It's January 1st, 1970. Back in the day, people in England did not get January 1st as a Bank Holiday, so that morning saw Richard 'Digby' Smith, at 19 years of age, joining the West London based Island Records as a staff engineer.
Island Records was a very important independent record label which developed the careers of many of the UKs top musical talents and the studios played host to many pf the leading musicians of that time.
This is Diby's interesting and wide ranging look back at a career in being a studio sound engineer that has spanned 50 years, working in London, California (LA, in point of fact) and many other places around the worlfd.
Digby will tell you what it was like to reside in LA back in the early 1970s, rubbing shoulders with the elite of Hollywood.
He is also honest about his fight to beat the twin evils of alcohol and drugs, and how he made his way back to Britain in the middle of the 1980s.
He worked with, and helped the careers of a wide range of stars like Bob Marley, Eric Clapton, Paul McCartney, Led Zeppelin, Robert Palmer and even full orchestras, making sure that they all sounded as good as they could.
It's a wild and eclectic read. Learn how Digby learned to cope with Type 1 Diabetes (not his own) and proper football matches played in Hollywood by a whole range of people, including Marty Feldman and the best place, at the time, to obtain a real British fix in LA. Jammy Dodger biscuits, real Cornish ice cream and genuine English butter.
It's a great read and contains some nifty line drawings by Laura Callwood.
It's published by The Book Guild at £9.99.
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