About Gus Dudgeon
Tea boy - to - world renowned producer
Gus Dudgeon, one of the most influential producers in recent times, would come to redefine, revolutionise and revive artists to become superstars.
From tea boy at Olympic Studios, to engineer at Decca and world renowned producer at his own record label, Gus worked with the likes of Elton John, David Bowie and Joan Armatrading, just to name a few.
With no formal musical training, Gus got his first job in music working as a tea boy at Olympic Studios in London. Quickly growing a fascination with the sound console, engineering and production he soon wanted to find a hands on job in the studio. Moving to Decca, Gus quickly got the opportunity of a lifetime during a recording session with The Zombies. After the engineer left the session, Gus stepped in to take his place and engineered the track She’s Not There which would go on to be number 2 in the charts in the US. With his natural talent and inquisitive work ethic he would go on to become a prominent engineer and producer at Decca auditioning up-and-coming superstars Tom Jones and The Rolling Stones whilst working with John Mayall, Michael Chapman and Ten Years After. During Gus’s time at Decca he was able to hone the skills that would later come to greatly influence pop music over the next four decades.
The Guinness Book of Records recognises Gus Dudgeon as the first person to use sampling in music production
Dudgeon was a founder of the Music Producers Guild
At one stage between 1972 and 1975 Gus had seven consecutive number one albums
Leaving Decca to work freelance, Gus was brought in to produce David Bowie’s first hit, Space Oddity (1969). Shortly thereafter, he was summoned by DJM to produce the second album of a then little known singer-songwriter, Elton John. The start of a long and fruitful collaboration, Elton’s second album would kick start his rise to fame due in no small part thanks to the genius of Gus in the studio.
The innovation of Gus’s production style coupled with Elton’s raw talent created a match made in heaven that saw the two work from 1969 to 1976 and then again in 1986. Throughout their partnership the pair would come to collaborate on memorable hits including Your Song, Rocket Man, Crocodile Rock, Daniel, Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, Saturday Night’s Alright for Fighting, Don’t Go Breaking My Heart and Nikita. Sometimes producing as many as 4 songs in a day, the powerful pair would also go on to establish a record label, alongside Bernie Taupin, called The Rocket Record Company.
“We cut the album in a week and I never stopped grinning from beginning to end ”
