One of the leading UK engineers and producers of his time, Kit Woolven worked on key albums with David Bowie, David Giilmour, Hazel O'Connor and The Radiators From Space as well as a host of metal acts – including, of course, the great Irish rockers Thin Lizzy and Philip Lynott. No wonder his death is being widely mourned by rock fans today
is sad to learn tonight of the death of Thin Lizzy engineer and producer Kit Woolven. Kit was a close associate of the late, great Philip Lynott, lead singer and driving force in Thin Lizzy.
Kit Woolven was credited with engineering the Thin Lizzy album Black Rose: A Rock Legend (1979), which peaked at No.2 in the UK charts, as well as delivering a Top 10 hit in Sweden. He went on to produce, engineer and mix subsequent Lizzy albums, including Chinatown (No.7 in the UK), Adventures of Thin Lizzy (a collection of their singles that reached No.6 in the UK) and Thin Lizzy Live.
In the meantime, Woolven had worked closely with Philip Lynott on his solo releases, accumulating Producer, Engineer and Mixer credits on both Solo In Soho and the Philip Lynott albums.
Kit was regarded as one of the great engineers of the 70s and ‘80s, also working on major albums by David Bowie (Scary Monsters and Super Creeps, 1980), David Gilmour (About Face, 1984) and Magnum (On A Storyteller’s Night, 1985). He also worked as an engineer on one of the immortal Irish albums, Ghostown (1979), by The Radiators from Space, with Tony Visconti as producer.
Kit clearly lent in a metal direction, working also with many of the leading lights of British and international heavy metal, including UFO, Tony Iommi, Cradle of Filth, Chrome Molly, The Guana Batz, Cathedral and Anathema.