Bruce Fairbairn

Bruce Earl Fairbairn (December 30, 1949 – May 17, 1999) was a Canadian musician and record producer.

In 1977, he joined the rock band Prism as their trumpet player and stayed with the group until 1980. During this time, he launched his career as a record producer by working on Prism's albums.

He was an active music producer from 1976 until his death in 1999. He produced albums for artists such as Loverboy, Blue Öyster Cult, Bon Jovi, Poison, Aerosmith, AC/DC, Scorpions, Van Halen, Chicago, The Cranberries, INXS, Kiss and Yes. His style was notable for introducing dynamic horn arrangements into rock music productions.

Some of his productions include Slippery When Wet and New Jersey by Bon Jovi, Permanent Vacation, Pump, and Get a Grip by Aerosmith, The Razors Edge by AC/DC, and Balance by Van Halen, each of which sold at least three million copies.

Fairbairn was a three-time recipient of the Juno Award for Producer of the Year and was nominated for the Grammy Award for Producer of the Year, Non-Classical in 1994. In 2000 he was inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame.

Career

Early life and work with Prism

Born in Vancouver, Fairbairn began playing the trumpet at the age of five and also studied piano. Until the age of 16, he was a trumpetist in community groups. Fairbairn founded a rhythm and blues band called The Spectres, while attending Prince of Wales Secondary School in Vancouver. The band was managed by Bruce Allen, who went on to work with Fairbairn throughout his career. Vallance left for a trip to Amsterdam later that same year, and in the meantime the band hired a new drummer. Fairbairn worked through 1974 to land a recording contract for Sunshyne, using demos of two songs written by Mitchell. By mid-1975, when Fairbairn could not close a record deal for Sunshyne, he approached Vallance for assistance, who became the band's drummer under the pseudonym Rodney Higgs.

Fairbairn's first production credit was the band's 1976 single "I Ain't Lookin' Anymore", which he co-produced with Vallance. Later that same year the band changed names to Prism and released their debut album in 1977.

Fairbairn produced Prism's next three albums – See Forever Eyes (1978), Armageddon (1979) and Young and Restless (1980) – all of which went platinum or double platinum in Canada.

Work with Loverboy and early international success

In 1980, while still working with Prism, Fairbairn started production work on the debut album for Canadian rock band Loverboy.

With the release of the self-titled album Loverboy, Fairbairn achieved his first breakthrough in the U.S. market, marking the beginning of his international success.

Fairbairn's productions attracted a growing list of international artists to Vancouver's Little Mountain Sound Studios to work with him and his protégé Bob Rock.

Work with Bon Jovi and Aerosmith

Fairbairn's biggest commercial success is Bon Jovi's Slippery When Wet (1986). By 2024 the album was multi-platinum in the US, having sold more than 15 million copies world-wide, and is one of the top 100 best-selling albums in the United States, propelling Bon Jovi to superstar status. In a 2007 interview with Q magazine, Jon Bon Jovi said that it was "the first time, we were allowed to be us in the studio."

"I've been lucky enough to work with so many different talents," Fairbairn noted, "but Bon Jovi may be the finest. There was record company pressure to deliver the hits, but they were a joy. People seem to concentrate so much on their success that they lose sight of how good these guys are."

His next major production, Aerosmith's 1987 album Permanent Vacation, was another international success and generated a series of hits including "Dude (Looks Like a Lady)", "Angel", and "Rag Doll". Steven Tyler said that Fairbairn was instrumental in the creation of the album and "helped relight the fire under Aerosmith". By 1996 it had reached 7x Platinum status.

The following year, Fairbairn produced Aerosmith's Pump, which sold eight million copies and won him another "Producer of the Year" Juno Award.

Fairbairn produced Scorpions' Face the Heat and in 1995 Van Halen's Balance.

Fairbairn also produced The Cranberries' To the Faithful Departed (1996), and Kiss's reunion-album Psycho Circus (1998).

Death and legacy

On May 17, 1999, Fairbairn was found dead in his Vancouver home by Yes lead singer Jon Anderson and Armoury Studios manager Sheryl Preston. His interviews concerning The Ladder represent some of Fairbairn's final moments on camera, included in short sections as part of the bonus material on Yes's Live at the House of Blues DVD. Fellow Canadian music producer Bob Rock, who had studied under Fairbairn, said that, on the week Fairbairn died, the two were to travel to New York to meet Bon Jovi for another album together.

Fairbairn was survived by his wife, Julie, with whom he had three sons: Scott, Kevin, and Brent.

John Kalodner, senior VP of A&R at Columbia Records told Billboard: "To me, Bruce is in the company of such great contemporary popular-music producers as George Martin, Phil Ramone, and Mutt Lange."

1983: Blue Öyster Cult - The Revölution by Night
1983: Loverboy - Keep It Up
1984: Krokus - The Blitz
1984: Fast Forward - Living in Fiction
1985: Black n' Blue - Without Love
1985: Honeymoon Suite - The Big Prize
1986: Bon Jovi - Slippery When Wet
1987: Aerosmith - Permanent Vacation
1987: Rock and Hyde - Under the Volcano
1987: Loverboy - Wildside
1988: Dan Reed Network - Dan Reed Network
1988: Bon Jovi - New Jersey
1989: Aerosmith - Pump
1989: Stairway to Heaven/Highway to Hell
1989: Gorky Park - Gorky Park
1990: AC/DC - The Razors Edge
1990: Paul Laine - Stick It in Your Ear
1990: Poison - Flesh & Blood
1991: Dan Reed Network - The Heat
1992: AC/DC - Live
1993: Aerosmith - Get a Grip
1993: Scorpions - Face the Heat
1994: Jackyl - Push Comes to Shove
1995: Van Halen - Balance
1995: Chicago - Night & Day: Big Band
1996: The Cranberries - To the Faithful Departed
1997: INXS - Elegantly Wasted
1997: Noise Therapy - Cyclops
1998: Kiss - Psycho Circus
1998: Atomic Fireballs - Torch This Place
1999: Yes - The Ladder