A Cruise Along the Inside Track:
With Le Mobile’s Sound Recording Legend Guy Charbonneau

A common line I used to hear in the early years was: Who is this guy coming out of nowhere with a truck? They were all left scratching their heads… 

In the 90s when we had a recession, I wondered what it would be like for Le Mobile in 2000.  I actually visualized Le Mobile all rusted with flat tires, gutted of its equipment and parked in the  middle of a field with tree branches jutting through its rear door.  But when the year 2000 came, Le Mobile was busier than ever…

             Guy Charbonneau

Guy Charbonneau in Le Mobile

Passionate, authentic, unassuming and bearing a thick French-Canadian accent, Guy Charbonneau (pronounced ‘Gee’ and rhymes with ‘see’) is a pioneer in the sound recording industry. A native of Montreal, Canada, he went on to create the remote recording studio Le Mobile in 1977; a concept that had its roots inFiltroson, his first recording truck and in his high end audiophile store, Filtronique, a business that he owned and operated in Montreal in the late 1960s early 1970s.

In a relatively short period of time, Charbonneau went on to establish a name for himself by recording some of the world’s greatest artists and by preserving each artist’s trademark sound–beginning with the soundtrack for the movie One Trick Pony, a project led by Phil Ramone and Paul Simon.

Since then he has won numerous awards as validation of his work, including anEmmy at the 52^nd Annual Creative Arts Awards for his TV productions, and Mix magazine’s highly esteemed TEC/Technical Excellence & Creativity Award in the category of Outstanding Institutional Achievement, Remote/Location Recording Engineer.

As I stand in his meticulous, über organized office I am caught staring at what can only be described as a modern day ‘cabinet of curiosities’ and of a talent that he won’t speak of; one that has led him to record at least fifty of the world’s top one hundred artists.

But accolades make Guy way too uncomfortable and I remember this as my eye suddenly catches a  black felt Stetson hat with a thin metal strip coiled tightly around its inside rim. Engraved are the words: “To Guy ‘Postcards’ Love Meryl.”

This makes me smile as I happen to be a big fan of Meryl Streep and of the moviePostcards from the Edge. On an adjacent wall hangs an award from the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences. And on his long, wooden desk lie thank you letters from numerous celebrities, including Val Kilmer who once penned a warm note regarding the recording of The Doors Movie.

Then I see it: the Emmy. It is tall, shiny and golden, and stands on a mirrored shelf in his high cabinet. Guy takes note of where my eyes have now travelled and quickly interjects, “it would make a great door stop don’t you think?”

I laugh at this idea, trying to picture the Emmy on the floor.

Now his face takes on a more serious expression as he asks, “Do you want to see what is really, really amazing in this cabinet?” He then does something most surprising.  He bypasses the Emmy and reaches over it to pull out a smooth kidney shaped black object instead. It is a brake pad and its sleek rotor is propped up behind it casting a small, reflected shadow on the mirrored surface below.

“Look at this” he says with pride as though introducing a brand new baby. He carefully places the firm, spongy pad in my outstretched palm and continues with a degree of reverence: “It is from when Michael Schumacher was at Ferrari.”

I run my fingers along the inner curve of its surface and my hands take on some vintage Ferrari F1 grease. It smells and feels so real. Ferrari dust. Nice, I think to myself. And then it occurs to me. This is the moment that captures the man; both his humbleness and his unending quest for perfection. And it is that which makes him unique.

Charbonneau is best known for creating an authentic studio environment for the live artist, thereby eliminating the oftentimes costly and time consuming need that the later editing of raw performances usually requires.

Among the hundreds of artists he has recorded, stand musical giants in the field such as: Peter Gabriel, Sting, Diana Ross, Carlos Santana, Gwen Stefani, Faith Hill,Eric Clapton, Christina Aguilera, Andrea Bocelli, Kenny Chesney, Roger Waters,Sting, Herbie Hancock, Joe Jackson, Linkin Park, Jay Z, Jean Luc Ponty, Grateful Dead, Rush and Van Morrison, to name but a few.

Gwen Stefani and Guy Charbonneau listening to her performance for AOL Session promoting her new record “Love Angel Music Baby”

The long corridor that leads to the office where I now stand is flanked with some of his achievements in the recording industry, marked by the numerous Platinum, Silver, Gold Records and DVD’s that hang framed on its walls as continuous reminders of some of the more notable projects that he has engineered.

