Vinyl Icons

Recording sessions for Down By The Jetty began at Rockfield Studios [HFN Jan '21], Monmouth on August the 26th 1974 and lasted for a week. To fit into the band's live schedule they recorded three tracks at Jackson's Studio in Rickmansworth in September, then returned to Rockfield for a couple of days in late November. It was Vic Maile's first production role, having stepped up from his work as an engineer.

Lee Brilleaux has said that they had doubts whether they could do justice to some of their live cover versions in the studio, and Johnson was keen to have a more varied album. He told Mick Gold in 1975 that they didn't want to 'tart up' the sound but also admitted, 'The other thing about overdubbing is that we'd never been in a recording studio before so we weren't too confident about doing things like that anyway'. But pianist Bob Andrews plays organ on 'The More I Give' and he and Brinsley Schwarz play saxophone on the one live cut on the album, 'Bony Moronie/Tequila', which was recorded at Dingwalls in London.

Down By The Jetty was mixed at Pye studios in London. It was, unusually for the time, presented as a mono release, with all the instruments and vocals placed in the centre of the soundstage.

Sparko told Zoe Howe for her biography Lee Brilleaux, Rock 'n' Roll Gentleman, 'We were all involved every step of the way, including the mixing, but Lee didn't take much interest in the technical side'. In fact, as well as dismissing the use of Dolby noise reduction because he didn't trust the name, Brilleaux drew some knobs and dials with chinagraph pencil on a panel at the end of the mixing desk and pretended to manipulate them as a joke. Sparko added, 'That was his fun, I suppose'.