Chris Allison

Christopher John Allison (born 1961) is a British record producer and founder/head of Sonic360 Records.

His work has been associated with artists such as The Beta Band, Coldplay, Walter Becker, Kinky, Plastilina Mosh, Emmanuel Jal, The Wedding Present and Shack.

Influenced by a range of musical styles encompassing rock, jazz, hip-hop, electronic, world and Latin.

In his career spanning 1984 to the present, Allison has worked mainly as a record producer and label owner.

He is also well known amongst fans of the band Shack for having the only copy of their album Waterpistol following a studio fire allowing it to be released.

In 1984, Allison fresh out of College was thrown into a hive of activity at Sarm Studios, London, home of Trevor Horn’s own label ZTT, it was the height of Frankie Goes To Hollywood mania both in the studio and on the streets with the ubiquitous ‘Frankie Says......’ T-shirts.

Regular artists in the studio were Frankie Goes To Hollywood, George Michael, Pet Shop Boys, Art of Noise and Propaganda.

In November 1984, Studio 1 at Sarm West was the venue for the recording of "Do They Know It's Christmas" by the members of Band Aid in support of relief efforts for the 1984–1985 famine in Ethiopia.

Working in the tech department Allison got to assist on a number of studio sessions and seeing the potential of new computer instruments such as the Fairlight and Synclavier, instruments that producers Trevor Horn and Steve Lipson were championing, Allison set about learning to programme these new ‘gods’ of the studio.

He left Sarm and became a freelance Fairlight programmer working in London and Europe on music for a wide roster of clients including Iggy Pop, The Triffids, Spear of Destiny, Elkie Brooks ("No More the Fool") and the Emmy Award-winning TV series, Kingdom of the Ice Bear.

Allison got his first production break in 1987 producing The Wedding Present’s "My Favourite Dress" single.

This became an indie hit with John Peel championing and giving it a No. 6 entry in his 1987 Festive Fifty.

Of the same year he produced the Wedding Present’s debut album George Best which racked up a further four song entries in the Festive 50.

The George Best album and accompanying EP’s were such an indie success that RCA snapped them up and Allison went onto produce their second album, 'Bizarro’, which went on to sell 100,000 albums and garner a further five entries in John Peel's Festive Fifty of 1989.

A UK singles chart entry at #33 for the song 'Kennedy' and the album Bizarro itself reaching #22 in the UK album charts.

Allison went on to produce other Peel favourites - The Flatmates (#2 indie hit with ‘Shimmer’), Pale Saints and Ned's Atomic Dustbin.

Showing his versatility as a producer Allison moved away from indie guitars and on to the psychedelic folk/rock of Liverpool band Shack and the album ‘Waterpistol’.

Brothers Mick and John Head were a writing force to be reckoned with, influences ranged from classic pop to jazz and folk.

Things did not go too well, as Allison recalls: "Mick could never finish anything. I've never worked with anyone like him, but he's a songwriting genius and one of the most gifted artists I've ever worked with."

Allison recalls that Head would disappear for days on end during the recording, so he took drastic steps.

"I locked him in the studio and told him I wouldn't let him out until he'd done five vocals. He was furious and wasn't used to working without a few drinks, but the results were amazing."

Just after the recording and mixing was completed in 1991, Star Street Studio burned down taking the masters of Head's opus with it.

The Ghetto record label then folded which heralded the end of Shack.

Since then no new material has been released by Head and little heard of him.

After the recording Allison meanwhile had taken off to do his Jack Kerouac in the US and had with him his producer's copy DAT of 'Waterpistol' but in a cruel twist of fate had left it in his hire car.

When he returned and learnt of the fire he miraculously managed to track it down through the hire car company.

But everything lay dormant until German Indie Marina rang Leahy's office and said it wanted to release the album.

So in 1995, one of 1991's best records was released, a tour-de-force of timeless pop songs that sounded as fresh as anything heard that year.

Waterpistol became a cult classic with the likes of NME, Select, Q, Time Out, Vox, FHM, Uncut and others championing it as a bona-fide classic.

1998 saw Allison producing the album ‘Slain by Urusei Yatsura’ by Glaswegian band Urusei Yatsura with song 'Hello Tiger' reaching #40 in the UK Singles Chart.

The Beta Band came to Allison’s attention in 1998, thanks to Parlophone A&R Miles Leonard.

Leonard was a Shack ‘Waterpistol’ fan.

He asked Allison to produce the ‘Los Amigos del Beta Bandidos’ and ‘The Patty Patty Sound’ EP’s, that were later included in their entirety on The Three E.P.'s UK album chart position #35 and this led to production work on the album ‘The Beta Band’ UK album chart position #18.

Newly signed Beta Band stable mates Coldplay’s early recordings were produced by Allison.

‘Things got off to a productive start.

The first track we worked on was ‘High Speed’, which ultimately proved good enough to make it onto the first album.

Allison describes it thus: ‘You’ll notice it is quite a bit different to other tracks, because there are other sounds going on in it: we wanted to mix a soundscape in with the classic rock sound on that particular track.

Q Magazine included it in the Greatest Album Stories Ever (April 2012).

Allison went on to work with another Liverpool favourite The Real People.

The track ‘Believer’ was a UK singles chart #38 entry produced by Allison.