Legendary British Rock Producer Martin Birch Passes Away Aged 71

Martin Birch, who produced and engineered classic albums for Iron Maiden, Black Sabbath, Rainbow, Blue Oyster Cult, Deep Purple, Whitesnake et al has passed away aged 71. His engineering and producing credits run from 1969 until his retirement in 1992 aged 42.

Birch’s most enduring partnership, came with Iron Maiden, who he started working exclusively within the 1980s. Beginning with their second album in 1981, ‘Killers’, Birch produced a string of nine classic albums until 1992’s ‘Fear Of The Dark’, three of them reaching UK No 1, including the classic ‘The Number Of The Beast’.

Birch described them as ”my favourite band to work with … there is a great unity and nobody tries to stand out individually from the team”.

Whitesnake’s David Coverdale had this to say on the passing of Martin Birch ”Martin was a huge part of my life…helping me from the first time we met through ‘Slide It In’… My thoughts and prayers to his family and friends.”

Black Sabbath’s Geezer Butler had this to say on the passing of Martin Birch ”Really sad to hear of the passing of Martin Birch. Brilliant producer. Had the pleasure of working with him on the Black Sabbath albums ‘Heaven And Hell’ and ‘Mob Rules’.”

Iron Maiden had this to say on the passing of Martin Birch ”Rest In Peace Martin Birch (1948 – 2020). A man of many nicknames… and simply one of the greatest people we have ever worked with.”