Colin Thurston

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Colin Thurston (1947 – 2007) was a British recording engineer and producer.

Born in Singapore, Thurston played in bands in London before he "bluffed his way" into audio engineering.^[1] After hooking up with Tony Visconti he co-engineered David Bowie's "Heroes" and Iggy Pop's Lust For Life (both 1977); he is also credited with co-producing the latter album with Bowie and Pop, under the collective pseudonym "Bewlay Bros".^[2]

Thurston's debut as a solo producer was Magazine's sophomore album Secondhand Daylight (1979). He later recalled, "I think they were a bit nervous and so I didn't tell them it was my first production".^[3] He next produced The Human League's first two albums, Reproduction (1979) and Travelogue (1980) before achieving widespread recognition with Duran Duran's debut album (1981) and the follow-up Rio (1982); bassist John Taylor later described Thurston as "a major catalyst for the Eighties sound".^[1]

After working with Duran Duran he produced Talk Talk's The Party's Over (1982), and Kajagoogoo's White Feathers (1983), the latter with Duran Duran's Nick Rhodes. He also worked with Gary Numan on his 1985 album The Fury.

Thurston became an in-house producer for a record label in the late 1980s before said record label dissolved. In 1999 he was again associated with Duran Duran for the Strange Behaviour remix compilation.^[4] He had been suffering from a long illness and doing occasional production work before he died on 15 January 2007.