But it is one thing to have the chance to record great artists and another to have them return. Over the past three decades artists keep coming back to Le Mobile and to the tall, athletic Charbonneau. The reason is simple: Charbonneau creates an absolutely pristine recording environment, capturing at once, (and with very little interference) the essence or soul of the artist and the musical work, making one immediately realize that Guy is as much an artist as thosethe he records in his onsite studio. This is a skill comes not from school, but instead from years of experience on the road and from his innate gift, an almost intuitive understanding of the process of artistic creation itself.

When I first met Charbonneau it was not as one might expect, through the recording of live music. Rather it was through the context of one of his other great mechanical passions: automobiles. And this was perhaps the most fitting introduction to this sound engineer, car aficionado that one can have. It was after all, through his great love of modifying cars that he became the first ever to retro fit a long, shiny Chevy black truck (later a GMC General diesel) as a state of the art mobile recording studio; a project that would ironically tie him to the road as much as his beloved cars still do.

In this rare interview, we discuss the founding of Le Mobile, live music, what makes a great artist and yes, cars. But in the end we are reminded of the common thread that unites all great art, artists and beloved mechanical things: passion. But it also brings to mind the elusive, intuitive art of the engineer and the often times blurred boundaries between the original creator of the art and the person who preserves and tweaks that creation.

Gerry Garcia

WRR: What inspired you to create Le Mobile and how did you turn your passion into a viable business that became a pioneering force in the sound recording industry?

Guy Charbonneau: Not sure what inspired me! But maybe it was a client at my store telling me that the cymbal was sounding metallic when he was auditioning a system in the store and I answered that I never heard a wooden cymbal before; in some way this must have inspired me to find my passion. You see, I used to own a high end audio store in Montreal selling audiophile systems, microphones and tape recorders. One day, I was advertising my store at a local radio station when the musical director came and asked for some microphones. When I asked him what he intended to use them for, he responded by saying that they are doing more and more live broadcasting and as a result, their technical needs were getting more complex. Well it was as though a switch was clicked on in my mind. I knew then that I add to record music…music that I could then play later at the store. Talk about defining moments: instead of selling them the equipment, I offered instead to loan them the equipment and also my services.

This may seem strange, but when I did my first recording, I really didn’t know anything about how to do it.  To give you an example, when the station’s musical director showed me a fine Neumann U67 microphone (an expensive and very high quality recording device) I told him that we were not going to use that old microphone, rather we would use the new Beyer microphone instead. You see we carried Beyer and this is all I knew. However, despite my own lack of experience the recording session turned out better than what they had previously accomplished with their own engineer. So this got me started in the right direction.

That same year I went on to record over 50 shows for them. These were sessions which included all the major French European artists: Charles Aznavour, Mireille Mathieu, Julian Clerc, etc.

By the end of the year (1973) I decided to sell my hi-fi store as I had this idea that I couldn’t let rest. I wanted to focus on building my first remote recording truck. Of course this concept made my first wife panic at the thought of me being on the road all the time, this is understandable. But at that time, the drive to create my first mobile recording studio was something that just came naturally to me and I couldn’t suppress; you might say it was the evolution of earlier interests, as I had always been someone who modified all my cars. So what was retro fitting a truck to be a recording studio then?  It seemed the only way to go and was very exciting to me. Music, cars and truck! Building my first recording mobile and naming it Filtroson.

In 1977 I felt it was time to go a step forward, it was a pivotal year. I built the first generation of Le Mobile…a name I choose for its bilingual flexibility as it works both in French and in English.

WRR: You must have faced some obstacles or challenges…can you talk about some of these?

Charbonneau: My first challenge came when I built Filtroson and involved getting the financing for it. When I purchased my first Neve console and my first Studer 24 track recorder, I did not have any capital and had to convince both companies to let me have the equipment. In retrospect I am amazed that they allowed me to do this. With a small Neve console and one Studer A80 24 track tape recorder that I installed myself, I drove the Filtroson truck directly to the bank and asked for the money to pay for it. At the time I possessed only two things: my only regular client (which was the radio station) and my driving enthusiasm; as nothing could have stopped me from my dream. Bruno Hochstrasser from Studer (for whatever reason) believed in me and was an enormous help. He sold me my first 24 track recorder that was fitted with 16 audio channels. Since I did not have to money to purchase them all, he allowed me to purchase each one as I could afford. Therefore, every month I was adding one module of audio channel (s) to my recording machine. Bruno is a great example of someone who made my life so much easier over the years and in fact is a still a great friend. He is also someone who is very passionate about all the Studer products and at the same time has always been very well respected in the industry. So much so, that when he eventually moved back to Switzerland he was asked to fill the large shoes of Willy Studer…and Willy Studer is to the audio equipment world what Enzo Ferrari is to the automobile world.

