Pat Collier RIP

Pat Collier RIP

We are sorry to hear of the passing of the legendary British producer Pat Collier at 72. The much-loved musician has a CV that reads like a guided tour of British music from the punk wars onwards, and his musical touch and knack for melody is everywhere. 

He first came onto the scene as a tape op on Mantovani sessions in the old Decca studios in West Hampstead in 1973. As a bass player, he played in the early pub rock scene in bands like Bazooka Joe and Cafe Racers with soon-to-be-megastars Adam Ant and Mark Knopfler before crowning his musical career signing first to CBS with punk pioneers The Vibrators – perhaps the most underrated of all the punk bands. Their punk art may never have been deemed cool by the music media but it really stands the test of time to this day. Pat always had a knack for a good melody and a tight arrangement that was perfect in that initial wave of punk, and if the band were a tad older than their contemporaries, it mattered little to the spiky kids who loved those early Vibrators records.

After that band, he went deeper into his melodic take on things and signed to United Artists with The Boyfriends, one of the first of the ill-fated Powerpop bands. Then it was to open his own Alaska studios before he opened Perry Vale studios in London. The studio was a great environment, and his laid-back attitude hid a brilliant musical ear, as we found out when we made a Gold Blade album and a single with Poly Styrene there. He was a real pleasure to work with and much loved on the scene, and the list of bands he worked with, which is posted on his studio page, is just a snapshot of the groups that were part of his wider world…

The Wonderstuff,The House of Love,The Jesus and Mary Chain,Katrina and the Waves,The Soft Boys,Robyn Hitchcock,Kimberley Rew,CockSparrer,UK Subs,999,X-Ray Spex,Goldblade,The Guitar Gangsters,The Vibrators,The Candyskins,The Duel,Argy Bargy,Decoration,Pope,Skaville UK,King Kurt,Viva las Vegas,Deadline,The Screaming Blue Messiahs,The Killer B’s,Pretty Blue Gun,The Barbs,Special Needs,Lowgold,Capdown,100 Reasons,Kingmaker,The Oyster Band,The Voice of the Beehive,The Darling Buds,Lloyd Ryan,The Holloways,The Witchdoktors,Maximo Park,Miles Hunt,New Model Army,Zodiac Mindwarp,Primal Scream,Sennen,Air Formation,Tellison,Guitar Club,Jude and Tom Edwin-Scott Band,The Explorer’s Collective,The Men They Couldn’t Hang,The Soup Dragons,Crazyhead,The Motorcycle Boy,Angelic Upstarts,Long Tall Shorty,The Chords,Making Time,Fabric,Die So Fluid,The Church Boys,Anju Ebanks,Jona Lewie,The Gonads,The Last Resort,The Warriors,The Business,The Masons,Swervedriver,Nick Bukowski,Judge Smith,My Life Story,Nigel Bennett,Maria and the Moments,Jenny’s Birthday,Poor Little Pierette,Dead Wolf Club,Favour,Vince Ray and the Boneshakers,The Zero Set,Dogstate,The Dilemmas,The Inmates,King Hammond,Jakwob,You Walk Through Walls,