Eric Charles Radcliffe (often credited as E.C. Radcliffe - born 3 December 1950) is an English

recording engineer An audio engineer (also known as a sound engineer or recording engineer) helps to produce a recording or a live performance, balancing and adjusting sound sources using equalization, dynamics processing and audio effects, mixing, reproducti ...

and producer who worked with new wave and

synthpop Synth-pop (short for synthesizer pop; also called techno-pop; ) is a subgenre of new wave music that first became prominent in the late 1970s and features the synthesizer as the dominant musical instrument. It was prefigured in the 1960s a ...

bands in the early 1980s in

Basildon Basildon ( ) is the largest town in the borough of Basildon, within the county of Essex, England. It has a population of 107,123. In 1931 the parish had a population of 1159. It lies east of Central London, south of the city of Chelmsford and ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe ...

. He later became owner of

Blackwing Studios Blackwing Studios was an English recording studio, most notable for early Depeche Mode and Yazoo recordings in the early 1980s. Background The Blackwing Studios complex was housed inside a deconsecrated church in south-east London. All Hallows ...

Background

Eric Radcliffe is believed to have had a huge part in the success of Yazoo (Yaz in the USA). In March 1984 Radcliffe gave an interview to ''Electronics and Music Maker'' in which he mentioned how he got into the business:

When I was about fifteen the group I was in was booked into a four-track studio to do some demos, and I got a taste for recording then. I got an
Akai Akai ( ja, 赤井, ) is a Hong Kong manufacturer of consumer electronics. It was founded as Akai Electric Company Ltd in Tokyo, Japan, in 1946. Grande Holdings in Hong Kong purchased the Akai brand, and now distributes various electronic produ ...
reel-to-reel at home and I built a studio in the front room, with multi-core cable running into my bedroom which acted as the control room... it snowballed... eventually I was able to afford an eight-track
TEAC TEAC may refer to: * TEAC Corporation, a Japanese electronics company * TEAC Oval, a sports stadium in Port Melbourne, Australia * Tetraethylammonium chloride, a chemical compound * Trolox equivalent antioxidant capacity, a measure of antioxidan ...
and it was with that machine that I came up to London and set-up the studio here, which I called Blackwing and it took off in earnest...

And a snippet on his contribution to the Yazoo sound:

We often combine more than one eviceto create a sound. One particular one that sticks in my memory is the snare-drum sound on Yazoo's "Don't Go", I did that using the Lexicon 224 and 224x everbsganged together. We came across that sound entirely by accident, but then again, in the final analysis I think you discover almost everything by accident, just by fiddling around.

After Yazoo, Radcliffe and Yazoo-songwriter

Vince Clarke Vincent John Martin (born 3 July 1960), known professionally as Vince Clarke, is an English synth-pop musician and songwriter. Clarke has been the main composer and musician of the band Erasure since its inception in 1985, and was previously ...

continued to work together. As

The Assembly The Assembly were a British synth-pop project formed in 1983 in Basildon, England, by Vince Clarke (songwriting, keyboards, backing vocals) and Eric Radcliffe (songwriting, production). Feargal Sharkey was hired as a guest vocalist for th ...

they released the single " Never Never" with singer

Feargal Sharkey Seán Feargal Sharkey (born 13 August 1958) is a singer from Northern Ireland most widely known as the lead vocalist of punk band The Undertones in the 1970s and 1980s, and for solo works in the 1980s and 1990s. His 1985 solo single " A Good ...

in the autumn of 1983. Clarke and Radcliffe also founded the record company

Reset Records Reset Records was a British record company founded in 1983 by Vince Clarke (Depeche Mode, Yazoo, The Assembly, Erasure) and Eric Radcliffe. The four singles by Robert Marlow were released on this label from his friend Vince Clarke. Peter Hewson ...

, and released singles with Robert Marlow, Peter Hewson, Hardware and Absolute, until 1987 when the label shut down. Eric Radcliffe now lives in

Gravesend Gravesend is a town in northwest Kent, England, situated 21 miles (35 km) east-southeast of Charing Cross (central London) on the south bank of the River Thames and opposite Tilbury in Essex. Located in the diocese of Rochester, it is th ...

in Kent, with his three daughters Kai, Fay and Mae. In the documentary video accompanying Yazoo's 25th anniversary release ''In Your Room'', Eric Radcliffe delivers the following written message:

I count myself fortunate and privileged to have worked with such a talented team. I remember that we had to build a studio in my house (in about ten days) to complete the recording of ''Upstairs at Eric's'' because Blackwing Studios London was fully booked. My mother provided us all with her famous " egg and chips" and also appeared on the record. Wonderful days! :Best regards :Eric Radcliffe

Notable work

Fad Gadget Francis John Tovey (8 September 1956 – 3 April 2002), known also by his stage name Fad Gadget, was a British avant-garde electronic musician and vocalist. He was a proponent of both new wave and early industrial music, fusing pop-structured ...

– '' Fireside Favourites'' (1980) * Fad Gadget – '' Incontinent'' (1981) *

Depeche Mode Depeche Mode are an English electronic music band formed in Basildon, Essex, in 1980. The band currently consists of Dave Gahan (lead vocals and co-songwriting) and Martin Gore (keyboards, guitar, co-lead vocals and main songwriting). Depech ...

– '' Speak & Spell'' (1981) * Yazoo – '' Upstairs at Eric's'' (1982) * Depeche Mode – ''

A Broken Frame ''A Broken Frame'' is the second studio album by English electronic music band Depeche Mode, released on 27 September 1982 by Mute Records. The album was written entirely by Martin Gore and was recorded as a trio after the departure of Vince ...

'' (1982) * Yazoo – '' You and Me Both'' (1983) *

– " Never Never" (1983) * Duet Emmo – "Or So It Seems" (1983) * Robert Marlow – '' The Peter Pan Effect'' (1999)

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Radcliffe, Eric Living people People from Gravesend, Kent English audio engineers English record producers English new wave musicians Musicians from Kent The Assembly members 1950 births