The 1960's in London were probably the most exciting years in the history of music as groups and singers from all over the country headed for the Capital to lay down their works of art in some of the best studios in the world. Recording engineers started to play an important part in the "new" sounds that had started with a strangers idea.
Two engineers who worked there all through these times were DAMON LYON SHAW (Some of the records he engineered on were, FIRE by ARTHUR BROWN, SOMETHING IN THE AIR by THUNDERCLAP NEWMAN WORDS by THE BEE GEES, BADGE by CREAM, ROCKING ALL OVER THE WORLD by STATUS QUO, and TOMMY by THE WHO.) and BRIAN CARROLL (who mastered records by The JIMI HENDRIX EXPERIENCE, THE WHO, ATLANTIC, POLICE and many more) and before long they had an urge to try their hands at production. The band that caught their eyes for their recently formed "HOMEGROWN MUSIC" production company was "The FACTORY" which was to result in the release of two singles that were to become collector's items 25 years later, the haunting "PATH THROUGH THE FOREST" and "TRY A LITTLE SUNSHINE".
The next band they got involved with was FIVE DAY RAIN, this time producing an album that has stood the test of time and is still selling to this day. During the making of the album Damon and Brian discovered that could write songs with each other and as Damon was a multi musician (playing drums, bass, lead guitar and keyboards), it was not long before they were laying down tracks of their own. Although busy working late into the night with their various clients they eventually had written enough songs to approach a leading music publisher. This was to be Acuff Rose, who published the great songs of The EVERLY BROTHERS and ROY ORBISON.
When they got the chance Damon and Brian would be in the studios recording their latest composition but this could take a long time as there were only the two of them. Starting with a basic acoustic guitar each instrument was added or mixed together by bouncing across to another track, that is until better multi track came along and made life a little easier. Another time saver was the use of the Mellotron which allowed them to be able to add strings and brass. As Brian Carroll remembers, "Our days were pretty hectic with Damon working through the night in one studio on the "TOMMY" sessions or with STATUS QUO and me working in another cutting records, so it was quite hard to get together. Damon was one of those people who could have made music from any instrument and I'm sure that if he had not spent so much of his life making other people's music sound good he could have gone on to bigger things. Whenever we had the spare time I would go and stay at his house in Woking (a town in southern England) where he had a spare bedroom turned into a mini demo studio. We would just kick a few ideas around until we came up with something, put it down on tape and then we went back to IBC to lay down the master tracks"
In the seventies an album was released called "TIME IS RIGHT" on the PRESIDENT label by a band named "ONE WAY TICKET". This was in fact a mixture of various bands that they have been involved with producing through HOMEGROWN, plus some of their own tracks. The original idea was for it to be an album of just their own material, but even the sleeve notes had to be made up to conceal their identities because of their contract with their publishing company. Years later they were able to put together the album that should have been released with tracks from the Acuff Rose vaults plus some of the demos that were never finished which was released on a record label in Japan.
Buy "Time is Right" by One Way Ticket at System Records: http://www.systemrecords.co.uk/ticket-time-right-p-973850.html
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YouTube Mix for One Way Ticket
that guitar sounds 100 feet tall
okeyeye 1 month ago
coool sound I liked it that much just found it on ebay so now its on its way now thank's for a bit of great music
13girly1 8 months ago
that song's mad, that lovely rhythmic guitar bit with all this madness cutting in and out over it, s'good!
lazinitis 2 years ago