Legendary British producer Martin Birch, who is best known for engineering and producing albums by Iron Maiden, Deep Purple, Whitesnake, Black Sabbath and others died on August 9th at the age of 71. Members of Iron Maiden have shared their thoughts on Birch’s passing.
Steve Harris: “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 humour 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.”
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 & funny human being. Martin & 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.”
Iron Maiden manager, Rod Smallwood: “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
16 Responses
The roster of albums Martin produced over the years is just incredible…..the soundtracks of my youth.
The sound of those awesome vinyl LPs he produced were works of art , he was an outstanding producer , he certainly passed before his time , I have many of those albums in my collection – in his memory I’ll play one tonight with a whiskey and a cigar RIP ~
I had heard a replay of Eddie Trunk’s show Saturday night and on it he was having a throwdown between “Heaven and Hell” and “Blizzard of Oz.” Eddie kept mentioning the production of Heaven and Hell as one of the reasons he chose that album over Blizzard.
I ‘m aware of Martin Birch mainly because of Iron Maiden and later on the two records he did with BOC and Sabbath and even Slide it In by Whitesnake. The sound from those records was nice and clear , the music had room to breathe as opposed to being loud for loud’s sake or sounding real sludgy.
The amount of albums he did that weren’t Maiden is phenomenal. Whitesnake Deep Purple an BÖC I forgot he produces Fire of Unknown Origin Good album.
I’m going to assume “Deep” is actually “Deep Purple”. I think that’s a safe assumption.
Yes, Myk,
Whoosh (pun intended) it is Deep Purple. It’s been fixed, thank you.
D 🙂