Xenomania news: Legendary producer Mike Chapman teams up with Xenomania

Legendary producer Mike Chapman teams up with Xenomania
Posted at 1:35 AM, 25 September 2010 -

Mike Chapman has began working with Xenomania this week. In the photo above (tweeted by Florrie) you can see the man during a writing session at Xenomania HQ. That's Florrie, Mike Chapman, Fred Falke, Toby Scott, Kieran Jones and Jason Resch's head. Brian Higgins is either taking the picture or simply hiding from the camera.

Mike Chapman is an Australian-born producer and songwriter who was a major force in the British pop music industry in the 1970s. He created a string of hit singles for artists including Sweet and Suzi Quatro with co-writer and co-producer Nicky Chinn. He later produced breakthrough albums for Blondie and The Knack.

Nicky Chinn and Mike Chapman - the "Chinnichap"

In collaboration with Nicky Chinn, Mike Chapman was among the most successful songwriters of the 1970s. He was in the group Tangerine Peel when he first teamed with Chinn. Under the supervision of RAK Records' chief Mickie Most, the duo quickly composed a series of smashes for acts including Sweet ("Ballroom Blitz"), Suzi Quatro ("Stumblin' In"), New World ("Living Next Door to Alice"), and Mud ("Tiger Feet"), in all scoring over 40 U.K. hits during the 1970s.

Mike Chapman with Debbie Harry and Ronnie Spector. Pop royalty.

As a solo producer, Chapman enjoyed his first hit with Nick Gilder's City Nights (1978). But his real breakthrough was Blondie's classic Parallel Lines, which launched the blockbuster "Heart of Glass". The album also includes "Sunday Girl", which Florrie recently covered for the Nina L'Elixir campaign.

Florrie with Jason, Kieran & George at the Nina L'Elixir launch.
Any similarity with Parallel Lines is not a coincidence.

The partnership between Blondie and Mike Chapman catapulted the group from the underground to mainstream chart success. He produced three more Blondie albums -- Eat to the Beat (1979), Autoamerican (1980) and The Hunter (1982) -- and most of Def, Dumb and Blonde (1989), a Deborah Harry solo album. Chapman also teamed with The Knack, whose Get the Knack yielded "My Sharona" (quite possibly influencing Girls Aloud's "No Good Advice"). In 1979, Chapman and Chinn formed their own label, Dreamland, and created hits like Exile's "Kiss You All Over" and Toni Basil's "Mickey".

Chapman remained in demand through the 1980s and 1990s as a songwriter and producer. His compositions have included Tina Turner's "Simply The Best" and Pat Benatar's "Love Is a Battlefield", while he has produced albums for Altered Images, Australian Crawl, ABBA's Agnetha Fältskog, Divinyls, Rod Stewart, Lita Ford, Baby Animals, Material Issue and Bow Wow Wow.

Links:

Mike Chapman Wikipedia
Mike Chapman discography
Article: Blondie & Chapman partnership