Christopher P. Thomas (born 13 January 1947 in Perivale, Middlesex, England)[1] is an English record producer who has worked extensively with the Beatles, Pink Floyd, Procol Harum, Roxy Music, Badfinger, Elton John, Paul McCartney, Pete Townshend, Pulp and the Pretenders.
He has also produced breakthrough albums for the Sex Pistols, the Climax Blues Band, the Pretenders and INXS.
[1] Midway through these sessions, Martin decided to take a holiday, and he proposed that Thomas continue working with the band in his absence.
[1] At the sessions with Procol, Thomas met Roxy Music singer-songwriter Bryan Ferry, who asked him to produce the band's second album, For Your Pleasure.
[1] In 1973, as Thomas' work continued to attract interest, he took on mixing duties with Pink Floyd for their The Dark Side of the Moon album.
If you were to play the multitrack tape now and put the faders up, it would sound like the Dark Side of the Moon we all know.
Members Pete Ham and Tom Evans solicited Thomas' help in cleaning up existing recordings and laying down new tracks.
[citation needed] For their third project together, Thomas held a meeting with the group and pleaded that they all concentrate on making the best record they could muster.
It turned out that Wish You Were Here garnered the most positive critical response from periodicals, including Rolling Stone magazine.
[citation needed] After hearing their 1973 self-titled debut album, Thomas requested to produce the Sadistic Mika Band, a Japanese rock band led by husband and wife duo Kazuhiko Katō and Mika Fukui [ja].
[16] Thomas' colleagues in the recording industry were horrified by his involvement with the Sex Pistols, particularly when he found himself producing the band at the same time as he was working with Paul McCartney.
Co-producer Bill Price explained:[17] The simple facts of the matter were that Chris was hired by Malcolm (McLaren) to do a series of singles for the Sex Pistols.
But it did force that very strange credit, simply because the sleeve was printed long before it was finally decided which version of each individual song was on the record.
[18] In 2007, Thomas produced[citation needed] a brand new studio recording of "Pretty Vacant" for use in the new video game Skate.
John Lydon, Steve Jones and Paul Cook all play on this new version, which was recorded in Los Angeles in July 2007.
He also programmed and played Moog synthesiser on George Harrison's All Things Must Pass and the theme from The Persuaders!
In 1979, Thomas produced Wings' final album Back to the Egg,[1] as bandleader Paul McCartney was looking for a more (and then current) new wave or punk oriented production style.
In 1985, Thomas played a critical part in achieving a worldwide breakthrough for the Australian band INXS.
"[citation needed] Thomas recalls he was worried that the standard of songs the band had laid down was not as strong as he wished.