But the real challenge came to me when I entered the United States. After my first project in 1978 in which I was recording for CBC in NY, I drove Le Mobile to the front door of Phil Ramone’s recording studio (producer to Billy Joel, Paul Simon and many more famous artists). I had in my mind that I would see his studio. However, when I got there I decided to invite him to see the inside of Le Mobile instead. So he did and was very impressed. Perhaps because I had the same Neve 8058 console that he had in his studio, however I happened to have the prototype of the first Studer A800 24 Track recorder,… the first one in North America.  Little did I know that a short time later Ramone would call me, offering me my first real big gig: a chance to record Paul Simon playing on One Trick Pony. So you see somehow my studio gamble paid off. And as it turned out, I never did get to see his studio.  Life is funny that way and with the great blessing of this project came some pretty big challenges.

My first major challenge: I had to cross the Canadian/United States border so that I could record a project for a US artist. It created a number of headaches at the time but the upshot was that after that project, I formed my US. Corporation and started the process of getting a work visa and then had to re-build Le Mobile, outfitting it with a new diesel GMC General. For this I had to borrow even more money from the Canadian Federal Business Bank (a bank set up to help Canadian companies expand). At that time the interest rate was set at a hefty 20%. However, this did not dampen my enthusiasm or stop me from borrowing the money.

Other challenging adventures came in the way of immigration. When the group ‘Journey’ saw the newly updated version of Le Mobile (II) they asked me to record “Captured” live. I went to Detroit and then to Montreal. However, on my way back into the United States, immigration did not want to let me back in the country despite the fact that I had a legitimate work visa and a legitimate US company established to boot.  The only problem was that I was missing a work visa card that had not come in time in the mail. With a bank loan at 20% interest and not being able to now work in the US, I had some real problems.  But as fate would have it, luck smiled on me one more time, giving me another chance to pursue my dream. And so it was at that time that CBC and the Montreal Jazz festival kept me afloat as well as some work in the Canadian English market too. After a year long delay with my working papers, I finally received them and it wasn’t long after that I came to Los Angeles to record Peter Frampton. This was my very first recording project under my new US Corporation status; and fortunately for me, it was also the beginning of many more.

After working in the USA for a couple years I managed to strike a deal with US Customs which involved bringing Le Mobile into the USA. But in order to do that, I would first need to purchase Le Mobile from my Canadian Corporation.  It was now time to go to the bank. Just think of me here, complete with a heavy French accent walking into a bank in Tennessee in the mid 1980’s and asking for a loan to purchase Le Mobile from my Canadian corporation! This naive approach did not work. A friend of mine from a touring sound company located in Plattsburg NY, a place that lies just across the border, happened to suggest a small bank to me.  And so I did what I did in Canada only now with Le Mobile instead of Filtroson in order to get the money. This time I actually drove Le Mobile to the bank; a clear case where the truck was bigger than the bank building itself! I asked them for a loan, it was hard to explain to them why I needed to have a loan in the first place given that I already owned Le Mobile and I had a postal address… a PO Box in Nashville and no real office in any US city. Well, after about a week they called me with the news that I was approved. When I later met the Bank’s manager to sign the papers, he told me that his son in fact owned some records that I had recorded and they saw my name in the credits. So I guess this is why I got my loan.

WRR: Let’s talk technical equipment. Among other things, you outfitted Le Mobile with a Neve 8058 analog mixing console fitted with Necam automation later updated with Flying Faders automation and a pair of Studer A800 24 tracks analog (the D827 48 tracks digital came later). These are certainly two iconic names in the industry. The Studer A800 were most recently used to record Roger Waters In The Flesh-Live.

You have a particular recording approach or style, something which has made your engineering skills a very desirable asset in the music industry today. It is also something which has given you unique relationships with some of the early developers of this equipment. Would you say that your equipment has come to define your style or do you define your equipment…or both?

