Would you believe it, I had to quality control all sides before I could go back to England and there was a problem with about 60% of the pressings. The cutting lathe at the studio had a problem with the bearings in the turntable motor so while we were cutting a master you only monitor what you hear through the cutting head, so when the motor was acting up you didn’t hear it until you played the pressing.

I sat in an office allocated to me by Al Steckler to check out all the pressings, but what I’d forgotten to do was to switch the speakers off as I was listening via headphones. The next thing I knew was by way of a smack on the back of my head. Allen Klein had heard the music I was playing and thought that it was one of his staff playing music. When you consider that it was supposed to be a Record Company, he had decreed that no one should disturb the peace of his offices.

When I turned around I said, “What the hell do you think you are doing?” Luckily at this point George appeared from nowhere and Klein was humbly apologizing about what had happened. At that point to quell the situation I asked George to have a listen to the problem I had picked up on. He said, “OK take the tapes back to them and make them get it right, take the duff test pressings and let them hear what the problem is. I don’t want you to go home yet till you make sure that they get it right.”

Then he said that Badfinger were playing a gig and he would send a car round for me so we could all go together. It was really great to see the lads from Badfinger again and their manager Bill Collins who had been a mate of mine for years. His son Lewis Collins used to play in bands back in Liverpool but had now taken up acting full time.

It was a great night seeing Badfinger playing live. They were really good and very tight sounding.

One night I was out with George and Pattie walking down Broadway when George said he felt like something small to eat and have a drink, so we popped into this bar. I think it was Al Steckler who ordered the drinks. We were just standing in a slight shadowy area sipping away when I noticed this guy looking at George and Pattie quite a lot. So I told George that I thought that this guy would probably come over.

George and Pattie whispered to each other and sure enough this guy came over and said “Hey you two, you’re George Harrison and Pattie Boyd aren’t you?”

At that moment you could have pushed me over as George came out with the best New York accent ever: “I’m really sick of this I’m going to cut my hair tomorrow I get this no matter where I go and it’s really pissing me off.” Then Pattie spoke, again in a perfect New York accent: “You’re not the first to ask us, so please just go and leave us in peace.” I thought I’d best keep my mouth shut as I just hadn’t had the practice to mask my own accent yet.

On some of my nights off from being in the studio watching over George’s LP’s, May Pang used to take me out to lots of clubs and we’d also get to go to different studios too. One of the studios we went to was Electric Ladyland, which carries its own aura regarding Jimi Hendrix.

There was another studio May took me to and they had the band Mountain recording there. I couldn’t believe it as I loved their music. I had bought two of their LP’s in England and there I was talking to Lesley West and Felix Pappalardi, but wow they were laying it down in the studio really good. I really enjoyed being with May as she took me to so many places meeting people and I got to be in Downtown Manhattan which I’d heard so much about.

Anyway the telephone at my hotel kept ringing daily as, while I was working in New York, Malcolm Davis had to work at Apple cutting room and as I had built up such a large clientele it was killing Malcolm as he was used to me working day and night. Mal used to be in the pub telling all how he had trained me and how good I had become, now it was Malcolm pleading with me: “When the hell are you coming back I’m .F….g knackered!”

I did try to explain that there were problems with the Studios lathe but he just wanted me back. I told him that as soon as all the pressings are correct I would jump on the next ‘plane but not before.

When I did get back six weeks after I got there, the cutting room was in disarray as Mal was now totally knackered out and he welcomed me with open arms. It was back to the grindstone as when I had left for the ‘States the ‘White Elephant’ now had to be replaced. Geoff had also heard that a Studio had reneged on a desk from Helios Electronics. The owner was Dick Swettenam who designed desks and had a good reputation.

Next episode: Studio Years.

Editor’s Notes: While he was a cutting engineer at Apple, George would often include a ‘message’ on the cut out groove areas of the record. For instance on ‘You’, the A side of George Harrison’s September 1975 release, the message is ‘A PORKY PRIME CUT.’ The message on the flipside, ‘World Of Stone’ is ‘PECKO.’ When George mastered the ‘Extra Texture (Read All About It)’ album for George Harrison, the run out groove area on the ‘A’ side is a message ‘A PORKY/TONY PRIME CUT’. The other side features the message ‘OOH GEORGE, YOU’RE SUCH A DARK HORSE LUV GEORGE.’ When George mastered ‘This Guitar (Can’t Keep From Crying)’ his message was ‘A PORKY PRIME CUT.’ The message on the flipside ‘Maya Love’ was ‘ONOTHIMAGEN YERRITIZ LA!’ On George Harrison’s ‘This Song’ single the message reads ‘A PORKY PRIME CUT’ and on the flipside ‘Learning How To Love You’, ‘PECKO.’

Return to main section