Interesting account of Mark Howard's career as engineer and producer. Lots of insights into recording with big name musicians from the 1980s onwards. - Dylan, Waits, REM, Young, Plant, Mitchell, plus Mumford & Sons (who don't cover themselves with glory). Howard comes across as at skilled at setting up studios from scratch and dealing with oversized egos as at recording music. There is some technical information but the book is almost as self-effacing as the producer-engineer he seems to have been.

Lots of good stories - Dylan in New Orleans, Tom Waits being very Tom Waits and learning that as late as the mid-1980s, the electricity in Peter Gabriel's house was coin-metered. Dylan comes out of it pretty well, Daniel Lanois who produced Oh Mercy and Time Out of Mind (ostensibly) much less so. His temper tantrums and the fact that he hated "Make You Feel My Love" enough to offer it to Billy Joel of all people tell you all you need to know. Not groundbreaking but well worth your time if you're interested in the musicians Howard worked with..

If you're a rock music fan this is a must read.
It's a fascinating and brutally honest telling of what's going on behind the scenes.
I loved it and was left craving for more.
Highly recommended!
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine.

Tales of recording albums with some of the world's biggest artists.

The narrative style does not engage the reader; I found myself skipping through to the sections on artists I like - and even then it was dull

Listen Up by Mark and Chris Howard is a time- travel through rock and roll history, equipment tutorials and quirks of the loud and famous. Better than a backstage pass, the book covers relationships between artists and their surroundings, preferences of all kinds and the struggles behind the scenes to bring music that lives on beyond its makers. It’s brutally honest and extremely detailed, as a producer must be, but then forgiving at the end. It is a delve into some of our greatest music and how it almost didn’t come to be- an interesting read!