Beatles' road manager remembers legacy of George Martin

The Beatles and those closest to them are remembering legendary music producer George Martin.

The man responsible for producing influential albums like Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, Revolver, Rubber Soul, and Abbey Road died at the age of 90.

Tony Bramwell was the road manager for the Beatles and is now the author of the bestselling book Magical Mystery Tours: My Life with the Beatles. He joined News Talk Radio on MainStreet Wednesday  to reflect on his personal memories of Martin.

“I don’t think anyone could ever have a bad word to say about him, you know, he never lost his temper, and he had no ego thing like some people do,” Bramwell said with a chuckle.

Despite that lack of ego, he considers Martin to be a true icon in the music industry.

“He was THE record producer,” he said. “You would stop a kid in Regina or Saskatoon and ask them to name a record producer and they would say George Martin.”

Bramwell described Martin as a genius in the studio and an incredible musician with a great sense of humour.

“He advanced the process of recording beyond anything, from in those early days when the facilities and technical things were amateur really, he worked out how he could do things,” he explained. “The Beatles would say things like ‘we want this to sound like a circus’ and he would make it sound like a circus.”

Martin used techniques like backwards tapes and managed to splice records at different speeds for songs like Strawberry Fields Forever.

Bramwell was with Paul, John, George and Ringo when they first met Martin for a raw recording at EMI records. He described Martin as a friendly schoolteacher in a studio that was more like a science lab compared to the relaxed atmosphere of a modern recording studio.

“His legacy was of course the Beatles, if anybody had that title, he was the man,” Bramwell commented.

The official Paul McCartney fan Facebook page posted this personal tribute to the iconic and influential record producer.