Bruce Fairbairn

Bruce Fairbairn
Bruce Earl Fairbairn (December 30, 1949 - May 17, 1999) was a Canadian musician and international record
producer from Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. He was active as a producer from 1976 to 1999 and is
considered one of the best of his era. His most successful productions are Slippery When Wet and New Jersey by Bon
Jovi, Permanent Vacation, Pump, and Get a Grip by Aerosmith, and The Razors Edge by AC/DC, all of which sold
at least five million copies each. He was originally a trumpet player and then started a career as a record producer for
Canadian rock band Prism. He won the Canadian music industry Producer of the Year Juno Award 3 times. He
produced albums for many famous international artists such as Loverboy, Blue yster Cult, Bon Jovi, Poison,
Aerosmith, AC/DC, Scorpions, Van Halen, Chicago, The Cranberries, INXS, KISS and Yes. His style was notable
for introducing dynamic horn arrangements into rock music productions. Fairbairn died suddenly on May 17, 1999
due to unknown causes.
He is no relation to American actor Bruce Fairbairn of the mid-1970s television series The Rookies.

Career
Early life and Prism
Fairbairn played the trumpet since the age of 5, as well as studying the piano. Until the age of 16, he was a trumpetist
in community groups. While in the 10th grade at Vancouver's Prince of Wales Secondary School, Fairbarn founded
his first band The Spectres, managed by Bruce Allen, who would remain with Fairbairn through his career.
In the early 70s, he started producing when he was part of the Vancouver band jazz-rock group Sunshyne, on which
he played both trumpet and horn. There he met bandmate Jim Vallance, who would go on to become one of the most
successful songwriters in the music industry and an important music associate. After Vallance left Sunshyne in 1973,
Fairbairn changed Sunshyne's format to blues-rock-pop. Fairbairn recruited guitarist Lindsay Mitchell, from
Vancouver band Seeds of Time, as singer-songwriter and frontman. Fairbairn worked through 1974 to land a
recording contract for Sunshyne, using demos of two songs written by Mitchell. By mid-1975, as Fairbairn could not
close a record deal for Sunshyne, he approached Vallance for assistance. Vallance reworked the arrangements on the
Mitchell songs and supplied three of his own at Fairbairn's request. One of the Vallance songs, "Open Soul Surgery"
impressed an executive at record label GRT, who signed Fairbairn's group to a recording contract in 1976.[1]
Over the next year, Fairbairn produced an album using various musicians (including himself) from both Sunshyne
and Seeds of Time. The newly renamed band Prism then released its debut album in 1977. The album reached
platinum status in Canada, with sales in excess of 100,000 albums by 1978. Fairbairn himself, however, elected not
to be a member of Prism, and is credited only as producer and as a session musician on the album, and did not play
with Prism on any live dates.
Fairbairn produced Prism's next three albums, all of which went platinum or double platinum in Canada. In 1980,
Fairbairn won his first of three Canadian music industry Producer of the Year Juno Awards for Prism's third album
Armageddon.

Bruce Fairbairn

Loverboy
In 1980, while still working with Prism, Fairbairn started production work on the debut album for Canadian rock
band Loverboy. The self-titled album Loverboy would be the first Fairbairn production to break through in the
lucrative US market and launch Fairbairn's international success.[2]
Fairbairn's productions attracted a growing list of international artists to Vancouver's Little Mountain Sound Studios,
to work with him and his protg Bob Rock. Over the next 5 years, Fairbairn's work on Blue yster Cult's 1983
album The Revlution by Night, Krokus' 1984 album The Blitz and Canadian band Honeymoon Suite's arena rock
1985 album The Big Prize continued Fairbairn's string of international hits.

Slippery When Wet

Fairbairn's biggest commercial success is Bon Jovi's Slippery When Wet (1986), which made him a top rate
international record producer. The album sold over twenty-eight million copies worldwide.

Permanent Vacation
His next major production, Aerosmith's 1987 album Permanent Vacation, was another huge international success
and generated a series of hits including "Dude (Looks Like a Lady)", "Angel" and "Rag Doll". Steven Tyler said that
Fairbairn was instrumental in the creation of the album and "helped relight the fire under Aerosmith".

