Nirvana (British Band) - Notable Collaborators

Notable Collaborators

A who's-who of behind-the-scenes craftsmen, who went on to become Britain’s top producers, arrangers, engineers and mixers of the 1970s, chose to work with Nirvana in the late 1960s and in essence cut their studio teeth working with Nirvana. Two of these arranger/producers actually worked with Nirvana before working with The Beatles and The Rolling Stones.

Nirvana’s producers, arrangers, engineers and mixers included:

• Chris Blackwell, Island Records' founder who produced the band before hitting his production stride in the 1970s with Bob Marley
• Tony Visconti, Arranger/producer, before he worked with David Bowie, Marc Bolan, the Moody Blues and U2, among others
• Mike Vickers, former Manfred Mann multi-instrumentalist, who undertook arrangement work for Nirvana in 1967 and 1968
• Jimmy Miller, the US-born producer, who worked with them immediately before starting his five-album streak producing the Rolling Stones, including the Beggars Banquet, Exile On Main Street and It's Only Rock 'n Roll albums.
• Chris Thomas, the producer, whose credits include The Beatles, Procol Harum, Roxy Music, Pink Floyd (mixed The Dark Side of the Moon), the Sex Pistols and INXS.
• Guy Stevens, A&R executive and producer, before his production work with Mott the Hoople.
• Brian Humphries, the recording engineer, who started engineering Nirvana before going on to work with Traffic, Black Sabbath, McDonald and Giles and Pink Floyd (eventually engineering their acclaimed Wish You Were Here and Animals albums).

Others who worked on production with Nirvana include Muff Winwood (formerly of the Spencer Davis Group; arranger/producer Mike Hurst who worked with Jimmy Page, Cat Stevens, Manfred Mann, Spencer Davis Group and Colin Blunstone; arranger Johnny Scott who arranged for the Hollies and subsequently scored films such as The Shooting Party and Greystoke.

Top musicians who played on Nirvana sessions include: Lesley Duncan, Herbie Flowers, Billy Bremner (later of Rockpile/Dave Edmunds fame), Luther Grosvenor, Clem Cattini and the full lineup of rock band Spooky Tooth, Pete Kelly (also known as Patrick Joseph Kelly)(Keyboards) who also co-wrote the 'Modus Operandi'track on the 'Local Anaesthetic' album.