An entrepreneur who began his career as Led Zeppelin’s touring soundman and went on to a lead a global music technology group, has been made an OBE.
Philip Dudderidge, 75, described himself as a “a teenage rebel who went into the music industry” but found touring America in 1970 with the rock legends a physically punishing ordeal.
He is the founder and chairman of Focusrite, a global firm that supplies hardware and software used by professional and amateur musicians and the entertainment industry.
“Not only doing the shows but then having to drive between cities – we did 28 cities in a month – so by the end of it I was completely exhausted. I just said ‘I can’t do any more’. We were only a crew of three, these days they’ll have 50.
“Really, what I learned in the States was the direction of travel for live sound amplification – systems needed to get a lot bigger.”
He was reunited with Led Zeppelin’s lead singer Robert Plant recently, decades after the two men worked together.
He said: “Elton John played and a band called America did their first gig, but so many bands, more bands then I can even remember.”
He later co-formed a number of music industry businesses before finding further success with Focusrite, and his career was honoured during a Buckingham Palace investiture ceremony hosted by the Princess Royal.
“My last gig was at the then Odeon Hammersmith with Ry Cooder. It was just a one-off gig and I deputised for the usual sound engineer and that was the last show I mixed.
“There’s nothing more artistically satisfying then mixing a live show, and feeling what the audience was hearing. Well, it’s down to the band but it was completely up to you how you represented the band.”