time off for about 5 years. Sessions always over-ran, and I remember many late night dashes to try and catch the end of somebody’s set (and last call!). These were often bands I was working with, whose gigs were in strange remote places. I was getting my music mostly from records and, of course, daily huge doses in the studio.

I did make some of the larger London events, like The Technicolor Dream at Alexandra Palace, and Christmas On Earth at Olympia. Nobody was at their best at those, and the sound was terrible, except for Jimi [Hendrix] who didn’t need no stinkin’ fancy PA!! The Roundhouse Saturdays were all-night events which would end before the first tube. There was always an interesting crowd gathered waiting outside Chalk Farm station, or you could walk up to Primrose Hill and watch the dawn. I actually saw Donovan there once doing the same thing!

Shadowplays: You were also playing in bands by this time, the first being the David Lund Trio? Is this the jazz pianist, David Lund? He recently died of Parkinson’s Disease. In an article I read after his passing it mentioned that in his youth he would listen in bed to jazz on the American Services Radio. I remember reading that Rory Gallagher too would listen to American Services Radio in order to listen to Blues. This seemed one of the few ways to listen to American Blues & Jazz in those days.

Robin Sylvester: If you saved up 32-and-6 pence you could go to Dobell’s on Charing Cross Rd and listen to all kinds of records all day, then buy the most interesting one to take home. They had folk, jazz and blues in abundance. There was also a street market in Soho with barrows-full of great records.

Thanks for the link [to the David Lund article]. I was fascinated to read that he was well known for what he started with our trio. He used to invite famous musicians like Humphrey Lyttleton to the school to talk and play a few tunes with us, and he took us to see/meet Dudley Moore one day, playing with HIS great trio. I have my final report where he wishes me good luck in my musical career! I see he still lived on Frognal after all these years . . . that is just a few steps from the school where he taught. Even the church-yard in which they buried him is just over the back garden wall! A great man; he must have inspired many more generations of kids after me.

Shadowplays: After the David Lund Trio you played along with several other University College students in a band called Ora. How would you describe their sound? Folk-Rock? I’ve listened to the reissue of their one album that included some bonus tracks. Were you involved in the re-issue? I thought Whitch was a strong tune. Did it get some airplay? Some of the tunes are up on Youtube.

Ora band members James Rubinstein, Julian Diggle, and Robin Sylvester

Shadowplays: ORA evolved into Byzantium which had a much larger following. Was it a similar sound? Were you playing bass for them or had you by this time moved to the engineering/production side of the equation?

Robin Sylvester: Byzantium was another group of friends from school who performed intricate arrangements of James’s tunes (but without him, – at least at first). When they added Chaz Jankel (Blockheads) they became professional, signing with Gaff Management & securing a deal with A&M (UK) and Warner Bros (US). I had produced the demo tapes on a day off, and hence found myself suddenly co-producing a band with a real budget.

Shadowplays: You got into the technical side of record production, purely accidental? Can you explain the circumstances. What was the name of the band that you first filled in as engineer for?

Robin Sylvester: The owner of the record company that recorded Ora decided to build a studio, with no actual knowledge on the subject, in one corner of his bingo-hall in Dalston (N.E. London). I was hanging around from the start (spring of 69), watching the engineer they hired, & experimenting by myself or with friends in the middle of the night. One day early on, Jonathan King had booked the studio to try it out and to record a Serge Gainsberg tune with a handful of session-men, and when it became clear the engineer was not going to turn up, I stuck my neck out and confidently said I could handle it. And so I did. Mr King was very patient with what I’m sure was an inferior session for him; but I was hooked! The next day I was chief engineer and fielding “trial” sessions for all kinds of people, some of which went very well.

Shadowplays: Very well, indeed! You got to work with some incredibly talented people. Let’s talk about your time as chief engineer at Tangerine Studios.

End of Part One

This ends Part One of the Interview. In Part Two, Robin talks about his time as chief engineer for Tangerine Studios and in particular, his work with Rory Gallagher