Hugh Padgham

From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist

Hugh Padgham is an English record producer and sound engineer, born on 15 February 1955 in Amersham, Buckinghamshire. He became interested in production after listening to Tumbleweed Connection by Elton John. He began as a tape operator at Advision Studios, where he worked on recordings by Mott the Hoople and Gentle Giant, among others, and then became an engineer at Lansdowne Studios. In 1978 he got a job at The Townhouse, where he worked with XTC, Peter Gabriel and Phil Collins. He was also involved in the second album by Killing Joke.

Music and breakthrough

His work with Gabriel and Collins led in the 1980s to a collaboration with Genesis and Collins, on albums such as Face Value and Abacab from 1981, Genesis from 1983, No Jacket Required from 1985 and Invisible Touch from 1986. With The Police he co-produced Ghost in the Machine from 1981 and Synchronicity from 1983, and later he worked on material by Sting, on Press to Play by Paul McCartney and on Hysteria by the Human League from 1984. In the 2000s he produced McFly, with four number ones in the United Kingdom in 2005 and 2006.

Influence

Padgham won four Grammys. He is regarded as one of the creators of the gated reverb drum sound, heard above all on In the Air Tonight by Phil Collins from 1981, which became the template for much of the pop drum sound of the 1980s. In 2019 he received an award in London for his contribution to British music.

Listening

Mentioned in other articles

• Gated reverb TechnologyThe engineer Hugh Padgham put a gate on it that cuts the sound off abruptly.