RIP David Richards

David was an outstanding producer, engineer and musician, and a very beloved person in the music industry. His contributions to Queen were immeasurable. When Queen first went to Mountain Studios in 1978, they were adamant on using their own equipment and taking their own personnel, so David wasn't involved in any way on the 'Jazz' album. Instead, Queen went there with Roy Baker and two trusted engineers: John Etchells (who'd worked on BBC sessions) and Geoff Workman (whom Roy'd chosen and who'd been involved with the 'Sheer Heart Attack' album in 1974).

In Spring 1979 Queen returned to Switzerland to work on choosing, editing and overdubbing 'Live Killers', again with John Etchells, but this time Roy wasn't around, which meant Geoff wasn't around, so David took over as assistant engineer, and they liked his work. Soon afterwards, Queen bought the studios and young David (he was 22-23 at the time) remained on the payroll as the studios' resident engineer, working on several records by other artists. Not so much with Queen at that point, as they recorded 'The Game' in West Germany with Mack and 'Flash Gordon' in several English studios, chiefly with Mack but also Alan Douglas.

Roger's first solo album, on the other hand, was recorded 1980-1981 at Mountain, and David was the engineer and the only guest performer on it (he played about half of the keyboard parts, while Roger did the rest, plus all the vocals, guitars, drums and bass). Queen began sessions for what would become 'Hot Space' in Munich but after a break they visited Montreux and did some preliminary work on 'Las Palabras de Amor', 'Calling All Girls', 'Cool Cat' and 'Put Out the Fire', with Mack as chief engineer and assistant producer, and David as assistant engineer.

It was another David, David Bowie, who popped in one day and then 'Under Pressure' was born. On the 'Magic Years' documentary, Bowie directly credits David Richards as the man who made it all possible. As Dave Richards often told visitors to the studio, he played piano on that particular track but never received credit for it (now, which piano did he mean? There are two pianos on that song).

The rest of 'Hot Space' was recorded in New York and Munich and David wasn't involved with it, nor he took part of any session for 'The Works', but he worked with Roger again on the 'Strange Frontier' album, this time being promoted to co-producer and also co-writing one of the songs. David and Roger collaborated a lot in those years, producing other artists together. By the time Queen began working on the OST for 'Highlander', Roger went to David instead of Reinhold Mack and flew him to London's Town House, where he co-produced and engineered 'A Kind of Magic' and 'Don't Lose Your Head'. Those sessions also caught Brian's attention and while Freddie and John remained loyal to Mack, Brian chose David for 'Who Wants to Live Forever' and 'Gimme the Prize'.

Once the OST had been finished, Queen began working on their next album, 'A Kind of Magic', which would include different versions of the 'Highlander' songs. It was on those sessions that Freddie got to work very closely with David, as Freddie'd taken over Roger's title track and changed it around completely to make it more commercial and 'pop'. Freddie was impressed with David's engineering skills and worked with him on his solo sessions the following year, as well as the duet album with Montserrat Caballé, the famous 'Barcelona'.

David's work in late 80s was exhaustive: he was co-producing and engineering Queen, The Cross, the duet album by Freddie and Montserrat, and some of Brian's solo songs, not to mention other artists. Busy man indeed! Working with musicians who were so excellent but also so demanding wasn't an easy job. David may not be as famous and world-renowned as George Martin or Quincy Jones, but he surely represented, just as they did, the massive importance of those 'blokes in suit handling the faders'.

Freddie and Mike Moran would arrange the orchestra parts for the songs, Mike would play them on piano and synthesisers, and David would perfect the sounds of the samples until they pleased Freddie. At the same time, he was working on The Cross album and it was David who suggested transposing each consecutive line of 'Heaven for Everyone' to create a more uplifting effect instead of Roger's more linear initial demo. When Freddie popped in to visit Roger's band, he heard the track with the David Richards treatment and loved it so much that he asked to sing it. The result was a lovely Roger/Freddie collaboration, one that years later would be Queen's very last big hit.

David's contributions on sessions for 'The Miracle' album were unparalleled. He programmed a lot of the drum machines we hear on the album, as well as some synth bass (e.g., on 'Scandal') to reinforce the sound, and helped John record the first demo of 'My Life Has Been Saved', which again pleased Freddie. The famous drum part on the fast bit of 'I Want It All' isn't Roger playing, it's actually David programming a Linn computer and making it sound like an actual drum set. It was also David who had the difficult task of editing 'Was It All Worth It' to make room for the orchestral interlude. Queen'd first recorded the backing track live, without any metronome or click track, and when Freddie came up with that bit to insert it after the guitar solo, David had to perform audio surgery to make sure the transition was seamless. He succeeded.

Soon as 'The Miracle' sessions were over, David engineered some sessions for Brian at SARM Studios in London. The result was 'Last Horizon'. Then, flying back and forth between Switzerland and England, he engineered Brian's solo song 'Just One Life' and co-produced the 'Innuendo' album, again having loads of input on the performance side. Remember the orchestral bit on the title track? David programmed that. The conga percussion on 'Days of Our Lives'? David programmed those too. The keyboard sequence on 'I Can't Live with You'? Yeah, that's Dave again. It was also Dave who suggested the key shift for the second cycle of 'Show Must Go On', helping to make the song more uplifting, again. He played an important role on computer programming. A lot of the additional (or sometimes sole) drum parts on the album were done either by him or by the creator of the song, with his assistance.

It wouldn't be long before Queen returned to Switzerland to record again, and the January 1991 sessions yielded some preliminary work on 'You Don't Fool Me' and 'A Winter's Tale' as well as the B-Side 'Lost Opportunity'. Then, in May, he worked on finishing off the vocals on 'A Winter's Tale' and engineered the last new song they had then, 'Mother Love'. Around those months he also engineered and co-produced Brian's 'Driven By You'.

After Freddie's death, Roger and John began the new sessions in 1993 with Josh Macrae, then Brian took over with Justin Shirley-Smith, but when they decided to join forces at Metropolis Studios in London they knew David was the best choice, so they flew him over again. David's contributions to the 'Made in Heaven' record were endless, from editing Freddie's vocals to make them sound crisper and more powerful than they already were, to moving along lines of 'You Don't Fool Me' and making loops and virtually transforming those bare bones into a full-fledged song, to creating rhythmic loops for the title track, to mixing outtakes from different sessions recorded at many different studios and having different engineers, making sure they blended and sounded uniform, creating the illusion of the entire band working together. Oh, and of course, he did all the mixes!

I never met David personally, but we did exchange some e-mails in the early 2000s. He was always kind and gentle and spoke highly of the band. Those who knew him feel an emptiness and disbelief that I can't possibly imagine, and those of us who didn't still miss him for his marvellous work throughout so many years. Rest in peace Dave, thanks for everything.