John Leckie
John Leckie, 2006
Background information
Birth name	John William Leckie
Born	(1949-10-23)23 October 1949 (age 75) Paddington, London, England
Genres	Rock,pop
Occupation	Record producer
Years active	1970–present

John William Leckie (born 23 October 1949) is an Englishrecord producer andrecording engineer. His production credits includeMagazine'sReal Life (1978);XTC'sWhite Music (1978);Dukes of Stratosphear's25 O'Clock andthe Fall'sThis Nation's Saving Grace (both 1985);the Stone Roses'The Stone Roses (1989);the Verve'sA Storm in Heaven (1993);Radiohead'sThe Bends (1995);Cast'sAll Change (1995);Muse'sOrigin of Symmetry (2001); and theLevellers'We the Collective (2018).

Born inPaddington, London,^[1] Leckie was educated at theQuintin School, agrammar school in North West London, thenRavensbourne college of Art and Design in Bromley.^[2][3] After leaving school, he worked for United Motion Pictures as an audio assistant.^[4]

Leckie began work atAbbey Road Studios on 15 February 1970 as a tape operator, later graduating to balance engineer and record producer.^[5] During his early career he worked as a tape operator with artists such asGeorge Harrison (All Things Must Pass),John Lennon (John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band)^[6] andSyd Barrett (Barrett). He moved up to the desk to be balance engineer forPink Floyd (Meddle andWish You Were Here),^[7][8] forMott the Hoople's albumMott andPaul McCartney and Wings'Red Rose Speedway and the single "Hi, Hi, Hi". Other engineering sessions at Abbey Road at this time were withRoy Harper,Soft Machine,Sammy Hagar,Jack Rieley'sWestern Justice album and the last recordings withSyd Barrett.^[9]

His first jobs as producer, in 1976, wereBe-Bop Deluxe's third album,Sunburst Finish, andDoctors of Madness' Figments of Emancipation. His collaboration with Be-Bop Deluxe continued withModern Music,Live! In the Air Age andDrastic Plastic.^[10] In 1977 Leckie producedthe Adverts'Crossing the Red Sea with the Adverts,Magazine'sReal Life,.^[11]

Leckie left Abbey Road in 1978 and produced albums forSimple Minds (Life in a Day,Real to Real Cacophony andEmpires and Dance).^[12] ForBe-Bop Deluxe founderBill Nelson, he produced theRed Noise albumSound on Sound and Nelson's subsequent solo albumQuit Dreaming And Get On The Beam (the latter unreleased until 1981).^[13] Leckie recorded the début single, "Public Image", forPublic Image Ltd^[14] and producedthe Human League'sHoliday 80 EP. Leckie's work withXTC included producing their debut3D single and EP, and first two studio albums,White Music andGo 2.^[15] In 1981 he worked with the legendary Irish bandthe Atrix on their single "Procession". Later he went on to produce25 O'Clock andPsonic Psunspot, which XTC issued under the pseudonymthe Dukes of Stratosphear^[16] in the mid-1980s.

In 1989 Leckie producedthe Stone Roses' debut album,The Stone Roses.^[17] The album was voted the best record of all time on a music poll taken byBBC Radio 6 Music and features as Number 1 onObserver's June 2004 "100 Greatest British Albums". Some months later he produced and mixed their single "Fools Gold", which charted at No. 4 in theUK Singles Chart,^[18] and in early 1990 he produced and mixed the single "One Love" which also charted at no. 4 in UK.^[19] Leckie also worked on much of the recording the Stone Roses' albumSecond Coming.^[20] In 1995, Leckie producedAll Change by the Liverpool bandCast, which becamePolydor Records' highest-selling debut album.^[21]

Leckie produced and engineeredRadiohead's second album,The Bends (1995), which drew significant critical attention.^[22] Radiohead praised Leckie for demystifying the studio environment.^[23] The guitaristJonny Greenwood said: "He didn't treat us like he had some kind of witchcraft that only he understands. There's no mystery to it, which is so refreshing."^[24] Radiohead's future producer,Nigel Godrich, worked onThe Bends as an engineer. He named Leckie as one of the producers who had taught him his craft, whom he had "watched directly and emulated".^[25]

Leckie's next projects were the first two albums byMuse,Showbiz (1999) andOrigin of Symmetry (2001).^[26] The albums drew comparisons to Radiohead, which Leckie dismissed, saying: "In the late 90s, any British band that sang passionately and played guitar was going to get compared to Radiohead."^[26] He said he had been invited to produce several "Radiohead copycats" afterThe Bends, and chose to produce Muse because he had "intentionally looked for something different".^[26] When Muse won UK Single of the Year at the 2010Music Producers Guild Awards, the songwriter,Matt Bellamy, thanked Leckie for "teaching us how to produce".^[27]

• 1996 —Music Week Award for Best Producer^[28]
• 1996 —Q Award for Best Producer^[29]
• 1997 —Brit Award for Best Producer^[30]
• 2001 —Music Managers Forum for Best Producer^[28]
• 2011 —Music Producers Guild for UK Album of Year by The Coral^[31]
• 2011 —BASCA Gold Badge Award^[32]

• John Leckie on producing XTC, Dukes, Be-Bop Deluxe, Stone Roses, and full Q&A YouTube Video, 52:40 min, September 2022

• 1949 births
• English record producers
• English audio engineers
• Living people
• Brit Award winners
• People from Paddington
• The Stone Roses
• XTC
• The Dukes of Stratosphear albums

• Articles with short description
• Short description matches Wikidata
• Use British English from January 2016
• Use dmy dates from March 2014
• Short description is different from Wikidata
• Articles with hCards