Memorials & tributes
Cimetière de Clarens
- Type
- Cemetery
- Address
- Chemin du Batailleux, Clarens
In this peaceful cemetery above Clarens, surrounded by greenery with Lake Geneva below, rests David Richards (1956-2013), the producer and sound engineer who kept Mountain Studios alive for two decades alongside Queen and David Bowie. The place is also known to literature lovers: the writer Vladimir Nabokov, a famous resident of the Montreux Palace, is buried here. A contemplative stop, to be combined with the bust of Wilhelm Furtwängler at the Port du Basset, below. Several other great figures of music also rest here: the pianist Nikita Magaloff and the violinist Joseph Szigeti, the spectral composer Horatiu Radulescu and Carlo Boller, founder of La Chanson de Montreux. Sydney Chaplin (1885-1965), Charlie Chaplin’s half-brother and the man who advised the family to settle in Switzerland, also rests here beside his wife. David Richards and the Chaplin family were in fact related by marriage: the producer had married Collette McCready, whose sister Bernadette, known as Bernie, was married to Eugène Chaplin, Charlie’s son. The two men were therefore brothers-in-law.
Those who rest at Clarens
David Richards, the sound man of Mountain Studios
David Richards was a British producer, sound engineer and musician settled in Switzerland. He made his name as chief engineer, then producer, at Mountain Studios.
He co-produced several Queen albums and helped shape the band’s sound in their later years. He also worked with David Bowie, Chris Rea and Iggy Pop, among others.
He bought the studio in 1993. He died in December 2013 after a long illness; it was then that the place became the Queen: The Studio Experience exhibition.
Related artists :David RichardsSydney ChaplinNikita MagaloffJoseph SzigetiHoratiu RadulescuCarlo BollerQueenFreddie Mercury