Robin Black

Robin Black was a recording engineer at Morgan Studios in the 1970s.

In February 1970, Paul McCartney recorded part of his debut solo album, “McCartney,” at Morgan Studios. Robin Black, then a junior engineer, was in charge of recording those sessions and mixing a few of the final tracks.

He later became known for his engineering work on several Jethro Tull albums throughout the 1970s, including “Thick as a Brick,” several Black Sabbath albums, as well as Steeleye Span’s “Commoners Crown,” among many others.

I worked with McCartney [at Morgan] when he left the Beatles. That was fantastic and again he was supposed to work with Glyn Johns and I was there to show Glyn how the desk worked. Glyn didn’t turn up and Paul said well “can you engineer it.” So with wobbly knees I sort of said “yep.” I certainly can. They didn’t want an assistant either, so it was just me, Paul and Linda, and that was just a magic moment just watching him do his thing, and he played all the instruments himself and um that was great it was all secret, he booked in under a secret name so that, at the time, I was going wow, you know, “I just work with Paul McCartney,” who was my absolute hero songwriter. He’d heard of us and I don’t know why he used Morgan, he just heard that some good things were happening down the studio and some long-haired Engineers down there who sort of knew what they were doing. Believe it or not, I had long hair in those days! So yeah it was great and you’d have Paul there and Rod Stewart might be upstairs, it was just quite amazing looking back, and at the time, we didn’t think too much about it because it became the everyday norm, but terribly lucky with all these wonderful people.

Robin Black – From Robin Black was a go-to man for Mickie Most, June 2016

I had never seen anyone, ever, come in and play every instrument, and after a few days you just took it as the norm, which was ridiculous. At the time I realized it was something pretty special. He knew what he wanted to overdub onto which tracks. I think it was all in his head. I can’t remember any ‘try and try again.’ He just had this amazing knack of just getting it right. I can’t remember doing more than two takes on anything. Quite amazing really. I think he just went by the feel, and if it felt right he’d just say, ‘That’s okay. I’m gonna do this overdub now.’ It was just amazing watching a master at work, to be honest with you.

Robin Black – Engineer – Interview with Adrian Sinclair, 2016 – From “The McCartney Legacy: Volume 1: 1969 – 73” by Allan Kozinn and Adrian Sinclair, 2022

Albums, EPs & singles which Robin Black contributed to

Songs Robin Black contributed to

Recording sessions Robin Black participated in