article

Steve Lillywhite (born in 1955) is a well-known British music producer. He is the former husband of the late singer Kirsty MacColl with whom he fathered two children, Jamie and Louis.

He first entered the music industry in 1972, when he worked as a tape operator for Polygram. He produced a demo recording for the band Ultravox, which led to them being offered a recording contract with Island Records. Lillywhite soon joined Island as a staff producer, where he worked with many of the leading New Wave artists.

In 1980, Lillywhite produced Peter Gabriel (III or Melt) notable for its aggressive sound, achieved in part by the absence of cymbals throughout the album. The same year, he produced Boy, the debut album of the then unknown U2. Lillywhite went on to produce October and War, of which the latter proved to be the band's major breakthrough.

He moved on to helm projects by Simple Minds, Big Country, Talking Heads, the Rolling Stones and Annifrid Lyngstad known as Frida and formerly of ABBA.

In late 1983, Lillywhite was approached by Rush to produce their album, Grace Under Pressure. The band had unanimously decided that he should be the producer, and he had agreed to work with them. However, before pre-production, Lillywhite relayed a message to them that he was not the right man for the job, and so he would not be working on the album after all. Rush ended up doing the bulk of the production on Grace Under Pressure themselves with assistance from Peter Henderson.

During the '90s, he made his mark with albums by Morrissey, the Pogues, Travis, Phish and several sets by Dave Matthews Band. Following a staff role as managing director of Mercury Records in London, he produced U2's How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb and Jason Mraz's recent Mr. A-Z.

In 2000, Lillywhite was fired from his fourth album with Dave Matthews Band when the band members did not like the direction it was going. The unfinished tracks appeared online, and are known as The Lillywhite Sessions. Most of the tracks were re-recorded, without Lillywhite, for the 2002 DMB album Busted Stuff.

In 2002, Universal boss Lucian Grainge invited him to become a major-label Managing Director. Lillywhite promptly signed singer-songwriter Darius Danesh and exec produced Darius' debut platinum-selling album "Dive In", which spawned 4 top ten hits and Mercury Records' first number one in 18 years.

Lillywhite collected consecutive Grammy Awards for Record of the Year with U2's "Beautiful Day" and "Walk On." In 2006, Lillywhite won two more Grammys: Producer of the Year, Non-Classical, for U2's How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb; and a partial win for Album of the Year for U2's How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb.

Partial discography

1955 births | Living people | Record producers

Steve Lillywhite

 

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the "Steve Lillywhite".

Home Page • arts • business • computers • games • health • hospitals • home • kids & teens • news • physicians • recreation• reference • regional • science • shopping • society • sports • world