Anthony Charles Mansfield (born 19 January 1955) is an English songwriter, musician and record producer. [1]
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Mansfield was born in Wimbledon, London, and became best known as the main songwriter/producer for New Musik, a synthpop band that performed from 1979 to 1982. [2] Following their debut hit single "Straight Lines" in 1979, the band had three further UK Top 40 hits in 1980 ("This World of Water", "Sanctuary" and "Living By Numbers"), and released three albums: From A To B (1980), Anywhere (1981) and Warp (1982). The group also released a compilation album for the United States in 1981 known as Sanctuary which consisted of tracks from the first two albums. After the demise of GTO Records, New Musik disbanded. [3]
Mansfield's career as a freelance producer had begun pre-New Musik in the late 1970s, and after the demise of his band he turned exclusively to production. Mansfield became skilled in the use of the Fairlight CMI and used it extensively throughout the 1980s for production and pre-production. During this time he worked on a number of successful albums and singles for various artists in the 1980s, most notably Naked Eyes, Captain Sensible (which included writing credits on hits such as "Glad It's All Over", "There Are More Snakes Than Ladders" and "One Christmas Catalogue"), the debut album Hunting High and Low by a-ha, XXX by Miguel Bosé, Showpeople by Mari Wilson, Bouncing off the Satellites by The B-52's, [4] Vicious Pink, Jean Paul Gaultier and After the Fire.
In the 1990s he produced the No.1 debut album Puntos Cardinales for Ana Torroja and in 2001, Online for the Latvian band Brainstorm amongst other production works. [5]
Mansfield's work has featured in various television productions, advertisements and films including Earth Girls Are Easy (1988), Romy and Michele's High School Reunion (1997) and Hysterical Blindness (2002).
James Martin Hannett was a British record producer, musician and an original partner/director at Tony Wilson's Factory Records. Hannett produced music by artists including Joy Division, the Durutti Column, A Certain Ratio, Magazine, John Cooper Clarke, New Order, Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark and Happy Mondays. His distinctive production style embraced atmospheric sounds and electronics.
Bernard Edwards was an American musician, songwriter and record producer, known primarily for his work in disco music with guitarist Nile Rodgers, with whom he co-founded Chic. In 2017, Edwards was selected as the 53rd greatest bassist of all time by Bass Player magazine.
David Frank Paich is an American keyboardist, singer, and songwriter, best known as the co-founder, principal songwriter, keyboardist, and secondary vocalist of the rock band Toto since 1977. He wrote or co-wrote much of Toto's original material, including the band's three most popular songs: "Hold the Line", "Rosanna", and "Africa". With Toto, Paich has contributed to 17 albums and sold over 40 million records. He and guitarist and singer Steve Lukather are the only members to appear on every studio album.
Bouncing off the Satellites is the fourth studio album by American new wave band the B-52's, released on September 8, 1986, by Warner Bros. Records. It was recorded in July 1985 and was produced by Tony Mansfield. Founding member and guitarist Ricky Wilson died of AIDS after most of the work on the album was completed, but a year prior to its release. The B-52's had gone on hiatus by the time Bouncing Off the Satellites was released, and it took three years for the band to recover from Wilson's death and release their next studio album, Cosmic Thing.
China Crisis are an English new wave and synth-pop band formed in Kirkby, near Liverpool, Merseyside in 1979 with a core of lead vocalist/keyboardist Gary Daly and guitarist/vocalist Eddie Lundon. Initially a politically charged post-punk band influenced by Brian Eno's ambient soundscapes, China Crisis soon crossed over to a more commercial sound and had success in the United Kingdom in the 1980s with ten top 50 singles, including the top 10 hit "Wishful Thinking", and three albums charting in or just outside the top 20, including Working with Fire and Steel and the top 10 entry Flaunt the Imperfection, that both received a gold certification.
The Babys are a British rock group best known for their songs "Isn't It Time" and "Every Time I Think of You". Both songs were composed by Jack Conrad and Ray Kennedy, and each reached No. 13 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 and No. 8 on the Cashbox chart in the late 1970s. "Back on My Feet Again" also reached the U.S. Top 40 in 1980. The original Babys line-up consisted of founding member keyboardist/guitarist Michael Corby, and, in order of joining the group, vocalist/bassist John Waite, drummer Tony Brock and guitarist Wally Stocker.
Fashion was a British new wave band, primarily active from 1978 to 1984, with a brief revival in 2009. They began as a post-punk band, before developing into a new wave/synth-pop ensemble that placed three singles on the lower reaches of the UK chart in 1982–84.
Domenico Monardo, known as Meco, was an American record producer and musician, as well as the name of his band or production team. Meco is best known for his 1977 space disco version of the Star Wars theme from his album Star Wars and Other Galactic Funk; both the single and album were certified platinum in the US.
Edward Sydney Schwartz C.M. is a Canadian musician who had moderate success as a recording artist in the early 1980s before becoming a successful songwriter and record producer in the late 1980s and the 1990s. Songs he has written or co-written include the top-10 Billboard hits "Hit Me With Your Best Shot", "Don't Shed a Tear" and "The Doctor".
New Musik were an English synth-pop group active from 1977 to 1982. Led by Tony Mansfield, they achieved success in 1980 with the top 20 single "Living by Numbers" which was followed up with the top 40 hits "This World of Water", "Sanctuary" and hit album From A to B.
The Passions were a British-Irish post-punk/new wave band which formed in 1978 and disbanded in 1983. The Passions' music was grounded mainly in Barbara Gogan's voice and Clive Timperley's delicate Echoplex guitar work. They were considered a one-hit wonder due to their early 1981 single "I'm in Love with a German Film Star".
"Working My Way Back to You" is a song made popular by the Four Seasons in 1966 and the Spinners in 1980.
Richard James Burgess is an English musician, singer, songwriter, record producer, composer, author, manager, marketer and inventor.
Clive Gates is a British musician who was the keyboardist and synthesizer player of the synthpop band New Musik from 1979 until 1982, replacing original member Nick Straker who left to form the Nick Straker Band. Gates remained as a member of the New Musik until they split up.
Alan Tarney is an English record producer and musician. He was born in Northside, Workington, Cumberland, but spent his teenage years in Adelaide, Australia, where he met his songwriting and musical partner Trevor Spencer. He is best known for his association with Cliff Richard and producing "Take On Me" by A-ha.
Bettina Köster is a German musician, saxophonist, composer, singer, songwriter and producer.
Rolf Graf was a Norwegian singer, bass guitarist, composer and record producer, and the younger brother of keyboardist Haakon Graf and the jazz singer Randi Elisabeth Graf. He is best known as the bassist in the band Lava, but was also recognized as music producer, musician and songwriter for other artists like Randy Crawford, Mezzoforte and Sissel Kyrkjebø. He also released three solo albums and was editor of the journal Musikkpraksis.
Women and Captains First is the debut solo album by English musician Captain Sensible, best known as guitarist for The Damned, released on 3 September 1982 by A&M Records. It features contributions from producer Tony Mansfield, Robyn Hitchcock and the band Dolly Mixture. The album was preceded by the singles "Happy Talk" and "Wot", which peaked at numbers 1 and 26 on the UK Singles Chart, respectively. The album reached No. 64 on the UK Albums Chart. It was reissued on CD in 2009 by Cherry Red Records, including six bonus tracks.
Alexander William "Sandy" Roberton was a British record producer and music business owner. His 60-year career spanned record production, artist management, music publishing, record label ownership, and producer management.
Robert Sargeant was a British musician and record producer.