Charbonneau: Electronic equipment is the tool that I use to practice my trade. First and foremost I want reliability and quality. I don’t read ‘spec’ sheets like some people do. Instead I look and feel, I listen and touch. Various people along the way have served as my inspiration and that has seemed to be enough. I mentioned Bruno from Studer… the passion that he had for his tape machine was enough for me. He is a big part of why I am in this business and why I did not even look at the equipment in other studios or follow the latest industry trends. In the end I did what I felt was right for me and that has seemed to work.

You have to remember that each and every piece of equipment has its own distinct sound…its capabilities and its inherent limitations. I always go for the highest quality instrumentation out there that I could find. But at the same time it has to be practical and adaptable to my own specific needs. With the Studer machine for instance, I had Studer add a connector to trigger the Dolby noise reduction.  To my surprise they ended up calling this specialized connector that I had requested the ‘CRZYCN’ (Crazy Canadian). As time passed, many more changes were carried out and I have to say that Studer was always the greatest with respect to accommodating my every need. The same held true when I purchased my Neve automation; at the time I needed them to re write the software for my specific needs… and they did this for me as well.

Modifying and adapting equipment never stopped. When I installed a ProTools system to replace the 48 Track digital (as we now record using a computer) a problem came up: I did not like the way it was sounding and so I replaced all the converters with Apogee converters which was superior. Believe it or not, I also asked them to modify and adapt their converters to my needs. Now instead of 48 tracks, we have the possibility of recording up 192 tracks.

WRR: How would you describe your approach, what qualities are you trying to preserve in a live recording…?

Charbonneau: Performance…performance…performance. The integrity of the performance is foremost in my mind. I am always trying to capture what the artist is trying to do, while at the same time make the listener feel as close to the artist as possible. In other words to not change the music but to capture the moment instead.  

WRR: You have a great love and also knowledge of fine cars. Would you say that cars and music, or perhaps the recording of artists and the audio equipment involved are your greatest passions in life?

Charbonneau: Cars are my drug, my balance and working on them is a way for me to relax and to enjoy more of life. But I couldn’t imagine just working on cars and not being involved with Le Mobile. When I turned forty, my first wife advised me to sell Le Mobile and focus on cars as she felt that owning a car dealership or working in the car industry would be better for me than a life on the road. But as much as I loved cars, recording music and being on the road to do it was the only thing that I could see myself doing for a living. And so my life on the road continued and my relationship with her did not work out as we ended up divorcing. This was another pivotal time in my life as after my divorce I took my Corvette and Le Mobile and moved out to Los Angeles, where much work was to be found.  

WRR: You have recorded some of the greatest legends in the music industry today…in your experience, what are some of the defining traits that these artists all share?

Charbonneau: I would say: talent, talent and more talent. But it would be foolish to think that talent for music carries them alone or that this is all that they have. There is something else called presence. And it is that indefinable something that an artist has when he or she walks onto the stage that you can feel even before they have played a single note. It is part vibe, part aura… and difficult to explain. But all great artists have at least one thing in common: they have a novel way of expressing what they feel and this is their passion.  

I am reminded of this defining trait when I think back to the time that I recorded Live Earth in the 1980s and Mick Jagger walked on stage. You want presence, well here it is! You see for me it is not how many notes the artist can or cannot play, how their voice is perfect or in tune, (that does not do it for me) rather talent, is about what they can make you feel. They don’t need to be technically perfect. It is inexplicable and in the end, it is what it is.  You can’t touch it but you can feel it. I believe this is what has allowed me to record all kinds of music from Jazz, Pop, and Rock Roll to classical.

WRR: You must have had some pretty interesting technical situations that you have had to deal with over the years…

Charbonneau: Technical situations… hmm…I would have to think about this. Recording a show is not for me the main challenge, even though I have (in some shows) over 150 microphones to channel (such as recording Hit Man, David Foster & Friends, DVD / PBS). That for me is fun, but not necessarily a challenge as that type of scenario does not worry me so much since I am very focused on making it happen. Capturing the music is the fun part and getting all the instruments to sound authentic is my own way of playing the music for me.  It is my way to create.

