Martin Birch Death – Dead: British music producer, Martin Birch Dies At 71. British music producer and sound engineer, who became renowned for engineering and producing albums by British rock bands including Deep Purple, Rainbow, Fleetwood Mac, Whitesnake, Black Sabbath, Blue Öyster Cult, and Iron Maiden, Martin Birch has passed away. Martin Birch was reported to haved died today August 9 2020. His cause of death or what killed him has not been disclosed to the public.
Singer David Coverdale was first to announced that Martin Birch has passed on. He revealed this in a series of tweets via his twitter handle.
His tweets reads below..
It is with a very heavy heart I’ve just had verified my very dear friend & producer Martin Birch has passed away…Martin was a huge part of my life…helping me from the first time we met through until Slide It In…Mt thoughts & prayers to his family, friends & fans..
It is with a very heavy heart I’ve just had verified my very dear friend & producer Martin Birch has passed away…Martin was a huge part of my life…helping me from the first time we met through until Slide It In…Mt thoughts & prayers to his family, friends & fans…💔💔 pic.twitter.com/J4UyDiG9zR
— David Coverdale (@davidcoverdale) August 9, 2020
Tributes Floods Twitter
R.I.P. MARTIN BIRCH (1948-2020) 🎶
A celebrated producer of many excellent hard rock and heavy metal albums recorded by the likes of Black Sabbath, Blue Öyster Cult, Deep Purple, Iron Maiden, Jon Lord, Ritchie Blackmore’s Rainbow, and Whitesnake. @theamazingBOC @EddieTrunk pic.twitter.com/XVVsCrkCK8
— Dinomite (@thinbloodeddino) August 9, 2020
RIP Martin Birch.
If you don’t know his name, you damn sure know his body of work!
I also like to think these three are now working on a masterpiece beyond the rainbow. 🌈 #RIPMartinBirch #BlackSabbath #DeepPurple #RonnieJamesDio #CozyPowell pic.twitter.com/5bFyEZ7NSY
— Sabbath Bloody Podcast (@sabbathbloodypc) August 9, 2020
Godspeed Martin Birch, legendary producer of Rainbow, Deep Purple, Iron Maiden, Black Sabbath, Whitesnake, and more. You helped bring some of the greatest music in history to life. You will be missed. pic.twitter.com/e86HQjG5Xd
— Bob Freeman (@OccultDetective) August 9, 2020
Few Things You Need To Know About Martin Birch
Martin Birch was born on 27 December 1948 in Woking, Surrey. He began his career in music as an audio engineer with Jeff Beck, Fleetwood Mac and Deep Purple, producing and engineering eleven albums for the latter. In 1980, coming from the “Deep Purple camp”, he was called upon by Black Sabbath for Heaven and Hell; their previous albums had been self-produced and they were happy to let Birch, who had worked with Ronnie James Dio before, produce them. His “bright midrange” on the album is especially noted.
In 1981 he began a long tenure working exclusively with Iron Maiden, producing and engineering Killers and retiring from working with other bands for a while.
Birch has also produced and engineered albums for numerous artists, such as Deep Purple-related projects (Rainbow, Paice Ashton Lord, Whitesnake, Roger Glover, Jon Lord), but also Wayne County & the Electric Chairs. On Fleetwood Mac’s album Mystery to Me (1973) he is also credited playing acoustic guitar.
The song “Hard Lovin’ Man” from the Deep Purple album Deep Purple in Rock is dedicated to him : “For Martin Birch – catalyst”.
He retired in 1992, after producing Iron Maiden’s Fear of the Dark album. Birch appears in Iron Maiden’s music video “Holy Smoke”.
