Episode Ep 866 January 27, 2026 54 min 19s

Steve Lillywhite produced the Stones, U2, Siouxsie, XTC - ‘the last leg of the relay’

From Word In Your Ear Mark Ellen, David Hepworth and Alex Gold

Steve Lillywhite first got a foot in the studio door aged 17 making demos for Ultravox and became a producer with credits on over 500 records. He doesn’t have a copy of any of them but kept his Grammys and his CBE. The job involves being a lightning-rod, cheer-leader, editor, finisher and “as diplomatic as Henry Kissinger”. He looks back here from his ‘Lillypad’ in Bali at the milestones along the way, among them …

… “I’d done my 10,000 hours by the age of 22”

... “If it ain’t broke, break it!”

… when he screwed up as a tape-op: “you only do it once”

… why bands never want to leave the studio

… breakthrough hits with Johnny Thunders, Siouxsie and the Psychedelic Furs

… “there’s been no new technology in the last ten years”

… the radio plugger who heard Sunday Bloody Sunday and said “sounds like a hit but you’ll have to lose the word Bloody”

… “when Mick and Keith weren’t talking they communicated through me”

… why Muff Winwood wanted to fire Larry Mullen

… why producers can’t hear a hit

… Adam Clayton and Nick Rhodes “aren’t musicians”

… “make the drums less Huntley & Palmers!”