Legendary rock producer and engineer Martin Birch has died at the age of 71.
The news was confirmed on Twitter by Whitesnake vocalist David Coverdale, who said: “It is with a very heavy heart I’ve just had verified my very dear friend and 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. My thoughts and prayers to his family, friends & fans.”
Birch worked on some of the best-known albums in rock with artists including Iron Maiden, Deep Purple, Black Sabbath, Blue Oyster Cult, Fleetwood Mac and Rainbow.
He first collaborated with Deep Purple for Concerto For Group And Orchestra in 1969 and went on to work on albums including Deep Purple In Rock, Machine Head, Burn and Stormbringer. That led him to hook up with Iron Maiden for their 1981 album Killers.
That began a long relationship between Birch and Maiden, with Birch behind the desk for the band's next nine albums, including The Number Of The Beast, Powerslave, Somewhere In Time and Fear Of The Dark.
Speaking with Classic Rock about 1982’s The Number Of The Beast, Birch said: “I had the same feeling on The Number Of The Beast as when we did Deep Purple’s Machine Head. It was the same kind of atmosphere, the same kind of feeling, like, something really good is happening here.
“I remember we spent ages getting the vocal intro to the title track right. We did it over and over and over until Bruce Dickinson said, ‘My head is splitting. Can’t we move on and do something else and come back to this?’ But I wouldn’t let him do anything else until he’d got it perfect. It drove him crazy.”
Birch also had a close association with Coverdale and Whitesnake, lending his talents to multiple records including 1978’s Trouble through to Slide It In in 1984. He worked with Rainbow on records including Rising and Long Live Rock ’N’ Roll, and engineered a trio of Wishbone Ash’s albums: their self-titled debut in 1970, Pilgrimage the following year and 1972’s Argus.
With Black Sabbath, he was producer and engineer on Heaven And Hell and Mob Rules, while Birch also worked with Fleetwood Mac between 1969 and 1973, Jon Lord on his solo material, Jeff Beck, Peter Green, Gary Moore and Michael Schenker Group.
Sabbath’s Geezer Butler has said tribute to Birch, saying: “Really sad to hear of the passing of Martin Birch. Brilliant producer. Had the pleasure of working with him on the Black Sabbath albums Heaven And Hell and Mob Rules. Condolences to Vera and family."
Sad news.
He had a pretty hefty body of work.
https://www.discogs.com/artist/251596-Martin-Birch?type=Credits&subtype=Production&filter_anv=0
I always like his nicknames he used on the credits.
Besides being a master at crafting heavy sounds, Martin Birch was a man of many nicknames, including Sir Larry, Basher, Big Ears, Court Jester, Doc, The Farmer, The Wasp, Headmaster, Jah, Live Animal, Masa, Mummy’s Curse, Plan B, Pool Bully, The Bishop, The Juggler, The Ninja, Phantom of the Jolly Cricketers, and Disappearing Armchair.
He was also known as Martin “Black Night” Birch, apparently for his work with Deep Purple around the time of the influential Deep Purple In Rock album.
Everyone has a plan, till you get punched in the face,
I'm familiar with several of those albums and own several Deep Purple but somehow I'm not familiar with him. But I am now. RIP
jszfunk. On another subject, but one you like, DLR has said Van Halen has been inactive for five years and DLR thinks its likely Van Halen is done and Eddie will never play again so he is thinking of going solo.
But Wolfgang posted on Instagram that it is not up to DLR to decide if the Van Halen band is done or if his father will never play again.
The article this morning said it is speculated Eddie,who is 65, has been battling throat cancer and that is why the band is off the road and Eddie is laying low.
The throat cancer news has been around for several years and supposedly Eddie is being treated in the US and Europe and he blamed it on his self made metal picks he would put in his mouth when he was double tapping notes.
jszfunk. On another subject, but one you like, DLR has said Van Halen has been inactive for five years and DLR thinks its likely Van Halen is done and Eddie will never play again so he is thinking of going solo.
But Wolfgang posted on Instagram that it is not up to DLR to decide if the Van Halen band is done or if his father will never play again.
The article this morning said it is speculated Eddie,who is 65, has been battling throat cancer and that is why the band is off the road and Eddie is laying low.
