David Richards

Chief engineer at 21

English, born in 1956, David Richards started in 1973 at Chappell Studios in London. He then moved to Montreux and joined Mountain Studios, which had only just opened. By twenty-one he was already its chief engineer.

He would never leave the Riviera. He also worked from Attalens, in the canton of Fribourg, but it was the Montreux desk that made his name: for nearly twenty years, almost everything recorded by the lake passed through his hands.

In 1993 he bought the studio he had once been an employee of.

Queen’s last four albums

His work with Queen began early, he was assistant engineer on “Live Killers” in 1979, the year the band bought the studio. It culminated in his co-production of the last four albums: “A Kind of Magic” (1986), “The Miracle” (1989), “Innuendo” (1991) and “Made in Heaven” (1995).

That last record gave him a particular responsibility. Built from Freddie Mercury’s final vocal takes, it required holding a whole album together around what a dying singer had been able to record. Richards was one of the very few who knew exactly what existed on the tapes.

Bowie, Iggy Pop and Patrick Juvet

Queen did not take up all his time. Richards co-produced Iggy Pop’s “Blah-Blah-Blah” (1986), then three David Bowie records: “Never Let Me Down” (1987), “The Buddha of Suburbia” (1993) and “Outside” (1995).

He also worked with Chris Rea, and with a local boy: he produced “Rêves immoraux”, the album that Patrick Juvet, born in Montreux, came to record at Mountain Studios in September and October 1981.

That list says the essential thing about his role. Richards was not a star producer; he was the fixed point around which the visiting artists revolved.

What remains of him in Montreux

He died on 20 December 2013, aged 57, after a long illness. Queen’s tributes saluted the friend as much as the producer.

A bust was dedicated to him in the Casino gardens, a few metres from the studio. He lived in Clarens, where he rests in the village cemetery.

Queen: The Studio Experience now occupies Mountain Studios, where the console he worked on can still be seen.