What George Martin taught us

Sir George Martin, the ‘fifth Beatle’, producer of The Beatles, has died at the age of 90. Sir George was a maverick – a comedy record producer who went on to change the face of pop music. Here’s what we can learn from this gentle, suave, musical giant.

1. If they like you, they like you

Before The Beatles, George Martin produced Peter Sellers, Bernard Cribbins and Spike Milligan’s comedy records. In fact The Beatles approved of him because of that. “I didn’t know them from Adam, but they knew me, because they were Goons fans,” said Sir George. The band were still a little unsure of him: when Sir George asked them if there was anything they disliked about the recording set up George Harrison said “I don’t like your tie for a start”. Paul McCartney said he was trying to figure out why they’d been given the ‘comedy guy and not the music guy’.

2. Be cool, not trendy

Lady Judy Martin, Sir George’s wife, said she thought he was “very square” when she met him at EMI in 1950, compared with the tousled Beatles. He maintained his aura of quiet style throughout his life, without letting his exposure to some of the biggest names in show business ruffle his groomed persona; Jeff Beck said he “could have been a very suave actor... almost a James Bond.”

3. Stay true to yourself

He knew The Beatles were smoking grass and they knew he disapproved, so like naughty schoolboys they would “nip out into the canteen and lock it, have a smoke and come back beaming.” They would tease him about being ‘posh’ and he would respond "you can't really go through the Royal Navy without getting a little bit posh. You can't be like a rock 'n' roll idiot throwing soup around in the wardroom."

4. Don't be afraid to go 'out there'

He pioneered some incredibly experimental production techniques which are still revered today. Changing speeds, playing tapes through the desk backwards and splicing tape loops together were all part of his arsenal and helped create his unique sound. Radiohead producer Nigel Godrich said that Sir George's recording techniques were 'like magic'.

5. Use understatement

It is remarkable that a man who made his career in the febrile, fevered worlds of both comedy and music managed to stay quite so laidback. He describes a mixing desk as “frightfully complicated”, himself as “fairly averagely good at quite a lot of things” and the score to Yesterday as “kind of naïve, but it does work. I did this in an afternoon.”

6. Trust your instincts

When Brian Epstein first played him The Beatles he thought the performances and sound were not particularly special, and the name of the band itself was “a very unlikely name for anything worthwhile”, but that there was “something there”. Once he’d met them, he said he fell in love with them. “When you are with them, you feel the better for being with them. When they leave you, you feel the loss.”

The world feels the loss now, Sir George.