Continued international success

In 1988 Fairbairn produced the Bon Jovi album New Jersey, which holds the record for the hard rock album to
spawn the most Top 10 singles, with five singles charting on the Top 10 of the Billboard Hot 100 Singles Chart, and
which sold over seven million copies in United States. Fairbain also produced Aerosmith's follow-up, 1989's Pump,
which had sales in excess of seven million and was widely acclaimed by critics, and won him another "Producer of
the Year" Juno Award.
The 1990s saw Fairbairn working with a string of internationally influential hard rock acts. 1990 brought AC/DC's
The Razor's Edge, as well as Poison's Flesh and Blood. In 1993, he produced another Aerosmith commercial smash,
Get a Grip, which racked up sales of seven million and solidified the band's growing representation as international
media stars. Next Fairbairn produced the Scorpions' Face the Heat and in 1995 Van Halen's Balance. Also in 1995
Fairbairn went to Vallance's Armoury Studios in Vancouver to work on Chicago's Night and Day: Big Band, and
liked the studio so much he bought it from Vallance the following year.[]
In late 1996 and through early 1997 he produced INXS' 'comeback' album Elegantly Wasted, which while garnering
mixed reviews, obtained sales that were higher than INXS' previous albums. A year later, Fairbairn produced The
Cranberries' To the Faithful Departed, and KISS reunion-album Psycho Circus.
His last fully completed project was the Atomic Fireballs' Torch This Place for Atlantic Records in 1999, which
Fairbairn described as "a return to my brass roots".[3]

Bruce Fairbairn

Sudden death and legacy

During the mixing sessions for Yes' The Ladder, on May 17, 1999 Fairbairn was found dead by Yes singer Jon
Anderson and Armoury manager Sheryl Preston in his Vancouver home. He was survived by his wife Julie, with
whom he had three sons: Scott, Kevin and Brent. Rock declared that the same week Fairbairn died, the two would
travel to New York to meet Bon Jovi for another album together.[]
A memorial, "A Celebration of the Life of Bruce Earl Fairbairn", held at the Vancouver Chan Centre was attended
by more than 300 people. Highlighted by reminiscences from close friends, the event included musical performances
from Jon Anderson and Steve Howe performing the song "Nine Voices" from Yes' The Ladder sessions, as well as
Tom Keenlyside, guitarist, David Sinclair and finally, "Taps" played on Bruce's trumpet by son Brent.[4]
In March 2000, Fairbairn was posthumously awarded the "Canadian Music Hall of Fame" Juno Award for his work.
In his interviews concerning The Ladder, Bruce can be seen in short sections at the bonus material on Yes' Live At
The House Of Blues DVD, and he appears to be very ill.

Production discography
1977: Prism - Prism
1978: Prism - See Forever Eyes

1979: Prism - Armageddon

1980: Prism - Young and Restless
1980: Loverboy - Loverboy (2x Platinum)
1980: The Skids - Days in Europa (Second Version)
1981: Loverboy - Get Lucky (4x Platinum)
1982: Strange Advance - Worlds Away
1983: Blue yster Cult - The Revlution by Night
1983: Loverboy - Keep It Up (2x Platinum)
1984: Krokus - The Blitz (Gold)
1984: Fast Forward - Living in Fiction
1985: Black n' Blue - Without Love
1985: Honeymoon Suite - The Big Prize
1986: Bon Jovi - Slippery When Wet (12x Platinum)
1987: Aerosmith - Permanent Vacation (5x Platinum)
1987: Rock and Hyde - Under the Volcano
1987: Loverboy - Wildside (Gold)
1988: Dan Reed Network - Dan Reed Network
1988: Bon Jovi - New Jersey (7x Platinum)
1989: Aerosmith - Pump (7x Platinum)
1989: Stairway to Heaven/Highway to Hell
1989: Gorky Park - Gorky Park
1990: AC/DC - The Razors Edge (5x Platinum)
1990: Paul Laine - Stick it in Your Ear
1990: Poison - Flesh & Blood (3x Platinum)
1991: Dan Reed Network - The Heat
1991: AC/DC - Live (3x Platinum)
1993: Aerosmith - Get a Grip (7x Platinum)

1993: Scorpions - Face the Heat

1994: Jackyl - Push Comes to Shove (Gold)
1995: Van Halen - Balance (3x Platinum)

Bruce Fairbairn

1995: Chicago - Night and Day: Big Band

1996: The Cranberries - To the Faithful Departed (2x Platinum)
1997: INXS - Elegantly Wasted
1998: KISS - Psycho Circus (Gold)
1998: Atomic Fireballs - Torch This Place
1999: Yes - The Ladder

References
[1]
[2]
[3]
[4]

http:/ / allmusic. com/ artist/ seeds-of-time-p371123/ biography

http:/ / www. allmusic. com/ artist/ bruce-fairbairn-mn0000631808
http:/ / www. mtv. com/ news/ articles/ 1428807/ news-flash-producer-bruce-fairbairn-dead-at-49. jhtml
BRUCE FAIRBAIRN REMEMBERED (http:/ / mixonline. com/ mag/ audio_current_19/ )

Article Sources and Contributors

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