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Warts and all

Phil Aston of the Now Spinning Magazine podcast talks to Richard Digby Smith, who in the 70s worked at the London’s famed Island Studios, and more recently, was involved with the Made in Japan remix that came out in 2025.

From Island Studios to Super-Deluxe Box Sets: The Engineer Richard Digby Smith
On this episode, I’m delighted to welcome one of the true unsung heroes of classic rock (or rock music in general any era, really), and that is engineer and producer Richard Digby Smith. His career spans decades from the golden age of the early 70s on Island Studios with bands like Free, Traffic, Led Zeppelin, Sparks, Detective right through to his incredible recent work with Black Sabbath and even more recently Deep Purple’s 50th anniversary of Made in Japan.
We’re going to look back at some of those classic sessions — the young bands, big ambitions, fast-paced studio life — and also dig into the modern world of archiving, remixing and preserving those recordings for new generations. Richard will share stories of the tech, the people, the accidents (yes, including the one where a guitar sleeve switch caused a famous moment), and the philosophy behind bringing timeless rock to life.
So pour yourself a drink, fire up your headphones, and join us behind the console with a man who’s been doing this for four decades.

For the more impatient of us, Purple bits start at around 46 minutes into the lengthy interview.

Thanks to Uwe for the heads-up.

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Posted by Nick on Thursday, January 8th, 2026, filed under News. You can follow comment on this post through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a comment. Pinging is currently not allowed.

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2 Comments to “Warts and all”:

  1. 1
    Buttocks says:

    It’s all part of my Rock n Roll fantasy ! 👏🏻

    January 8th, 2026 at 13:06
  2. 2
    Karin Verndal says:

    I like this guy!

    Do you know he used to be a yoga warrior (well almost!)

    Well, he is interesting and has a heart for good music 😊

    January 8th, 2026 at 15:33

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