Angelique Kidjo's album Djin Djin was released to rave reviews and topped the World Music charts in the USA. I am happy and proud to say that she has been nominated for the World Music Grammy. Angelique: Bon Chance!

Stephen Emmer, (Emily Lazar -- Mastering Engineer) and TV.

I spent February and March mixing an album for a Dutch composer, Stephen Emmer. Emmer came up with a fantastic idea, to take the spoken word of great poets and set their works to eclectic, cinematographic music. In many cases he worked with the voices of the original poets finding great source material dating back to the 50s. If the poet lived before modern recording was invented Emmer called on the vocal services of actors and a rock musician to read the text. The name of the album is Recitements. It has been released in the Benelux countries but will now be released worldwide. It was a pleasure to work with Stephen. I played and sang on some tracks and helped compose one title, Snow Is Falling, a poem by Yoko Ono. Guests artists reciting poetry are Richard Burton (posthumously), Lou Reed, Allen Ginsburg (posthumously), Kazu Makino (of Blonde Redheads), Ken Nordine, Sylvia Kristel, among others. To hear some of these compositions click here.

Mick Brown's excellent Phil Spector book next to mine in Waterstones in Kensington.

Jools Holland Show set.

Exercise in London's Hyde Park on my birthday.

With Clive Anderson, host of the original
Who's Line Is It Anyway?

Tim Shaw and TV.

I returned to London in April to promote my book again. I also spent a lot of time just walking around London in silent celebration of my birthday and my 40th anniversary of first arriving in London to start my career as a record producer. I appeared on the Jools Holland TV Show (on my birthday) and did many radio interviews including the wacky Tim Shaw show on Kerrang radio in Birmingham. Tim is like (sorry Tim) the British Howard Stern. I met with the Zutons in Liverpool, at their invitation, with a view to producing them. We got on really great, I had many suggestions which were received enthusiastically (one of them was to tell their saxophonist, Abi Harding, to get a baritone saxophone for the new songs). Everything was set until the head of their record company suddenly changed his mind at the eleventh hour about us working together. I can't tell you how disappointed I was. Well, such is life.

With Anti-Flag (photo: Rosco Webber of St. Claire Studios).

Pepper (aka Jerome) with Two of Anti-Flag.

Anti-Flag playing percussion. L to R, Two, Pat, Head and Justin.

I met Anti-Flag in June and we also got on very well. I had always wanted to make a Punk album and I thought that Anti-Flag was my passport. I traveled to Pittsburgh to spend a few days with them and we worked up arrangements that were not exactly Punk, but Punk is at the base of the concept we came up with. It turned out that the band were fans of Morrissey and loved what I had done with Ringleader of The Tormentors, Morrissey's last album that I had produced. We started our album on August 1st and it is now finished. We recorded it in St. Claire Studios in Lexington, Kentucky. St. Claire is one of the best studios I've ever worked in. Like the TV show Real World, we lived together 24 hours a day in this residential studio and spent long days getting the combination of Punk, Rock and Classical just right to make a truly awesome album. During the mixing of the album we acquired a rabbit mascot who appeared one day as if by magic, named Jerome (by me) and Pepper (by Two, Anti-Flag's bass player). Follow the news of the release of this fabulous album by this great band on their MySpace.

Stage Door Antics, London.

Clem Burke (of Blondie), London.

Dirty Pretty Strings Quartet at after party.

Danielz of T. Rextasy, center stage, London.

Central Park Celebration, New York.

Ragga and TV, New York.

In September I returned to London to be part of the 60th Birthday celebration of Marc Bolan's life at the Shepards Bush Empire. Danielz of T. Rextasy was the mastermind behind this awesome event (as was the ardent T. Rex fan Martin Barden). Among the artistes who joined in the fun were Marc Almond, Ray Dorset, Gloria Jones and Linda Lewis. I wrote some string arrangements and conducted the wonderful Dirty Pretty Strings quartet. The concert was sold out and it was filmed for DVD release later this year. I have seen the rough cuts and it looks and sounds very professional, I highly recommend purchasing it. Later that month I did it all over again in New York's Central Park with another earnest bunch of performers. This was the mastermind of Joe Hurley and some performers were Patti Smith, Moby and Richard Barone.

TV, Raphaël and Louis Bertignac, Paris.

September to December was crammed with so many activities and projects it's almost a blur. I resumed mixing the Anti-Flag album and finished in October. In November I met the legendary Alejandro Escovedo at a show in Chicago. A couple of weeks later I was in Austin rehearsing with Alejandro and his band rehearsing the songs he and co-writer Chuck Prophet had written. Alejandro's rock band includes a violinist and a cellist. We planned on starting the album in December, again at St. Claire Studios in Lexington after I recommended that Alejandro should check out St. Claire's website. But before I could take a little time off I got a call from my manager saying that French recording star Raphaël wanted me to help finish his new album in Paris. Raphaël's last album, Caravane, was an enormous hit in France and the title song was voted song of the year. I had never heard of him, but I found Caravane in the World section at Virgin Megastore and I loved his songs and voice. Raphaël sent his demos to me via e-mail and we did a fair amount of pre-production through this thoroughly modern method. When I arrived in Paris in December we were raring to go. To my pleasant surprise I learned that I'd be working with Bowie's drummer Zack Allford and his Serious Moonlight saxophonist Robert Arron. Already on the previous recordings were Gail Ann Dorsey, Mike Garson and Carlos Alomar (is there a pattern here?). The sessions resulted in three new songs, one of which is going to be the next single for Raphaël. He will be coming to New York to finish a few more songs with me.

In between Alejandro's rehearsal and Raphaël's sessions I got a call from Brandon Mason (my assistant engineer on David Bowie's Heathen) who is now producing one of my favorite new groups, The Secret Machines (and very much promoted by David Bowie). They wanted me to write a string arrangement for one song on their new album and to play recorders on another song. I honestly don't know how I managed to squeeze this in but in the end the two arrangements worked extremely well with their music. I can't wait to hear the mixes.

Alejandro and TV, Lexington, Kentucky.

Before I could catch my breath I was on a plane back to Lexington and starting work on Alejandro Escovedo's album. We wanted to make a rock and roll album. We recorded 15 songs without much effort. His band are super professionals and we recorded live without a click track (that's living dangerously these days). I am very proud of this album. We're taking a little break and resuming in February to finish.

In the Future When All's Well

This month I will be starting Kristeen Young's new studio album. She has finished touring with Morrissey, opening for him at more than 100 shows. She later toured with Ted Leo and The Pharmacists. In March I'll be working with a famous English band starting with a K and ending with an S. I daren't mention their name so as not to repeat the Z band's jinx.

I have met an artist on MySpace whom I will be working with. I am deluged with demos all the time, but I casually answered a "friend request" by checking out this person's music and I was amazed at how good it was. That's all I want to say for now. You know, it's that Z band jinx I want to avoid. By the way my MySpace address is www.myspace.com/tonyviscontiprods.

Happy 2008 to everyone.