The throat cancer news has been around for several years and supposedly Eddie is being treated in the US and Europe and he blamed it on his self made metal picks he would put in his mouth when he was double tapping notes.
yeah, I have heard some of that. Thanks!
I was thinking awhile back that they have only put out 4 full albums of studio material in the last 29 yrs. Wow...
Everyone has a plan, till you get punched in the face,
British heavy metal legends IRON MAIDEN have paid tribute to Martin Birch, who died on Sunday, August 9. He was 71.
The British music producer, whose nickname was Headmaster, was perhaps best known for his 11-year stint with MAIDEN, serving as the producer and engineer of such classic albums as "Killers", "The Number Of The Beast", "Piece Of Mind" and "Somewhere In Time".
Earlier today, MAIDEN bassist and founder Steve Harris said about Birch: "He was just absolutely brilliant. He wasn't just a producer, he was a hands-on engineer too, so he knew how to get a great sound. He was also fantastic at motivating people; he just had a knack of getting the best out of you. He was also a really nice man, great fun with a terrific sense of humor and that made him easy to work with. We all got along with him really well and the whole band is very saddened by today's news."
Added singer Bruce Dickinson: "To me, Martin was a mentor who completely transformed my singing: he was a psychotherapist and, in his own words, a juggler who could mirror exactly what a band was. That was his special talent as a producer. He was not a puppeteer, he did not manipulate the sound of the band, he just reflected it in the best possible way. Apart from all of that, he was a wonderful, warm and funny human being.
"Martin and I shared a passion for martial arts — he for karate and me for fencing which gave us another bond too.
"I'm so very sad to hear this news. It's incredible that he has passed away at such a young age for a man who was so full of life."
MAIDEN manager Rod Smallwood said: "He was a fantastic guy who always shared a mutual respect with the band. He never, ever, let us down in the studio. He was a true gentleman and he will be hugely missed by everyone in the MAIDEN family."
IRON MAIDEN albums produced by Martin Birch:
1981 - Killers
1982 - The Number Of The Beast
1983 - Piece Of Mind
1984 - Powerslave
1985 - Live After Death
1986 - Somewhere In Time
1988 - Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son
1990 - No Prayer For The Dying
1992 - Fear Of The Dark
1994 - Maiden England '88
Birch, who began his career in the late 1960s as an engineer, also worked on recordings for DEEP PURPLE ("In Rock", "Machine Head"), RAINBOW ("Rising", "Long Live Rock 'N' Roll"), WHITESNAKE ("Saints & Sinners") and BLACK SABBATH ("Heaven And Hell", "Mob Rules"). He retired in 1992.
Speaking with Classic Rock about "The Number Of The Beast", Birch said: "I had the same feeling on 'The Number Of The Beast' as when we did DEEP PURPLE's 'Machine Head'. It was the same kind of atmosphere, the same kind of feeling, like, something really good is happening here.
"I remember we spent ages getting the vocal intro to the title track right. We did it over and over and over until Bruce Dickinson said, 'My head is splitting. Can't we move on and do something else and come back to this?' But I wouldn't let him do anything else until he'd got it perfect. It drove him crazy."
Everyone has a plan, till you get punched in the face,
Monster engineer and producer.
Produced and engineered some of my all-time favorite heavy rock albums: Killers, Number of the Beast, Piece of Mind, Powerslave, Live after Death, Heaven & Hell, Mob Rules, Whitesnake's Live in the Heart of the City and Slide It In, Machine Head, Richie Blackmore's Rainbow, BOC Fire of Unknown Origin. And some of the strong early Fleetwood Mac albums.
Wish he had been the producer for Sabbath's Born Again. With his history with Ian, Iommi, Geezer & Bill he seemed natural and I suspect that project would have turned out much differently.
Monster engineer and producer.
Produced and engineered some of my all-time favorite heavy rock albums: Killers, Number of the Beast, Piece of Mind, Powerslave, Live after Death, Heaven & Hell, Mob Rules, Whitesnake's Live in the Heart of the City and Slide It In, Machine Head, Richie Blackmore's Rainbow, BOC Fire of Unknown Origin. And some of the strong early Fleetwood Mac albums.
Wish he had been the producer for Sabbath's Born Again. With his history with Ian, Iommi, Geezer & Bill he seemed natural and I suspect that project would have turned out much differently.
