Don't label Martin Rushent

The Music's Over brings news of the passing of Martin Rushent. I was familiar with Rushent as the producer of the Human League's Dare album, but he worked with a wide variety of artists, according to T.M.O.:

Picking up the production bug while still in high school, Rushent found work soon after graduation, working as a tape operator alongside Tony Visconti on records by T-Rex, Jerry Lee Lewis, Yes, and Petula Clark.

Now THAT would make an interesting supergroup.

In a BBC interview earlier this year, Rushent described his method of working with the Human League:

Rushent sealed his reputation as a producer when he worked with The Human League on Dare, released in 1981, which featured the huge hit Don't You Want Me.

Rushent recalled how he made it clear who was boss: "They were under the impression that I was going to work on what they'd done so far and improve that and carry on.

"I said, 'no I'm not doing that, we're starting again', which was a bit of a shock for Phil [Oakey, lead singer]. He argued about that but I said, 'no, if I'm going to produce you, you're going to do what I tell you to do'. This is my attitude to everybody I produce, it's a sort of democratic dictatorship!"

But dictators can be overthrown. By the time Hysteria (with "The Lebanon") was released, Rushent was no longer working with the group. But Hysteria didn't equal the success of Dare, which resulted in a new set of producers.