Renowned British producer Martin Producer, who worked on producing albums from Iron Maiden, Black Sabbath, Deep Purple, Whitesnake, Fleetwood Mac, and Blue Öyster Cult, had died at the age of 71. Birch produced eight studio albums from Iron Maiden (dating from 1981 to 1992), Rainbow‘s first three studio albums, Black Sabbath‘s Heaven And Hell and Mob Rules and seven Whitesnake studio albums between 1978 to 1984.

Author Martin Popoff has paid tribute to Birch with the following post:

"Martin Birch. That hits hard. We were email buddies, and were going to do something immediately in terms of his life story. It was inevitable, and now he's gone, too young, at 71. One email (from Birch):

****

Hi Martin,

Thanks for the email interesting stuff, I’m flattered that people say nice things about me. Actually, Cultosaurus is one of my favourite albums, I really enjoyed producing / engineering and being a part of it. Send my best to the guys if you speak to them.

If you are ever in England let me know and perhaps we could meet up for a beer?

Cheers,
Martin.

****

I was able to put a school chum in touch with him a few weeks ago and Martin jumped on it immediately and was very thankful and they met up again. So sad. And also for rock history. His story will now not be told from his point of view. His voice will be limited to that one awesome old Kerrang! interview there was and any other one's he's done. But none certainly by me, because it was always put off for later."

Check out Popoff's recent podcast episode on Birch below.

Whitesnake frontman David Coverdale shared a message: “It is with a very heavy heart I've just had verified my very dear friend and producer Martin Birch has passed away.

"Martin was a huge part of my life...helping me from the first time we met through until Slide It In... My thoughts and prayers to his family, friends and fans... Broken heart.”

Black Sabbath bassist Geezer Butler shares: “Really sad to hear of the passing of Martin Birch. Brilliant producer. Had the pleasure of working with him on the Black Sabbath albums Heaven And Hell and Mob Rules. Condolensces to Vera and family.”

Wendy Dio: “My thoughts and prayers go out to his wife Vera and his daughter Haley. He was a genius producer and a very dear friend of Ronnie’s (James Dio). May he RIP.”