John
Rowley: was a guitarist in the 80s Indie outfit Red
Guitars (check out Warner Brothers John Peel tribute album,
Right Time, Wrong Speed) and got the recording bug
making 7 singles and two albums with the band in studios like
Townhouse and Air in London and Amazon in Liverpool. When the
band split in the mid 80s he spent time working as a freelance
engineer in local studios before forming the Reelsound
Mobile in the late 80s. The mobile is one of the busiest
and best equipped mobiles in the country specialising in choirs,
brass bands, jazz and orchestral recording but with loads of
experience in location sound recording for TV, video and voice
over work.
John
Spence: After playing guitar with bands during the
1970s John spent two years touring with a concert PA company
working with The Blues Band, Bad Manners, Southern Death Cult,
Sex Gang Children and Geno Washington before moving into studio
work in 1982. Early clients included The Sisters of Mercy, The
Three Johns ,March Violets and The Mekons all of whose influence
helped to fashion John's approach to making records and over
the following few years he engineered and programmed on albums
by amongst others, The Rezillos and John Parr. In 1988 he recorded
the seminal “Bummed” album by the Happy Mondays
working alongside the late legendary Factory Records producer
Martin Hannet and since 1989 has enjoyed a creative and inspiring
relationship with Bill Nelson (Bebop Deluxe/Red Noise).
With Bill as producer John has recorded and mixed albums for
international artists such as Roger Eno, Kate St.John, Yumiko
Morioka, Nautilus Pompelius and Channel Light Vessel as well
as Bill's own highly acclaimed “Practically Wired”
and “After the satellite sings” albums. John continues
to master and compile all of Bill Nelson's output.
In 1990 John recorded, mixed and produced “Chill and Kiss”
for Ramon Tikaram and also handled the musical arrangements.
As a freelance engineer John worked on projects at many established
studios throughout the nineties including Sarm East and West,
Eden, Protocol, Sony International and Abbey Road, gathering
the valuable experience which he brings to his work these days.
Since 1998 John has been working with Mostly Autumn www.mostlyautumn.com
and has engineered, mixed and produced ten of their studio albums
as well as guitarist Bryan Josh's solo album “Through
these eyes”.
Now, whilst working as resident engineer at Fairview Studio
, John has completed projects with many different clients including
The Beautiful South, Terrorvision and The Paddingtons to name
but a few.
John is also a mixing and mastering engineer and his post production
work is highly valued by many artists. In 2009 he supervised
the final mix and Production Mastering for albums by Parade,
Paul Cusick and Mostly Autumn's stunning double live album and
3-disc retrospective compilation “Pass The Clock”.
John gives lectures and informal workshops on various aspects
of recording, mixing and mastering. His long experience of working
through the analogue/digital transition brings an interesting
slant to these subjects and many Music Technology students have
benefited from this.
He has spent time in the last two years visiting studios to
troubleshoot specific issues ranging from room acoustics to
equipment selection and many home recordists have appreciated
this service.
John Spence can be contacted directly via any of these,
Recording and Mastering Engineer
20 Churchside
Appleby
North Lincs
DN15 0AJ
Tel. 01724 732062 / 0771 806
1297
Email: johnspence175@btinternet.com
www.recording-microphones.co.uk
