Philip Stephen Dudderidge (born 6 February 1949 in

Radlett Radlett is a large village in Hertfordshire, England, between Elstree and St Albans on Watling Street, with a population of 10,060. It is in the council district of Hertsmere in the south of the county, and forms part of the civil parish of A ...

, England) is a British sound engineering entrepreneur. He is a notable figure in the

professional audio Professional audio, abbreviated as pro audio, refers to both an activity and a category of high-quality, studio-grade audio equipment. Typically it encompasses sound recording, sound reinforcement system setup and audio mixing, and studio mus ...

industry, having worked as

Led Zeppelin Led Zeppelin were an English rock music, rock band formed in London in 1968. The band comprised vocalist Robert Plant, guitarist Jimmy Page, bassist-keyboardist John Paul Jones (musician), John Paul Jones and drummer John Bonham. With a he ...

's concert sound mixer, and later co-founding Soundcraft Electronics Ltd before serving as Chairman of Focusrite Audio Engineering Ltd.

Early years

Phil Dudderidge was born in 1949, the second son and fourth child of

John Dudderidge John Webster Dudderidge OBE (August 24, 1906 – January 23, 2004) was a British canoeist who competed in the 1936 Summer Olympics. For many years he was head of PE at Haberdashers' Aske's boys school in north London, where he also headed t ...

OBE and Dr. Evelyn Dudderidge. Dudderidge attended

Haberdashers' Aske's Boys' School Haberdashers' Boys' School (formerly Haberdashers' Aske's Boys' School) is a 4–18 boys Independent school (United Kingdom) in Elstree, Hertfordshire, England. It is a member of the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference. The school was ...

Elstree Elstree is a large village in the Hertsmere borough of Hertfordshire, England. It is about northwest of central London on the former A5 road, which follows the course of Watling Street. In 2011, its population was 5,110. It forms part of the ...

Hertfordshire Hertfordshire ( or ; often abbreviated Herts) is a ceremonial county in the East of England and one of the home counties. It borders Bedfordshire to the north-west, Cambridgeshire to the north-east, Essex to the east, Greater London to the ...

, but dropped out of school at the age of 17 to work for Gerald Frankel at CAPS Research Ltd. In 1967, he got a job with noted UK underground newspaper ''

International Times ''International Times'' (''it'' or ''IT'') is the name of various Underground press, underground newspapers, with the original title founded in London in 1966 and running until October 1973. Editors included John Hopkins (p ...

'' delivering the paper and posters from Osiris Visions to outlets around London. While working there, he met Osiris Visions owner and record producer / band manager

Joe Boyd Joe Boyd (born August 5, 1942) is an American record producer and writer. He formerly owned Hannibal Records. Boyd has worked with Pink Floyd, Fairport Convention, Sandy Denny who was in Fairport Convention, Richard Thompson, Nick Drake, The ...

and became a roadie / chauffeur for

Fairport Convention Fairport Convention are an English British folk rock, folk rock band, formed in 1967 by guitarists Richard Thompson (musician), Richard Thompson and Simon Nicol, bassist Ashley Hutchings and drummer Shaun Frater (with Frater replaced by Marti ...

and subsequently the

Incredible String Band Incredible may refer to: Music Albums * ''Incredible'' (Clique Girlz album) or the title song, 2008 * ''Incredible'' (Gary Puckett & The Union Gap album), 1968 * ''Incredible'' (Ilse DeLange album), 2008 * ''Incredible'' (Mary Mary album) or ...

. Dudderidge later worked with

Pete Brown Peter Ronald Brown (25 December 1940 – 19 May 2023) was an English performance poet, lyricist, and singer best known for his collaborations with Cream and Jack Bruce.Colin Larkin, ''Virgin Encyclopedia of Sixties Music'' (Muze UK Ltd, 1997) ...

and The Battered Ornaments and

Soft Machine Soft Machine are an English Rock music, rock band from Canterbury, Kent. The band were formed in 1966 by Mike Ratledge, Robert Wyatt, Kevin Ayers, Daevid Allen and Larry Nowlin. Soft Machine were central in the Canterbury scene; they became o ...

Live sound

In 1970, Charlie Watkins (of WEM PA fame) introduced Dudderidge to Peter Grant, manager of

, beginning not only Dudderidge's first concert sound engineering assignment, but also it is believed the notable position of Led Zeppelin's first dedicated live sound engineer (and "WEM expert"). This job lasted from March to May 1970, encompassing tour dates in both Europe and the U.S. The tour almost killed him due to lack of sleep and near misses on the road, and he chose to leave the band to work in the live sound industry. While working for Hiwatt Amplification (1970-1971) he became house engineer for the Implosion concerts at the Roundhouse in London, providing the Hiwatt PA and backline equipment. He then partnered with Paul Dobson and

Graham Blyth Graham Blyth (22 March 1948 – 22 October 2024) was an English audio engineer, known for designing mixing consoles. He co-founded Soundcraft, a manufacturer which Blyth helped form into a world leader in Sound reinforcement system, sound reinf ...

to form his first company, RSD, building custom PA systems for

Roy Wood Roy Wood (born 8 November 1946) is an English musician, singer and songwriter. He was particularly successful in the 1960s and 1970s as member and co-founder of the Move, Electric Light Orchestra and Wizzard. Wood formed the Move in 1965, and ...

