Phil Harding

Pop Music Production delves into academic depths around the culture, the business, the songwriting, and most importantly, the pop music production process. Phil Harding balances autobiographical discussion of events and relationships with academic analysis to offer poignant points on the value of pure popular music, particularly in relation to BoyBands and how creative pop production and songwriting teams function. Included here are practical resources, such as recording studio equipment lists, producer business deal examples and a 12-step mixing technique, where Harding expands upon previously released material to explain how ‘Stay Another Day’ by East 17 changed his approach to mixing forever. However, it is important to note that Harding almost downplays his involvement in his career. At no point is he center stage; he humbly discusses his position within the greater scheme of events. Pop Music Production offers cutting-edge analysis of a genre rarely afforded academic attention. This book is aimed at lecturers and students in the subject fields of Music Production, Audio Engineering, Music Technology, Popular Songwriting Studies and Popular Music Culture. It is suitable for all levels of study from FE students through to PhD researchers. Pop Music Production is also designed as a follow-up to Harding’s first book PWL from the Factory Floor (2010, Cherry Red Books), a memoir of his time working with 1980s pop production and songwriting powerhouse, Stock Aitken Waterman, at PWL Studios.

Salisbury is renowned for its superb medieval cathedral and planned city centred on its market. Traces of timber-framed buildings, which served as homes for countless generations of Salisbury occupants, still remain. The lives of these former residents can now start to be reconstructed from the archaeological evidence as parts of the city have been redeveloped. Foundations of former houses can be matched with upstanding buildings to reconstruct the appearance of medieval Salisbury. The everyday lives, health, diet, occupations and social status of the residents can be illustrated using pottery, animal bones and food remains referencing how the urban population integrated with communities in rural areas. This volume attempts to bring these diverse strands of archaeological evidence together for the first time to tell the story of this cathedral city and its residents through its engaging past.

Pop Music Production delves into academic depths around the culture, the business, the songwriting, and most importantly, the pop music production process. Phil Harding balances autobiographical discussion of events and relationships with academic analysis to offer poignant points on the value of pure popular music, particularly in relation to BoyBands and how creative pop production and songwriting teams function. Included here are practical resources, such as recording studio equipment lists, producer business deal examples and a 12-step mixing technique, where Harding expands upon previously released material to explain how ‘Stay Another Day’ by East 17 changed his approach to mixing forever. However, it is important to note that Harding almost downplays his involvement in his career. At no point is he center stage; he humbly discusses his position within the greater scheme of events. Pop Music Production offers cutting-edge analysis of a genre rarely afforded academic attention. This book is aimed at lecturers and students in the subject fields of Music Production, Audio Engineering, Music Technology, Popular Songwriting Studies and Popular Music Culture. It is suitable for all levels of study from FE students through to PhD researchers. Pop Music Production is also designed as a follow-up to Harding’s first book PWL from the Factory Floor (2010, Cherry Red Books), a memoir of his time working with 1980s pop production and songwriting powerhouse, Stock Aitken Waterman, at PWL Studios.

To the modern pop world, Stock, Aitken and Waterman (and Waterman's PWL brand) form a key link between the analogue past and the digital present of record production and writing. The label and studios produced so many pop hits in the 1980s that their name became a byword for success and perfection; that they created a template which is expertly worked today by Simon Cowell and the like is undeniable. Phil Harding was a key player in the brand's success, becoming an in-demand producer of hugely successful records for "Kylie, Rick Astley, Bananarama, Dead or Alive, Pet Shop Boys, Jesus Jones, Erasure, Depeche Mode," and others. Successes and awards flowed, and demand for Phil's talents was high. This detailed memoir of this period of his life uniquely represents the first account of the PWL world from outside of the core trio. Packed full of anecdotes and production details, the book perfectly walks the line between gossip and insight, and is a perfect fusion of fan pleasing facts and professional and technical details. The addition of a complete discography and a technical appendix make the book a must have for any PWL fan or completist.