John Loder

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For other persons named John Loder, see John Loder (disambiguation).

John Loder (April 7, 1946 - August 12, 2005) was a British sound engineer, record producer and founder of Southern Studios, as well as a former member of EXIT and co-founder of the Southern Records distribution company with his wife Sue. He was also the studio engineer of choice for Crass Records, and was often considered to be the bands' '10th member'. Loder died of a brain tumour.

Loder was born near Plymouth and educated at boarding school before studying electrical engineering at London's City University. During his post-graduate work here he became involved in early experiments in digital encoding of audio for the military. By 1970 he had joined EXIT, alongside Penny Rimbaud, utilising a one-track tape-recorder. This led to Loder eventually founding a record studio in his garage after the disbanding of EXIT in 1974. In 1977 Loder was recording advertising jingles when his path crossed once again with Rimbaud, who had by now co-founded Crass, and who now invited Loder to become the band's engineer and financial manager, roles Loder happily accepted.

When Crass founded their own record label, Loder was used as engineer on most of the label's releases, and when Loder saw potential in a number of bands turned away by Crass Records due to ideological differences, Loder set up Southern Records, a distribution arm with several record labels attached.

Loder engineered and produced for many bands other than Crass, amongst them Jesus and Mary Chain, for whom he engineered the recordings of the Psychocandy album, PJ Harvey, Babes in Toyland, Fugazi and Ministry.

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Crass

Period of activity: Formed 1977, disbanded 1984

Band members: Penny Rimbaud (drums), Gee Vaucher (artwork), Steve Ignorant (voice), N.A.Palmer (Guitar), Phil Free (Guitar), Pete Wright (Bass), Eve Libertine (Voice), Joy De Vivre (Voice), Mick Duffield (films), John Loder (engineer)

Major album releases: The Feeding of the 5000, Stations of the Crass, Penis Envy, Christ – The Album, Yes Sir, I Will, Acts of Love, Best Before 1984

See also: Crass Records, Corpus Christi Records, EXIT, Crass Agenda, Last Amendment, Dial House, Anarcho-punk