Wizzard Wizzard were an English rock band formed by Roy Wood, former member of the Move and co-founder of the Electric Light Orchestra. ''The Guinness Book of 500 Number One Hits'' states, "Wizzard was Roy Wood just as much as Wings was Paul McCar ...

and

Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel were an English rock band who formed in the early 1970s in London. Their music covered a range of styles from pop to progressive rock. Over the years, they have had five albums on the UK Albums Chart and twelve s ...

amongst others, with custom-built mixing consoles derived from a Bill Kelsey original design. During the '70s, Blyth and Dudderidge with Roger Lindsay, owned Europa Concert Systems, a live sound company that catered to American bands touring Europe and providing monitor systems for The BBC's Old Grey Whistle Test TV shows.

Soundcraft

In 1973, Dudderidge and Blyth left RSD to form Soundcraft Electronics, Ltd., the company specializing in live sound and recording mixing consoles. Dudderidge's involvement with this company also led to his working with notable pro audio industry figures Betty Bennett (now CEO of Apogee Electronics Corporation), Wayne Freeman (of Trident USA, Fairlight, Amek, Otari, and most notably Marshall Electronics), and Shane Morris (designer of the ATI Paragon monitor console and later of

PRS Guitars Paul Reed Smith Guitars, also known as PRS Guitars or simply PRS, is an American guitar and amplifier manufacturer founded in 1985 in Annapolis, Maryland by Paul Reed Smith. After dropping out of college, Smith began making guitars by hand and ...

). 15 years later, in 1988, Soundcraft, firmly established as a leading console brand, was sold to

Harman International Industries Harman International Industries, Inc., commonly known as Harman, is an American audio electronics company. Since 2017, the company has been operating as an independent subsidiary of Samsung Electronics. Headquartered in Stamford, Connecticut ...

Focusrite

Dudderidge left Soundcraft in early 1989 and formed a new company, Focusrite Audio Engineering Ltd. to continue to develop and manufacture Focusrite-branded products after it acquired the assets of

Rupert Neve Arthur Rupert Neve (31 July 1926 – 12 February 2021) was a British-American electronics engineer and entrepreneur, who was a pioneering designer of professional audio recording equipment. He designed analog recording and audio mixing equipment ...

's company, Focusrite Ltd., thus inheriting the Focusrite range designed prior to 1989. Focusrite acquired the assets of

Novation Electronic Music Systems Novation Music is a British musical equipment manufacturer, founded in 1992 by Ian Jannaway and Mark Thompson as Novation Electronic Music Systems. Today the company specialises in MIDI controllers with and without keyboards, both analogue and ...

in 2004 and the Novation brand became integrated into the business. Focusrite established Focusrite Novation Inc.(FNI) to represent its interests in the United States and manage marketing and Tier One reseller relationships. FNI is based in Los Angeles, California. Focusrite has been the recipient of many industry awards and most notably four Queen’s Awards for Enterprise, two for International Trade and two for Technology. Focusrite Plc. which incorporates Focusrite Audio Engineering Ltd and subsidiaries, floated on the London AIM market in December 2014. Dudderidge is currently Executive Chairman of Focusrite Plc. In 2019, Focusrite Plc (Focusrite Group) acquired two professional loudspeaker companies, ADAM Audio GmbH, Berlin, and Martin Audio Ltd. Like Focusrite, Martin Audio is located in High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, England. Dudderidge was appointed

Officer of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding valuable service in a wide range of useful activities. It comprises five classes of awards across both civil and military divisions, the most senior two o ...

(OBE) in the

2024 New Year Honours The 2024 New Year Honours are appointments by some of the 15 Commonwealth realms to Orders and decorations of the Commonwealth realms, various orders and honours to recognise and reward good works by citizens of those countries. The New Year Hono ...

for services to business and the music industry.

Family

Dudderidge married Jennifer "Jenny" Hayes in 1973. The couple produced five sons and a daughter: Mr. Tim Dudderidge, Consultant Urologist and prostate cancer expert at University Hospital Southampton; Tom Dudderidge, Co-Founder of Ballinger & Co; Jamie Dudderidge, Managing Director at I-Blason UK; Simon Dudderidge, Founder and Managing Director at Comsense Ltd; Jo Dudderidge, musician, songwriter and producer (The Travelling Band, Later Youth) and Joanna Dudderidge, photographer and graphic designer. Phil and Jenny have twelve grandchildren.

References

External links

Focusrite home pageFocusrite Audio Engineering, Ltd., A Word From The ChairmanRupert Neve Designs, LLC., Company HistorySoundcraft home pageInterview with Phil Dudderidge - NAMM Oral History Library (2014)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dudderidge, Phil English audio engineers Living people People from Radlett 1949 births Officers of the Order of the British Empire