Draft:John Mackenzie Burns



= John Mackenzie Burns (Music producer, composer, and engineer) = John Mackenzie Burns is a British music producer, writer and engineer who began his career in 1968 at Decca Recording Studios. By the early 1970s he was engineering for Scottish pop rock band The Marmalade, Canterbury band Caravan, English progressive rock band Camel and rock bassist and vocalist Glen Hughes. In 1972 he recorded two solo hits for Scottish composer Junior Campbell: Hallelujah Freedom, and Sweet Illusion. Hallelujah Freedom won the New Musical Express (NME) award for the best recorded British single of 1972, featured in the Aberdeen Evening Express. He also recorded Hold On To Love, a hit for Peter Skellern.

Essex Recording Studio
In 1975 John Mackenzie Burns became studio manager at Essex Recording Studio in Soho, working on projects for American artist Marsha Hunt, American singer and guitarist Johnny Thunders and German singer and actress Nico. At Essex he also recorded hit songs The Day the World Turned Day-Glo , Identity  and Germ Free Adolescents  for English punk band X-Ray Spex, and Zambezi for English ska band The Piranhas.

Burns recorded American jazz musician Bud Freeman's album 'The Dolphin Has a Message', reviewed by jazz journalist Ken Dryden as "easily one of the best recordings by Bud Freeman during the final decade of his long career."

The Greenhouse
In 1982 Burns opened a 24 track studio called The Greenhouse along with Pat Collier of British punk rock band The Vibrators. The studio specialised in bands and was used extensively by independent punk and new wave record companies including Stiff, Abstract and Rough Trade. During this period The Greenhouse recorded British-American artiste Tracey Ullman, American singer and songwriter Edwin Starr, British post punk band The Psychedelic Furs, English new wave band Japan, English post-punk band The Three Johns, English rock band New Model Army, English pop band Curiosity Killed the Cat and English singer and songwriter Marilyn. Burns recorded hits Spend The Night and In Your Car for pop-funk group The Cool Notes. In 1985 The Greenhouse recorded the international hit Walking on Sunshine for British-American rock band Katrina and The Waves.

Burns sold his interest in The Greenhouse in 1988 to concentrate on writing and production. Over the next few years he worked extensively with English keyboardist Rick Wakeman, in places as varied as Swaziland, Israel and Slovenia. During this period he co-produced four albums for Wakeman -- “The Time Machine”, “Zodiaque”, “African Bach”,  and “A Suite of Gods” about which music reviewer Mike DeGagne wrote  "Both producer John Burns and Wakeman himself do a splendid job of keeping the album in the context of it's [sic] mythological atmosphere, especially during Hercules, where the might of the ancient hero is illustrated profoundly in both words and music.

During this period Burns also produced albums for English punk rock band Sham 69 -- “Soapy Water & Mr Marmalade”, “Live in Italy” and the 1997 album “Code Black” for Sham 69’s lead singer Jimmy Pursey.

Writing, Production and Publishing
Burns has been writing music for advertising and films since the late seventies, including music for the soundtrack of the Australian comedy film Crocodile Dundee. With two partners he formed GBW Music Ltd. and over the years this grew into a large publishing company. In 2012 they formed a new company, Vibrant Music Ltd. which published around 1600 of their tracks, as well as music by other writers including English guitarist Phil Manzanera of Roxy Music, and British producer and songwriter Mark Taylor, producer for Cher, Britney Spears & Mike & The Mechanics. Vibrant, which was sold to Soho Music in 2022, owned the music publishing rights to various TV series including Gerry Anderson's action-adventure series New Captain Scarlet.

John continues to produce music from his studio in Surrey, contributing new albums to Vibrant and also tracks for other production music companies including Universal, Parry, Squirky, Soho Production Music, Plan 8, and Warner Chappell.