The Stage

Tony Clarke

Published Tuesday 2 February 2010 at 12:05 by Nick Awde

Tony Clarke, one of music’s pioneering producers of the late sixties and seventies and known as ‘the sixth Moody Blue’, died suddenly on January 4. He was 68.

Born on August 21, 1941, in Coventry during the Blitz, Clarke was orphaned when only three months old and adopted by family who lived a few streets away. He graduated from Coventry College of Art and worked as a technical artist on jet engines and the Mini. Playing bass in local bands, however, soon enabled him to go full-time on the bustling rock’n’roll circuit of the late fifties and early sixties plied by groups such as the Shadows and the Beatles.

Work as a session player in London led in 1963 to a job in PR at Decca Records before top artists and repertoire man Dick Rowe moved him into production at Decca Studios (now a ENO rehearsal space). Hits with Clarke at the helm included Pinkerton’s Assorted Colours’ 1965 single Mirror Mirror and the Equals’ Baby Come Back, a number one in 1966.

In 1967 he teamed up with fellow Midlanders the Moody Blues for the ground-breaking Days of Future Passed during sessions made available after the group had failed to create an experimental stereo rock version of Dvorak’s New World Symphony. Recorded with the London Festival Orchestra, the album and its lead single Nights in White Satin became international chart-toppers.

Unusually for a producer, Clarke joined the band in 1969 - the press dubbed him ‘the Sixth Moody’, seeing him as the natural successor to the Beatles’ George Martin. After an award-winning streak of eight best-selling albums, he split in 1978 along with founder-member keyboardist Mike Pinder.

Other projects included albums for the Four Tops for Motown, rock keyboardists Rick Wakeman and Nicky Hopkins, and the film Supergirl (1984). Clarke worked with Clannad on the soundtrack for the TV series Robin of Sherwood, produced by HTV and Goldcrest between 1984 and 1986. The resulting album Legend (1984) won a BAFTA for Best Original Television Music.

Infectiously curious, Clarke had an instinct for the latest innovations in the recording process - he designed a state of the art studio for the Moodies and embraced samplers and digital recording instantly as they appeared. Paired with his immense vision, this won him repeated awards both creatively and technically. He very much thought in cinema terms, often speaking of making “a poor man’s soundtrack to a film that didn’t exist”, a concept that inspired him to project images while recording in the studio as well as for industry previews of completed albums.

Clarke’s legacy helped establish the bedrock for much of today’s music recording standards. He will be especially missed by his wife Helen and his children to whom he was devoted, and his many friends in the business.