When a client hires me I feel the pressure… I feel responsible… I cannot let them down. I know what they expect from me, and to be there and do the best recording possible. What is worrying me is to make sure we can make the show free of all technical difficulties or accidents. Things such as: mechanical issues with the equipment or the truck, road permits, tires being well inflated, finding the proper parking, gaining access to a reliable electrical source to power Le Mobile, were to run the audio cables, etc. I normally don’t sleep well the night before as I am already at work long before the day begins; I am thinking of my setup or of every possible thing that can go wrong. After all these years and the recording of hundreds of shows, I am never free of all this pre-recording anxiety until we have parked the truck and the equipment is turned on and is all working properly. Luckily this does not happen often, but sometimes I wake up with nightmares. An example of a nightmare is one in which someone has changed the entire inside of Le Mobile, where the console is now attached to the ceiling for instance, or where one tire is smaller than the other, or a giant window has been added to the side of the truck.

WRR: If you were to teach a class on sound engineering, what would your approach be to this and how would you reach the students?

Charbonneau: First I would have to give them a French-Canadian dictionary so that they could understand what I am saying through my heavy accent! I guess I would have to use my hands and express what I am trying to say. Maybe this is my stage. I don’t try to be technical. I always said if I need a pencil and an eraser if that will give me a better recording than this is what I will use. I would try to make the students understand that the recording equipment does not make the music; the music comes from the artist.  After all, they are the ones creating the sound that I capture. Over the years I have seen many producers or engineers trying to make the recording process as hard and as complicated as possible. For instance, if they don’t have a specific piece of equipment in the truck or they want to change everything on the stage, nothing from that point on will be any good. Remember, we are talking about recording a live concert, it is not like in the studio such as creating the sound for a new song; this is a very different process. In a live recording, properly capturing the performance is what it is all about. For the equipment to work perfectly, you must take the time to test it meaning; test it before modifying it for your needs. All this has to be done beforehand, not when you record. Never settle for a mediocre recording. And no matter what you do, you should never affect the actual performance of the artist. I would also teach the students to listen, to be as transparent as possible and then to step aside and let the artist perform.

WRR: With the advent of the Internet and with the sweeping advances that have been made in the digital era, the recording industry has rapidly changed and evolved over the last decade or so.  It is now possible for budding artists to record their own music from semi-professional home studios, but to package their creations and sell them online too. In addition, people may now also buy individual songs online for a small fee, rather than buying the whole album. This has had a large impact on the recording industry and in particular, on niche engineers such as you.

Charbonneau: Yes this is certainly true as all of this makes it possible for more and more people to record and perform. In one way this is very good because it is exposing many more people to music. An artist may be able to create a recording in the simplest of ways, it may seem to be quiet good at first. The technology and their computer may help to create a song but it may have no real substance, the emotion, the passion and performance is just not there. But in the end it is the actual live performance that fails the most, as what they have created, is not artistically sustainable long term.  

This gets us to the point that separates the great artist from an individual with some talent. The great artist can consistently write great songs, over an extended period of time. The new technology will not write the song, it may help. It is like me in Le Mobile where all my equipment is just the tool to record. New technology allows more people to come up with something but that something is not necessarily great. How many new artists will still be performing 10 or 20 years from now?  Only the ones with talent.  Now everything needs to be lightening fast. It used to be that when you wanted to listen to an artist you placed a record on the player and a needle came down and made contact with the very first groove. It continued in this way until you reached the end of the record. Now it is possible that in the middle of the song you can skip to the next song or even jump ahead by 15 or 20 songs. Is this better though?

One of the biggest challenges in the industry is the one surrounding the budget.  Unfortunately it commonly becomes the main factor… an accountant telling you how to record the music. And then you get, ‘the friend’ or neighbor with a computer that offers to do it for six hundred dollars!

WRR: Not a very good recording I would assume! However, some of the more positive aspects to these sweeping advances in technology would be that it is now possible for you to ‘discover’ up and coming artists in a far easier way than before. You recently told me an interesting story about this…

Charbonneau: I am not so sure that it is easier than before… live music and video are now one, we no longer record live CD’s. Anthony, My Pro Tools engineer, always played and wrote music. One day he decided to form another band and it was through Craig’s list that we found his ideal drummer; a girl who could also sing. Talk about what the technology can do, finding your drummer on the Internet. The two had an instant chemistry and for whatever reason, magic happened. They went on to form Little Hurricane, a sort of dirty blues band with well written songs, great voices and some magic mixed in. As I said earlier, talent is important but the presence of both on stage is magical. They are still a baby band but their passion will take them to glory.  I did not discover them but through them I found another talented young editor/director who filmed one of their shows.  His name is Paul, and along with 2 cameramen he filmed the band with three DLSR cameras. I love what he did; the look and feel is different. Paul has talent and not just the technical know how.

