Colin Thurston (13 July 1947 – 15 January 2007) was an English recording engineer and record producer. Born in

Brentford Brentford is a suburban town in West London, England and part of the London Borough of Hounslow. It lies at the confluence of the River Brent and the Thames, west of Charing Cross. Its economy has diverse company headquarters buildings whi ...

Middlesex Middlesex (; abbreviation: Middx) is a Historic counties of England, historic county in South East England, southeast England. Its area is almost entirely within the wider urbanised area of London and mostly within the Ceremonial counties of ...

, Thurston played in bands in London before he "bluffed his way" into audio engineering.Pierre Perrone (24 January 2007)
Colin Thurston obituary, ''The Independent'' Online
After meeting

Tony Visconti Anthony Edward Visconti (born April 24, 1944) is an American record producer, musician and singer. Since the late 1960s, he has worked with an array of performers. His first hit single was T. Rex's " Ride a White Swan" in 1970, the first of man ...

, he co-engineered

David Bowie David Robert Jones (8 January 194710 January 2016), known professionally as David Bowie ( ), was an English singer-songwriter and actor. A leading figure in the music industry, he is regarded as one of the most influential musicians of the ...

's '' "Heroes"'' and

Iggy Pop James Newell Osterberg Jr. (born April 21, 1947), known professionally as Iggy Pop, is an American singer, musician, songwriter and actor. Called the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, Godfather of Punk", he was the vocalist and lyricist of ...

's '' Lust for Life'' (both 1977); he is also credited with co-producing the latter album with Bowie and Pop, under the collective pseudonym "Bewlay Bros". Thurston's debut as a solo producer was

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's second album ''

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'' (1979). He later recalled, "I think they were a bit nervous and so I didn't tell them it was my first production". The same year, he produced

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's first album, ''

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'' and their single "

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" released under the name of The Men. His lesser-known productions around this time included the single "Move in Rhythm" by Airkraft (1980) on the Square record label, now a collector's piece, and the EP ''Digital Cowboy'' with the hit-single "Target for Life" by Our Daughter's Wedding, from 1981. He achieved widespread recognition with

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's debut album (1981) and the follow-up ''

Rio Rio or Río is the Portuguese, Spanish, Italian, and Maltese word for "river". When spoken on its own, the word often means Rio de Janeiro, a major city in Brazil. Rio or Río may also refer to: Geography Brazil * Rio de Janeiro * Rio do Sul, a ...

'' (1982); bassist John Taylor later described Thurston as "a major catalyst for the Eighties sound". After working with Duran Duran he produced

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's ''

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'' (1982), and

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's ''

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'' (1983), the latter with Duran Duran's

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. He also worked with

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on his 1985 album '' The Fury''. Thurston became an in-house producer for the Canadian independent record label Brouhaha in the late 1980s, working with acts such as Westwon, before the company dissolved. In 1999, he was again associated with Duran Duran for the '' Strange Behaviour'' remix compilation. Thurston had been suffering from a long illness and doing occasional production work before he died on 15 January 2007.

References

1947 births 2007 deaths English audio engineers English record producers English new wave musicians People from Brentford Duran Duran 20th-century British businesspeople {{UK-record-producer-stub