Sad news from the musical backwaters where I have been known to dip my toes. Musician and producer Pat Collier died last month aged 72. Currently there is only one obituary that I can find, on the Louder Than War website.

There are mentions on Facebook but not much else for now. As the article on Louder Than War mentions, Pat was bass player in 70s bands Bazooka Joe, The Vibrators and The Boyfriends and set up Alaska Studios in Waterloo in the late 1970s. He engineered and produced scores of acts. Over 80 of them are listed in that obituary. Here’s an edited list, featuring some bands and musicians I have followed enthusiastically in the last 45 years, and a few that I have got to know in that time:

The Wonderstuff, Jona Lewie, Katrina and the Waves, Kimberley Rew, Lowgold, Nick Bukowski, Primal Scream, Robyn Hitchcock, Special Needs, The Chords, The House of Love, The Inmates, The Jesus and Mary Chain, The Men They Couldn’t Hang, The Soft Boys, The Vibrators, Vince Ray and the Boneshakers, Viva las Vegas

In recent years Pat ran a studio in Forest Hill, called Perry Vale. It’s the last place where I recorded with other musicians. I called him last year to try and arrange some studio time. He answered the phone but was in the middle of a recording session, as he was the previous time I called. He suggested that I send an email. I never got around to it.

The last time I did use the studio we spoke about how things had changed in recent years for him, for the better. Many of those 80s bands who still have a small but dedicated following can crowdfund an album and end up with bigger budgets than they have had for decades. They could block-book Perry Vale for two weeks at a time, get drunk every night, record their new album and still have money left over. And Pat would have a guaranteed two-week booking rather than odd days from self-funded solo artists like me.

I heard about his death last Wednesday at a music night here in West London, from a musician who was in a band with Pat in the late 1970s. Nobody else in the room had met him but some of them knew many of the people he had worked with. I reported the news of Pat’s passing at another music night in West London on Friday night. Nobody in the room had heard of him, but like most people they will know at least one song that he produced: “Walking on Sunshine” by Katrina and the Waves. The band are also credited as producers of the single.

It was Pat who told me that the song had been bought for £10 million. It’s confirmed in this Wikipedia page: BMG Rights Management acquired the song in August 2015. I was re-recording a few tracks at Perry Vale the following month and as usual the conversation turned to artists that I had followed, and Pat had worked with. I enjoyed our conversations. I’ll miss them, and I’ll miss him. May he rest in peace.