Mike Vernon Dies After Helping Launch Fleetwood Mac and Eric Clapton
Mike Vernon, producer for Fleetwood Mac, Eric Clapton and David Bowie, has died at age 81. He also served as a music company executive and studio owner.
His great love of the blues led to two important early associations. Vernon produced John Mayall's 1966 album Blues Breakers with Eric Clapton, opening the door for the guitarist's historic career. Mayall's Vernon-produced 1967 album A Hard Road then introduced Clapton's successor, Peter Green.
"It wasn't until we got into making A Hard Road that I realized exactly how lyrical he was as a player," Vernon later enthused. "That lyrical element was far superior to Eric's at that time. There was something about the way he played that just tugged at your heartstrings."
Mike Vernon's Towering Legacy in Rock
Mike Vernon went on to produce early recordings by Fleetwood Mac during its Green-led early blues-focused era. Signature LPs included their self-titled debut and Mr. Wonderful, both from 1968; 1969's English Rose and their stand-alone U.K. chart-topping single "Albatross." His association with the band continued with related studio projects from Christine McVie like Chicken Shack's 1968 debut and 1970's Christine Perfect.
Vernon's goal was to replicate the nervy, extemporaneous feel of the older records he always loved. "If you listen to Blues Breakers ... and a lot of the Fleetwood Mac stuff that I was involved with, it has a very live sound because most of it was recorded all at once," Vernon told Sound on Sound. "I like the old days, when John Mayall would make an album in four days!"
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David Bowie sessions preceded his work with Mayall and Fleetwood Mac as Vernon oversaw Bowie's first self-titled album and a follow-up 1967 single, "Love You Till Tuesday." He later produced Ten Years After, Robben Ford and Climax Blues Band, while working with a sting of blues legends including Freddie King, Otis Spann and Champion Jack Dupree.
Vernon "deserves tremendous kudos for his guidance, not only in our career but for many others in the English blues scene, too," Fleetwood Mac's Mick Fleetwood said in his memoir Play On: Now, Then and Fleetwood Mac. "He did more than anyone knows to further the music and nurture the artists."
Michael William Hugh Vernon was born on Nov. 20, 1944, in Middlesex, England. As a teen, he founded a fanzine called R&B Monthly that hinted at where his career path would go. Later, Vernon started Blue Horizon Records with his brother Richard, initially to reissue obscure American blues records in the U.K. He was still a youthful staff producer for Decca Records when he discovered London's hottest new guitarist.
Vernon immediately contacted Decca impresario Hugh Mendl. "We need to pay some attention to John Mayall's Bluesbreakers," Vernon remembered telling him, "especially now he's got this young ex‑Yardbirds guitar player, Eric Clapton, who's turning the blues scene completely upside down. He's going to be a major force as a guitar player in the future."
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He also served as curator of RCA's archival "Victor Race Series" of blues and R&B recordings. Most of Blue Horizon's best-known blues releases emerged during Vernon's turn-of-the-'70s association with CBS. His own Bring It Back Home album, issued by Blue Horizon in 1971, memorably featured both Paul Kossoff of Free and the fiery Irish guitarist Rory Gallagher.
The same era saw Mike and Richard Vernon co-found Chipping Norton Recording Studios in Oxfordshire, where signature album sessions produced Gerry Raffety's platinum-selling City to City, debut albums by Duran Duran and Radiohead, and a pair of early LPs by Level 42.