Great post. Same for me and his body of work. Love so many albums that he did.
Born Again would definitely have been much better. To be honest - On Mob Rules - Tony started to use a different guitar sound then and I imagine that he and Martin had discussions. LOL
Would prefer the sound on Heaven and Hell on both albums. I bet Martin would have too.
So many albums.......cranking Rainbow Rising right now and the sound is so good. Cozy's drums sound like they are in the room with me.
Monster engineer and producer.
Produced and engineered some of my all-time favorite heavy rock albums: Killers, Number of the Beast, Piece of Mind, Powerslave, Live after Death, Heaven & Hell, Mob Rules, Whitesnake's Live in the Heart of the City and Slide It In, Machine Head, Richie Blackmore's Rainbow, BOC Fire of Unknown Origin. And some of the strong early Fleetwood Mac albums.
Wish he had been the producer for Sabbath's Born Again. With his history with Ian, Iommi, Geezer & Bill he seemed natural and I suspect that project would have turned out much differently.
Great post. Same for me and his body of work. Love so many albums that he did.
Born Again would definitely have been much better. To be honest - On Mob Rules - Tony started to use a different guitar sound then and I imagine that he and Martin had discussions. LOL
Would prefer the sound on Heaven and Hell on both albums. I bet Martin would have too.
So many albums.......cranking Rainbow Rising right now and the sound is so good. Cozy's drums sound like they are in the room with me.
I had just gotten into Sabbath when Mob Rules came out and I jumped on the Dio years and the first 4 Sab albums (plus Ozzy's solo albums).
My older brother got to see the Mob Rules tour, but I was just a couple years too young. We were bummed when Dio left the band (fans are under some illusion a band will last indefinitely!). But then when it was announced that Ian had joined the band and Tony & Geezer had coaxed Bill Ward back, we thought "wow, this could be great!." At that point, everything associated with Sabbath was on fire....the two Dio-Sab albums plus Ozzy's first two records. So we of course expected something on par or close.
Then Born Again came out and were like "huh???". Weird songs and muddy production and why is Ian screaming at every possible break in the verse or chorus? Then Bill instantly quits and that tour provided some inspiration for Spinal Tap.
I'll play Trashed in a rotation and enjoy it now more than I did then, but we all thought even back then that Sabbath should have had Martin Birch at the helm for that project!
Canadian Mule, that is a good point about Iommi's shift in sound at that time, "Mob Rules" into "Born Again."
The shift in Iommi's has 2 parts: one is that Iommi got a more high, thin, distorted sound in his tone, a more 80s metal sound. His 1960s/70s sound had more of an organic distortion, like a very very loud amp, rather than a "processed" distortion. I'm no gearhead, so I do not know the extent to which some change in equipment lead to this sound.
The other shift is in Iommi's playing, especially his soloing. I feel like he tried a lot harder to play faster, with a lot of hammering - "Turn Up the Night" is an easy example of what I mean!! My assumption is that he was really trying to change with the times in terms of hard rock, as Eddie VH had really shifted the sound of hard rock/ metal from the Jimmy Page sound that dominated the 1970s to something more shreddy and less bluesy.
I would guess that using the newer kind of distortion actually enabled a faster sound, easier hammering.
This also meant a little less "thematic" sense in Iommi's playing. If you think about the end solo in "War Pigs" or the end solo in "Iron Man," or the solo in "N.I.B." Iommi used to include a very thematic, hummable lead guitar line to start and often end a solo, a line he would repeat with some faster licks in between. He did less of that in the 1980s and beyond.
Some of this applied to Blackmore too. I think in the early 1980s with Rainbow and then with the Purple reunion, Blackmore did somewhat try to add little more 80s-friendly shred element (in tone and in playing) than he might have had before.
He worked on Beckola, the MSG album w/ Graham B. Wishbone Ash and a few Whitesnake albums. If you pay attention, he has this unique mid-range dynamic in his production.
Hard to believe he had been retired for 28 years or so
Thanks for the great ear and talent, RIP
Good summary JimS of how Iommi's playing had evolved into the '80s...in hindsight I wish he had been more bluesy. That said, if he had continued with songs as good as Turn Up the Night or others when Ian joined the band, I would have taken that sound everyday of the week and twice on Sunday!
