George "Porky" Peckham (born 1942,
Blackburn, Lancashire
Blackburn () is an industrial town and the administrative centre of the Blackburn with Darwen borough in Lancashire, England. The town is north of the West Pennine Moors on the southern edge of the Ribble Valley, east of Preston and north ...
) is an English
record engineer
Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who invent, design, analyze, build and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while considering the lim ...
, widely recognised as among the most accomplished in the business. He has been responsible for producing the master discs from which many
vinyl record
A phonograph record (also known as a gramophone record, especially in British English), or simply a record, is an analog sound storage medium in the form of a flat disc with an inscribed, modulated spiral groove. The groove usually starts near ...
s have been pressed over the last 40 years.
His master discs, and the records that were produced from them, often bear either the motto "A Porky Prime Cut" or a
cryptic or a humorous comment, etched onto the
run-out grooves in his handwriting. Other inscriptions attributed to him include "Pecko" and "Pecko Duck".
One of his most technically demanding achievements was the so-called "three-sided" album, ''
The Monty Python Matching Tie and Handkerchief
''The Monty Python Matching Tie and Handkerchief'' is the fourth album by the comedy group Monty Python, released in 1973. Most of the material was newly written for the album along with a handful of sketches from the third series of ''Flying Ci ...
'' (1973), mastered with two concentric
grooves on side two, so that different material would be played depending on where the
stylus
A stylus (plural styli or styluses) is a writing utensil or a small tool for some other form of marking or shaping, for example, in pottery. It can also be a computer accessory that is used to assist in navigating or providing more Accuracy an ...
was put down on the record's surface.
Biography
Peckham was brought up in
Liverpool
Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a populat ...
. In school, he formed a band with friends called 'The Renegades', where he played guitar. The band later also enrolled his younger brother Derek on the bass guitar. Peckham started dabbling with audio electronics when he had to build a bass amplifier for Derek. According to Peckham, The Renegades played support to
The Beatles
The Beatles were an English Rock music, rock band, formed in Liverpool in 1960, that comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are regarded as the Cultural impact of the Beatles, most influential band of al ...
, then an up-and-coming band.
Paul McCartney
Sir James Paul McCartney (born 18 June 1942) is an English singer, songwriter and musician who gained worldwide fame with the Beatles, for whom he played bass guitar and shared primary songwriting and lead vocal duties with John Lennon. On ...
, whose bass amplifier had failed, borrowed Derek's and afterwards offered to buy it.
Peckham later played and toured with
The Pawns, which he knew from the music circuit, and the group recorded sessions for
Decca. After a stint playing in Germany, Peckham returned to Britain, and was asked to join Billy Kelly (stage name 'Earl Royce') and his group,
the Olympics
The modern Olympic Games or Olympics (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques) are the leading international sporting events featuring summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a vari ...
.
Peckham was poached from Royce to join
The Fourmost
The Fourmost are an English Merseybeat band that recorded in the 1960s. Their biggest UK hit single was "A Little Loving" in 1964.
Biography
Guitarist/vocalist Brian O'Hara and best friend guitarist/vocalist Joey Bower (born Joseph Bower, 17 N ...
, where he replaced Mike Millward, who had health issues. Keen on the recording side of the business, he left the Fourmost to join
Apple Studios
Apple Studios is an American film and television production company and a distributor that is a subsidiary of Apple Inc. It specializes in developing and producing television series and films for Apple's digital video streaming service Apple TV+ ...
when the Beatles acquired the property at 3
Savile Row
Savile Row (pronounced ) is a street in Mayfair, central London. Known principally for its traditional bespoke tailoring for men, the street has had a varied history that has included accommodating the headquarters of the Royal Geographical ...
where they would open their own studio.
George Peckham started his career in disc cutting as a trainee disc cutter at Apple Studios in November 1968 before assuming the chief disc cutting role there a year later. Whilst working at Apple, Peckham began adding short messages on the run-out grooves of records he mastered. The messages, along with the phrase "A PORKY PRIME CUT", become his professional signature.
[Peckham, Georg]
"George Peckham – Apple (cont.)"
''The George Peckham Story'' After various stints at other studios he went on to establish Porky's Mastering Services where he was responsible for cutting some of the most influential English records during the '80s. He is now retired.
References
External links
''The George Peckham Story: Growing up in Liverpool''*
George Peckhaman
Porkyat Discogs
{{DEFAULTSORT:Peckham, George
Mastering engineers
Musicians from Liverpool
English audio engineers
Living people
People from Blackburn
1942 births