How Pink Floyd Fired Their Mentor and Made 'Echoes' with a Tape Op Named John Leckie

Before Meddle, Pink Floyd had always worked with producer Norman Smith, the Beatles engineer turned stern taskmaster. Smith gave them discipline but also a short leash — he famously hated long jams and insisted on three-minute singles. By 1971 the band had outgrown him, so they decided to produce themselves for the first time. They brought in John Leckie as tape operator and engineer, a 21-year-old kid fresh from EMI’s tape library who had never worked on a full album. The difference was immediate: instead of Smith’s “that’s enough, move on” approach, Leckie let the band run wild, capturing everything and rarely interfering.

During the Echoes sessions, the division of labor was remarkably loose. Leckie’s main job was to keep the tape rolling and handle the 8-track desk at Abbey Road while the band tooled around with their gear. Nick Mason later joked that Leckie was “practically part of the furniture.” The band would set up experiments — like running a piano through a Leslie speaker, or Gilmour playing a slide guitar through a Binson echo unit — and Leckie would just press record and adjust levels when asked. He didn’t suggest arrangements or argue about takes. That freedom is exactly what let Echoes sprawl to 23 minutes, with its whale-like synth sweeps and long ambient sections that Smith would have surely vetoed. Leckie himself said he was basically “a button-pusher” who learned on the job, but that hands-off approach gave Pink Floyd the confidence to trust their own instincts again.