Classic Pop April 2019

HE HELPED LAUNCH GO WEST, FOUND SUCCESS WITH RICK ASTLEY AND RECENTLY

MADE THE CHARTS AGAIN WITH TONY HADLEY. THEN THERE’S WORKING WITH

GARY BARLOW AND A WHOLE SET OF 80s ICONS TO TALK ABOUT. WELCOME TO

THE HIT-MAKING WORLD OF PRODUCER EXTRAORDINAIRE GARY STEVENSON...

THE PRODUCERS

BEHIND THE MUSIC

GARY STEVENSON

If you’ve ever bought a
guitar from your local
dealership, you’ll have no
doubt met that typical
music store salesman.
They will either be the young, starry-eyed,
rockstar wannabe, or the old wizened
guitarist with many a story to tell of life on
the road and playing around the edges of
success. Gary Stevenson defi nitely fell into
the former camp when he landed a job at
ABC Music in Addlestone in Surrey,
demonstrating guitars... “Well, I got to
meet loads of people and was really trying

to get my own band together,” he tells

Classic Pop. Stevenson was already a few

steps ahead, though, having assembled the

parts required to create an eight-track

recording studio and the knowledge to use

the whole shebang. He had also teamed

up with guitarist Dave West to form his

band Radar – so called “because we were

based right next to Heathrow Airport,”

• and then took one giant leap, landing a
  deal that so many music store people
  dream of. “We picked up a deal with
  Atlantic for a fi ve-track EP and they
  allowed me to do the production on it.”

DEAL OR NO DEAL

Deal signed, studio assembled, band

created, songs written and production skills

honed – surely all that was needed now

was to record the songs, get the fans and

watch the success and money roll in, right?

Actually, not quite. You probably don’t

recall the band name Radar as having

scored many hits back in those heady

days of the early 80s, but you will recall

another duo, Go West, who did have

some success. Quite a bit of it, as it goes...

“I then bumped into a guy in ABC Music

called Peter Cox,” says Stevenson.

ANDY JONES

GARY’S

MAGNIFICENT

SEVEN...

GARY STEVENSON’S

GREATEST ALBUM

PRODUCTIONS.

01

GO WEST

GO WEST, 1985

The debut album from Go

West went Top 10 in the UK

with the singles Call Me and

We Close Our Eyes charting

around the world, and they’re

still ringing out at various

festivals to this very day.

02

RADAR

UNRELEASED ALBUM

“I did spend two years

making the album with my

band Radar,” says Gary, “but

by the time we fi nished it,

all the people who signed us

were gone, so unfortunately

the band fi nished.”

03

GO WEST

DANCING ON THE COUCH, 1987

This follow-up didn’t fare as

well as the debut, but it did

gain the band some traction

in the US, where they would

later score big with King Of

Wishful Thinking, used in the

fi lm Pretty Woman.