Sofa Sound
Random Hold
I produced an album by Random Hold in 1979. They were an
outstanding group and I commend "The View from Here" to you
without reservation. In addition to live tracks this CD
contains the full double album in its original form...in my
view the only way in which the set of recordings makes
sense. This is really fine, invigorating and life-affirming
work.
There remains, though, an unease between some members of the
group and myself about the way things finally went. You will
find this graphically expressed between every line referring
to me in the history of the group as presented by Bill
MacCormick on their homepage. These are old wounds which I
cannot hope to heal. Nor can I justify myself or my actions
at the time save by reference to the finished work.
All I can say is that I was doing my level best to present
the Vision of Random Hold in a finished form, on budget and
in full effect. It's true that ultimately this involved a
degree of dictatorial behaviour on my part. I had no agenda
other than to get the work done on their behalf and to keep
the rest of The Biz off their backs.
It remains a matter of some regret to me that Random Hold
did not have greater success and go on to make other
recordings, from which, perhaps, production comparisons
could have been drawn with my own work.
Apart from the above, I won't bitch. My contribution to the
Random Hold recordings was, finally, to get the work
finished in something approaching its intended form. I
emphatically believe I did so. It also remains my belief
that any other producer (including and maybe especially PG,
Bill) would have struggled to do so.
I speak as one whose fingernails remain somewhat ragged from
the experience.
Maybe I'll come back to this later....
Meanwhile, believe me, the record's really good.
You can buy it here.
And you can go to the RH history here.