The EMI Archive Trust was delighted to sit down with the wonderful Malcolm Addey. He was hired in March 1958 as a trainee/assistant engineer and after an unprecedented short three months was promoted and invited to join the renowned “pop” recording team of Peter Bown and Stuart Eltham. By July he had already recorded Cliff Richard’s “Move It!” soon to be followed by many hits by Cliff, The Shadows, Helen Shapiro, Adam Faith, Johnny Kidd and many more. Malcolm experimented with and pioneered the use of such things as liberal amounts of equalisation and compression in addition to placing microphones much closer to instruments and vocalists than was considered prudent by his contemporaries. As a result his records tended to be louder, more “present” and attention-getting.

In this short video he shares a memory of how somehow opera got involved in the making of the hit record, “Move It!”, generally accepted as the first “all-British” rock’n’roll record.

Malcolm currently resides in New York City, where he continues his work recording and mastering mostly Jazz and Classical music in addition to re-mastering historic re-issue CD sets. He also enjoys recording live concerts for radio broadcast networks.

If you are interested in taking part or would like more information about our Memories of EMI Campaign please contact us on:
email: info@emiarchivetrust.org
Write: Film Project, EMI Archive Trust
Dawley Road
Hayes, Middlesex
UB3 1HH

emiarchivetrust.org
facebook.com/EMIGroupArchiveTrust
twitter.com/EMIArchiveTrust

Photo credits:
Photo of Malcolm Addey – Copyright: The Malcolm Addey Collection
Photo of Michael Grafton Green – Copyright: Courtesy of The EMI Archive Trust
(Michael Grafton Green – Was Abbey Road’s top pop department cutting engineer of the late ’50s to mid 60s. This image is exactly as his room was when “Move It!” was recorded.)