Today the technology for video allowed him to showcase his creativity by capturingLittle Hurricane properly. This would have been impossible 10 years ago unless you have a generous budget. Many people know how to manipulate and edit using Final Cut Pro software but this does not mean that even if they know all the tricks in the book that they will have created a great video. And the same goes for playing music; the technology can never replace raw talent.

“It Might Get Loud” recording project at WB soundstage

Jack White, Jimmy Paige, The Edge

WRR: You have this wonderful idea of turning Le Mobile into a museum…of preserving its history for future generations or a possible TV show. Can you discuss some of this here…?

Charbonneau: In the 90’s when he had a recession I wondered what it would be like for Le Mobile in 2000. I actually visualized the truck all rusted out with flat tires, gutted of its equipment and laying in the middle of a field with tree branches jutting through its door. But when the year 2000 came, Le Mobile was busier the ever and the extra work I received allowed me to purchase a building in 2006 that I could drive my truck into. I felt that a change was coming and that it was important to extend my passion into other areas… ones which did not all involve recording live music. For the first time I was not making a studio but a place where I could find a new challenge. At that time, I felt that all these years of recording Le Mobile should not be pushed aside or the truck taken apart. And so the idea of writing a book about my years on the road and the possibility of turning the studio into a mini museum started to gain traction in my mind.

I wanted to re invent Le Mobile to a certain extent, and this would mean that it would not stayed parked in a static environment, but instead (I visualized) would be housed within a large room with Le Mobile as the main attraction; a bunch of large flat screens would be playing the concerts I recorded, cast against a dark background so that the images would really jump out at the viewer. It could function as a private tour through North American musical history as it would also be a way to experience a concert in a very intimate venue and in a whole new way. Because at the same time it would be an interactive experience as it will be the place where a paying audience will be able to interact with the artist after the show and where the artist can give them a tour of the inside of Le Mobile as well, explaining the recording as they go. As I am playing with these ideas I am thinking, why not do a TV series? Could this not be a new way to conceive of a museum space…creating a more interactive experience for the viewer.

WRR: So for instance, you could have Mick Jagger or Peter Gabriel explain their respective shows and/or the recording of it to a particular audience inside your museum on a specific date?

Charbonneau: Yes, exactly.

WRR: That would be very interesting…and popular I should think. You have worked with so many interesting artists over the years…can you share with us any great stories about some of them…maybe Eric Clapton, Jean Luc Ponty, Sting, Peter Gabriel or anyone else that you are free to recount, here?

Charbonneau: I can tell you so many times how often the hair on my arm raised when I recorded a great artist. For example, let’s take Gwen Stefani… talk about presence. I can feel her passion and love for her public every time I record her. She always gives at least 120% in concert. It just amazes me. Peter Frampton. When you listen to him playing his guitar all alone you can feel Peter as a person…he seems to climb out of the notes themselves. Another is Pat Benatar, an artist who is a performer who has a great love for her audience. Genesis’ Phil Collins is another. I once recorded him when he had a cold and his performance was still amazing. I knew that it was because he did not want to let his audience down. Peter Gabriel is someone who is always theatrical and that is how he can give you what is his own unique form of art. When I recorded him in the 80’s we had to take a small plane between two cities. I could see the pilot as there was no separation between the passenger and the small crew. The flight happened to occur during a big rain storm… and at one point a loud buzzer went off and a light when on. I was thinking to myself that we will all die here in this plane right as it was now being thrown all over the place. But we all managed to survive it and I often remember this flight that I had with Gabriel.

In 1982 I recorded Jean Luc Ponty during the Montreal Jazz Festival and we met sometime later in Nashville to mix that project in Le Mobile. It was a stop along the way for me as I was headed to Los Angeles. From that point on we have always keep in touch and in fact I just saw him a few weeks ago. Other artists I haven’t met, even though I have recorded them. This is the case with Eric Clapton whom I have recorded at least 3 or 4 times but have never met him. Remember, you have to be invisible… the artist already knows that you are there and so you must let them perform as though you are not. If I ever create my TV show then we (WRR and I) should talk to Eric Clapton about cars, as he loves them too.

WRR: That would really be fun wouldn’t it?

Many thanks for joining us here.