In tandem with partner
Alan Winstanley,
Clive Langer was among the top British producers of the new wave era, helming records for
Madness,
Elvis Costello, and Lloyd Cole and the Commotions. He began his music career during the mid-'70s as a guitarist in the band
Deaf School, going solo with backing band the Boxes in 1979 with the album I Want the Whole World. With
Madness' 1979 debut LP,
One Step Beyond...,
Langer and
Winstanley teamed for the first time as co-producers, inaugurating a partnership that continued for several decades. After collaborating on
Madness' 1980 record
Absolutely, the duo moved on to
the Teardrop Explodes'
Kilimanjaro; a year later, they helmed
Seven for the former group and
Wilder for the latter before teaming with
Costello for 1983's
Punch the Clock, the album that launched his first American hit, "Everyday I Write the Book."
A year later,
Langer and
Winstanley reunited with
Costello for
Goodbye Cruel World, widely regarded as the weakest record in the singer/songwriter's catalog;
Lloyd Cole's 1985 album
Easy Pieces was also trashed by critics, many of them singling out the production as too slick and excessive.
China Crisis'
What Price Paradise followed in 1986, and as the decade drew to a close the duo's production schedule began to slow down -- their most notable new partnership was with the group
Hothouse Flowers, for whom they produced 1988's
People as well as 1990's
Home. The new decade also saw
Langer and
Winstanley teaming up with
Morrissey for his
Bona Drag LP; a year later, they contributed several tracks to his
Kill Uncle. Singles with
Costello and
Tim Finn were among the duo's most notable projects over the next several years, but in 1994 they returned to the charts in style with
Bush's best-selling
Sixteen Stone. ~ Jason Ankeny