Tony Cox (record producer)

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Tony Cox is a British record producer and arranger. As such he was influential in late 1960s and 1970s folk rock developments and the fledgling progressive rock scene, and has since worked primarily as a composer and orchestrator.

Contents

Career

He entered the music business as a performer in 1966, and as a duo with Douglas MacRae-Brown released The Young Idea LP in 1967, [1] and had a UK top ten hit single with a cover version of the Lennon-McCartney song "With a Little Help from My Friends". [2] (The album was re-issued on CD in 2009 with previously unreleased tracks.) He continued performing in the studio with various acts he produced such as Trees [3] and Mick Softley. [4] He was an early adopter of the EMS VCS 3 synthesizer and in 1971 played on the Spirogyra album St. Radigunds, [5] and Mike Heron's album Smiling Men With Bad Reputations.[ citation needed ] In 1972 he played piano with The Bunch alongside Sandy Denny on vocals, [6] and in 1976 he played synth on Martin Carthy's Crown Of Horn LP. [7]

In 1974 he founded Sawmills Studios in Cornwall, [8] one of the first residential recording studios in the UK. [9]

In 1978 he married the singer-songwriter Lesley Duncan, [10] and produced her single "The Magic's Fine". [11] In 1979 produced and arranged the charity single "Sing Children Sing" for the International Year of the Child. [10] In 1982 he produced Duncan's cover version of Bob Dylan's 'Masters of War' single. [10] In 1996 they moved to the Isle of Mull, Scotland. [12]

From 1988 to 1990 he worked for Andrew Lloyd Webber's Really Useful Group as music supervisor, overseeing various shows. Recently Cox has been composing for instrumental ensemble, creating a uniquely distinctive sound by utilizing unusual modal scales and unorthodox harmonies (which he has named Pleiomodalism) mixing rigid compositional rules with John Cage like chance elements. [12]

Credits

Producer

Arranger and orchestrator

References

  1. ↑ The Young Idea LP, at Discogs.com Retrieved 5 November 2016.
  2. ↑ The Young Idea, on officialcharts.com] Retrieved 5 November 2016.
  3. ↑ Trees on Discogs.com Retrieved 6 November 2016.
  4. ↑ Mick Softley on Discogs.com Retrieved 6 November 2016.
  5. ↑ Spirogyra on Discogs.com Retrieved 6 November 2016.
  6. ↑ The Bunch on Discogs.com Retrieved 6 November 2016.
  7. ↑ Martin Carthy on Discogs.com Retrieved 6 November 2016.
  8. ↑ The Great British Recording Studios, by Howard Massey
  9. ↑ Sawmills studio 'about us' Sawmills.co.uk Retrieved 6 November 2016
  10. 1 2 3 Interview with Lesley Duncan, at lesleyduncan.net Retrieved 6 November 2016
  11. ↑ Lesley Duncan – The Magic's Fine on Discogs.com Retrieved 6 November
  12. 1 2 Tony Cox, FATTO* – a little about what I’ve done Retrieved 8 November 2017
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