Jimmy Webb and the Orchestral Chaos at De Lane Lea. From Kenny Denton's memoir There Ain’t No Rules In Rock n Roll

This account details a chaotic and extravagant recording session led by the acclaimed songwriter Jimmy Webb at De Lane Lea Studios during the mid-1970s. Despite Webb’s immense talent, the production was plagued by technical hurdles, including an unfinished mixing console and a replacement engineering team struggling with an unconventional orchestral setup. The environment devolved into a hedonistic party filled with celebrities and onlookers, which severely hindered the professional focus of the 130 musicians and choir present. Efforts to record were further stifled by an incompetent supervisor and a lack of acoustic separation, resulting in a wall of noise rather than a polished track. Ultimately, the incredibly expensive session yielded only two usable recordings, both of which were eventually discarded as unusable. This narrative serves as a vivid illustration of the industry excess and ego-driven waste that characterised high-budget music production during that era.From Kenny Denton's memoir There Ain’t No Rules In Rock n Roll. Available from Amazon Books