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‘My job was making hits’: Clive Langer on taking Bowie, Dexys and Madness to No 1 – and why he turned Madonna down
He skied with Bowie, boozed with Madness and recorded the Teardrop Explodes on acid. But does he regret blowing it with Dave Grohl? The great producer relives his smashes, parties and 11am vodkas
Given that he is the producer behind some of the most cherished and idiosyncratic British pop of the 1980s, from Elvis Costello to Dexys Midnight Runners and the Teardrop Explodes, Clive Langer sounds surprisingly bad at predicting what will do well. So once it kicked in Julian [Cope] spent four hours disagreeing about a guitar chord.” The recording of Dexys’ second album Too-Rye-Ay was just as colourful, with the band “wearing all the clothes and doing the moves like it was a gig. I got myself into a right pickle – needing vodka in my coffee at 11am just to feel normal Langer’s career zenith was producing Bowie and Jagger’s No 1 single Dancing in the Street and the former’s No 2 classic Absolute Beginners on the same day in 1985.
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