Legendary Human League producer Martin Rushent has passed away aged just 63. The news was confirmed yesterday on Facebook & Twitter by his son Tim.
Martin's career began as a sound engineer in the early 70s and immediately found favour with a diverse range of huge acts including the glam rock of T-Rex as an assistant to Tony Visconti and the prog rock of Yes. With astonishing versatility and an ability to sonically enhance any genre from the mixing desk, Martin's career took an even bigger leap during the punk era. His production work for The Stranglers, XTC, Sham 69 & The Buzzcocks were instrumental in changing the landscape of music in the UK and are all regarded as key moments in the history of punk - an era that helped usher in 'DIY' New Wave. Martin also had a brief stint with Joy Division in 1979 at his Genetic label before they moved on to work for Martin Hannett at Factory Records.
It was Martin's vast punk CV and production work on Pete Shelly's 'Homosapien' album that led Virgin's Simon Draper to call upon the talents of this unique character. Following the split of original The Human League in 1980, Draper & Virgin were keen to turn the group into a bankable chart asset with Philip Oakey on vocals. The first League MK2 single 'Boys & Girls' fell way short of expectations both technically and musically and Draper was quick to secure Martin for the recording of just one single.
'The Sound of The Crowd' would quickly become the League's first top 20 hit and Draper moved quickly to book recording sessions with Martin for the third Human League album and the Genetic recording studios in Reading, Berkshire. Quick to recognise and embrace new technology when so many in the industry were resisting it, Martin was able to totally master and manipulate the Linn Drum and sequencing technology that was very much in its infancy back in 1981.
Martin's passion and understanding for new technology gave The Human League a massive edge over other electronic artists of that year and following the release of the iconic electro blueprint 'Dare', Philip Oakey would become the world's first superstar of electronic pop music.
For the masses, it will be Martin's work on 'Don't You Want Me' that he will be best remembered for - the eternal1981 Christmas Number One that would go on to become the 24th biggest selling single of all time. 'Don't You Want Me' also paved the way for the first (and to date the last) UK music invasion of the US since Beatlemania in the mid 60's - paving the way for transatlantic success for the likes of Duran Duran and Culture Club.
For many music lovers, electronic connoisseurs, DJs and music historians, it is Martin's pioneering work on the League's remix album of 1982 'Love & Dancing' - a collection of extended and dub remixes of Dare tracks that elevated his unique talent above all others. If Dare hadn't already re-wired a whole generation of music fans in 1981 then most of us were all virtually re-programmed and seduced electronically by Martin's remixes on 'Love & Dancing' and few of us would ever look back to a pre-1981 musical landscape .
Two giant UK hits would follow in 'Mirror Man' and 'Fascination' between 1982 and '83 but artistic differences and a band struggling in the shadow of 'Dare' would prematurely bring to an end the productive Rushent/Oakey era of sublime electronic pop. In an industry not famed for loyalty or trust, Martin was a hugely admired and well loved character and despite a painful split from the League in 1983, he would later produce two tracks for the band in 1990 included live fave 'Heart Like A Wheel'. Problems with depression would curtail Martin's impressive career but he did return to the mixing desk in later years and his last project was with Soft Cell's Dave Ball.
Tributes to Martin's music legacy include former lead singer with The Stranglers Hugh Cornwall who wrote: 'It is with great sadness that I hear of Martin Rushent's passing. He was a vibrant and gifted individual who was able to extract the essence of what The Stranglers began with, and translate it into something that could be played on radios across the UK. It was obviously no one-off success, as he was later to show with The Human League. I remember him fondly.'
Mark Ronson also tweeted his tribute: 'Just read the sad news about Martin Rushent. The production on DARE by Human League is one of the crowning moments of SynthBritannia. RIP.'
Through this site, I was lucky enough to meet Martin on a few occasions mostly backstage at Human League concerts in 2003 and most notably in 2005 where he would give a fascinating account of the making of Dare (there were enough stories on this landmark album to fill an entire book). Given his legendary status there is always a worry that you should never meet your idols but Martin was such a warm and well grounded character who would greet me with great enthusiasm and the words 'Mr Orac!'.
There was a surreal moment when he told me how much he loved this site and I couldn't quite get my head round it considering the amazing things he had achieved in music. My fondest memory though was back in 1988 when I was working for Our PriceMusic in Maidenhead long before the birth of Secrets Online in 2001. Martin walked in and grabbed over twenty CDs including a copy of 'Dare'. It took me a while to pluck up the courage to talk to him but I held up his copy of 'Dare' and said 'This is the best album ever recorded'. Martin smiled, put his finger to his lips and followed it with a 'Shhhhhh' and a cheeky grin on his face.
Martin was one of the best personalities that I have met via this site and on the behalf of all EY readers, our thoughts are with his wife Ceri, daughters Amy and Joanne and his sons James and Tim.
James has set up a memorial page on Facebook that can be reached via this link.
'The Sound of The Crowd' would quickly become the League's first top 20 hit and Draper moved quickly to book recording sessions with Martin for the third Human League album and the Genetic recording studios in Reading, Berkshire. Quick to recognise and embrace new technology when so many in the industry were resisting it, Martin was able to totally master and manipulate the Linn Drum and sequencing technology that was very much in its infancy back in 1981.
