Edward Offord is an English retired record producer and audio engineer who gained prominence in the 1970s for his work on albums by the progressive rock bands Emerson, Lake & Palmer and Yes.

Life and career

Offord studied physics at university, and landed a job as a trainee engineer at Advision Studios in London to fill in spare time. Not long into his time at the studio, he started work as an engineer. Offord spent much of his career working at Advision Studios, and his early projects there included two 1969 albums by Brian Auger and the Trinity, Definitely What! and Streetnoise. In the same year, he was also credited as an engineer in the debut album Extrapolation by John McLaughlin.

Offord worked with Emerson, Lake & Palmer (ELP) on their first four albums, released between 1970 and 1972. ELP wrote a tribute to Offord with the song "Are You Ready, Eddy?", featured on their 1971 album Tarkus.

In 1970, Offord began his partnership with Yes, which was fruitful but tumultuous; Offord remarked that producing Yes was like "trying to produce five producers." He suggested that the band record Tales from Topographic Oceans (1973) in the countryside to try to ease tensions that had arisen within the group, but the compromise was to record at Morgan Studios with trees, plants, and model cows. Following Relayer (1974), Yes and Offord parted ways, with Yes guitarist Steve Howe stating that Offord had become unreliable on tours.

In the late 1970s, Offord relocated to the United States where he worked in Woodstock, Atlanta, and Los Angeles. In 1994, after working on Grassroots by the band 311, Offord announced his retirement from the music business, although he returned in 2011 when his stepson introduced him to The Midnight Moan, and went on to produce their debut album.

Some albums produced and/or engineered by Eddy Offord

Notes