Tony Visconti on the Rats

noelindublin · Loudmouth

Tony Visconti on the Rats

ArrGee · Back To Boomtown

Worth a quick flick through, but I did get it for £2 at Fopp, so bought it. More interesting for the Bowie/T. Rex stuff. Interesting picture of Geldof between page 304/305. Looks like a drastic method of hitting the high notes...

http://www.activeboard.com/forum.spark?aBID=48603&p=3&topicID=10399854

Had a quick read of this at lunchtime in Books etc. The quote was a little out of context, as what he said was Geldof was hugely intellgent and wrote great songs, but singing is not his forte.

Visconti seemed to like Simon Crowe and thought he was not only a good drummer & singer, but also good at getting the job done. Fingers was also admired for his playing. He also stated that Pete Briquette was slow to work with as he overdubbed a lot of his work. However, he didn't seem to have much time for Cott & Roberts writing that he had to coax their performances out of them. I guess if you consider how few tracks on Mondo Bongo and V Deep feature guitar, Visconti did sideline them.

Another thing worth mentioning was Geldof wanting a very bright sound and that the mix was done to accentuate that. Simon Crowe commented he wouldn't listen to records with Geldof as he always had the treble maxed out.

He briefly touched on the sacking of Godley & Creme, as they wanted to work on one song at a time and complete it rather than doing bits and pieces and composing the song at the end of the process.

Interesting enough for a lunchtime read, but don't waste £15 on it

Mark L · Loudmouth

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=UIX0xgy8wEQ

A Radio One interview from 1982 and about 24 minutes in, Visconti talks about the German-owned studio in Ibiza they recorded at for tax purposes and rather suggests Geldof was clueless as to what to do and that he, Visconti, sang on Banana Republic and played the rhythm guitar elsewhere, something Id never heard before.

A fascinating interview suggesting Geldof had been luring Visconti for some time. He comes across as slightly big-headed to me over-egging the effect his production might have. The Rats declined in popularity over Mondo Bongo and V Deep and some have suggested over-production of records was one of the reasons for this.

Mike menzies · V Deep

I think mondo and deep are good pls although not keen on Visconti I saw him onto in 1980s on some show I can't remember what all I remember was he seemed quite arrogant so take his comments with a pinch of salt

diffbrook · House on Fire

I think Visconti was the right man at the wrong time, or wrong man at the right time.

Visconti was a big name producer and his work with Bowie was fantastic in the 1970's. But by 1981, the music scene had changed, plus I am not sure how "with it" he was around this time.

Interestingly, his work with Squeeze due Difford & Tilbrook on their solo album was mainly canned as not being good enough.

Having said that, I don't think any producer could have saved the Rats career. They were old hat.