DJM Studios at 73 New Oxford St was a very different situation to the Marquee which was now running 24 track sessions. It was an in-house recording facility built within the confines of an office structure and its main use was for songwriter demos.
Dick though wanted to make technical improvements within the limited space and his first instruction to me was to make a budget of equipment I would recommend. I put together a list and prices for an MCI 416B console and MCI JH24, 3 JH110 1/4″ UA 1176’S and DBX 160s. The budget was around 25,000 pounds and Dick immediately approved this. So my initial months time was spent on this new equipment installation.
The physical layout was though very restrictive as the control room had no visual of the two rooms used for recording. We did though do many sessions and after the 24 track upgrade it was compatible to do overdubs after recording backing tracks at the Marquee. I worked the vast majority of my time with Kaplan Kaye who was the inhouse producer and A&R man.
My time there was a good insight into publishing and the DJM label.
I built a good team of engineers and tape ops but found after about a year I was becoming more of a manager and spending less time on recording. Dick was from my experience a very generous employer. I was given a new company car and expense account and I was just 18 years old but my creative side wasn’t really being fulfilled. During this time I’d still seen a lot of Phil and Gus visiting them on many of the Elton projects that they were doing at the Marquee so my connection with Phil was still good. One day we’d had lunch together and Phil had confided he’d got a decision to make and wanted my opinion. Gus was in the planning stages of putting together what became the Mill in Cookham and wanted to Phil to go with him. In addition he’d also had an offer to set up a studio in Jersey and he felt torn as to which way to go. He knew it was time to leave the Marquee but didn’t know which offer he should accept. My advice was really simple to go with Gus, they’d built up such a great relationship and it seemed to be the natural development. He was also sounding me out taking over his position and returning to the Marquee. The timing felt right to me for us both. Dick had been negotiating to buy out George Martin’s Air Studios complex and if that happened it would have be a great challenge but the deal feel through and I was unsure on how I was going to progress.
Time passed and I found myself in a meeting with Simon White director of the Marquee Studios discussing a package for me to return as engineer replacing Phil. All worked I met with Stephen James and gave my resignation and late 1975 I was back at the Marquee.