Mojo - The Music Magazine

Beatles/Floyd soundsmith shuffles off. World poorer, says MOJO’s Mark Blake.

NORMAN “HURRICANE” SMITH, The Beatles’ engineer, Pink Floyd producer and solo artist, had died at the age of 85. Born in Edmonton, North London, Smith had previously flown as an RAF glider pilot before finding his way into the music business. An accomplished pianist, drummer and songwriter, Smith later admitted to knocking a few years off his age in order to qualify for a job as engineer at EMI in the early 1960s. As fellow EMI recording engineer Geoff Emerick explained: “None of us knew exactly how old Norman was. It was common practice to lie about your age on job applications in those days, but he certainly knew his stuff.”

Smith ended up recording every session for The Beatles, from their very first test in 1962 until ’65’s Rubber Soul. His dapper appearance and generally straight demeanour is said to have led to John Lennon nicknaming him “Normal”. By 1966, though, Smith had sold one of his own compositions to the Beatles’ music publishing company, Dick James Music, and had been promoted by EMI to their A&R department.

Scouting for new talent, Smith sent letters to every band manager and agent he could think of. It led to an invite from London agent Bryan Morrison to see one of his new bands. Early in 1967, Smith accompanied Morrison to London’s UFO Club, to watch Pink Floyd.

In 2006, I was fortunate enough to gain a rare interview with Smith for a Pink Floyd book I was writing. Smith was a good-humoured, down-to-earth interviewee, with a very clear memory of working with Pink Floyd. He was also refreshingly honest. “Their music did absolutely nothing for me,” he admitted, “but I could see that they did have one hell of a following even then. I figured I should put my business hat on, as it was obvious to me that we could sell some records.”

Smith was instrumental in signing Pink Floyd to EMI, including securing them a then unheard-of advance of £5000. He was then entrusted to produce their debut album, The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn. Pink Floyd’s ex-manager Peter Jenner told me that “Norman’s job was to discourage the live ramble”, reigning in Floyd’s more experimental tendencies and convincing them to make a psychedelic pop record. As Smith blithely confessed: “I didn’t really understand psychedelia”.

“None of us knew exactly how old Norman was. But he certainly knew his stuff.”

Floyd’s Roger Waters recalled Smith fondly: “He was old-school, with a dry sense of humour. I liked him enormously.” But while Smith found Waters and his bandmates, drummer Nick Mason and keyboard player Rick Wright, responsive to his suggestions, he admitted to clashing with Floyd’s frontman Syd Barrett. “It was,” he explained, “like talking to a brick wall.”

Nevertheless, Smith continued to work with Pink Floyd until their 1970 album, Atom Heart Mother, encouraging them to produce themselves and finding Barrett’s replacement David Gilmour “an absolute joy to work with”. By then, he had also produced The Pretty Things’ landmark 1968 album, SF Sorrow, and would continue to produce the band for the next five years, while striking out as a solo artist in his own right.

In 1971, he scored his debut UK hit, Don’t Let It Die, under the pseudonym Hurricane Smith, following it up a year later with Oh Babe, What Would You Say, an unlikely hit that recalled the music hall sounds of his youth. Further minor hits followed, including My Mother Was Her Name and To Make You My Baby, until 1974. Smith continued to work as a producer and session musician, contributing to albums by artists as diverse as Kevin Ayers, The O’Jays and Teddy Pendergrass.

In 2007, Smith published a limited-edition book of his memoirs, entitled John Lennon Called Me Normal. A mass-market version of the book is expected to be published imminently. Affectionately described by Roger Waters as “an old-school song and dance man”, Norman Smith was a link between the pre-rock’n’roll age of British music and the Beatlemania and psychedelic eras. A pioneering engineer and producer, he made an invaluable contribution to some of the greatest music of the decade.

Mark Blake’s Pigs Might Fly: The Inside Story Of Pink Floyd, is published by Aurum Press.