Born in Essex (UK) on 13 April 1951, Haydn Bendall began his career with Steinway & Sons as a piano tuner. He joined Ken Townsend’s Abbey Road team in 1973 as a part-time assistant, taking on a full-time position a year later. Initially partnering with Tony Clarke, Bendall worked on albums by Herbie Flowers, BeBop Deluxe, Steve Harley, Alan Parsons, Cliff Richard and Camel, developing a close working relationship with the band Sky. In the 1980’s, he started working with Kate Bush. He was chief engineer at Abbey Road Studios on the albums The Dreaming, Hounds Of Love, The Sensual World, and The Red Shoes.
Other Abbey Road work included engineering or producing for XTC, Bonnie Tyler, Tina Turner and Massive Attack. Film soundtrack work included ‘The Long Good Friday’ and Ryuichi Sakamoto’s pieces on the Oscar- and Grammy-winning soundtrack to ‘The Last Emperor’.
Bertall left Abbey Road in 1991 and became an independent producer/engineer. As an independent, Bendall has worked with The Pet Shop Boys, Everything but the Girl, Pat Metheny, Chris Botti, Leona Lewis, The Priests, Mike Batt and Katie Melua.
He is currently based in Strongroom Studios, Shoreditch, London.
References
- Haydn Bendall. Wikipedia, retrieved 13 September 2017.
