Production duo Clive Langer and Alan Winstanley are to receive the top accolade at the 2018 Music Producers Guild Awards – the PPL Presents The MPG Award For Outstanding Contribution To UK Music in recognition of their music production work over the last 40 years.

Langer and Winstanley have credits on many classic albums, from Elvis Costello’s Punch The Clock, to Dexys Midnight Runners’ Too-Rye-Ay and Bush’s best-selling album Sixteen Stone.

Their first venture into co-production was for Madness and resulted in the band’s 1979 debut album One Step Beyond, which was recorded and mixed in less than four weeks and spent over a year in the UK album charts.

This inaugurated a partnership that has resulted in numerous hit records for artists such as David Bowie (for whom the pair produced the Live Aid single Dancing In the Street), Morrissey, The Teardrop Explodes, Catatonia, They Might Be Giants and Hot House Flowers.

"These are two guys who exemplify the role of music producer,” said Tony Platt, MPG Awards Group managing director. “Their collaborations across so many genres have been an outstanding example to all those upcoming music makers that we have seen building their careers over recent years.”

As sponsors of the MPG Award For Outstanding Contribution To UK Music, industry organisation PPL says it is delighted that Clive Langer and Alan Winstanley have been chosen as the 2018 recipients.

Peter Leathem, chief executive at PPL, added: "A huge congratulations to Clive and Alan, one of the most successful and acclaimed production duos of the past four decades, on receiving the Outstanding Contribution Award at the 2018 MPG Awards. 

"A quick look at their production back catalogue and you realise how many seminal hits they’ve been involved in the making of Our House and One Step Beyond by Madness, Come On Eileen by Dexys Midnight Runners and Reward by The Teardrop Explodes, to name just a few. They are both thoroughly deserving recipients and have well and truly made their mark on popular music in recent years.”

Langer and Winstanley will be presented with their award at the MPG’s 2018 Awards Ceremony, which takes place on March, 1 2018, at the Grosvenor House, Park Lane, London.

www.mpg.org.uk