Tracy Bennett's only policy is unorthodoxy. His background in marketing is unusual for an A&R man, the record company he is a director of is unlike any other. Even his attitude to music is unexpected.

'Ninety-nine per cent of music is unlistenable crap,' says the outspoken 28-year-old A&R Director of London Records. 'I certainly didn't get into A&R because of a love of music in general. I was interested in advertising, I was interested in marketing and I was interested in the business side of music — the music environment. It's a very exciting, fast business in that respect but anyone who says they're in A&R because they love music is mad.'

London Records was started as an A&R-based company in 1982. The idea was to attract groups to the label by offering personal handling and artistic control as opposed to the big cash lure technique. Having watched the mistakes made by the big independent labels of the time, Bennett and his two co-directors decided that the company would have to compete on a realistic marketing and advertising level if they were to exist. His background as a marketing manager at Decca paid off when, for the first time in history, London Records had three consecutive releases by different artists in the Top Ten: The Communards (LON 103) were at Number One, Farley Jackmaster Funk (LON 104) was at Number Ten while Run DMC's Walk This Way (LON 105) was at Number Eight.

The word 'trendy' has often been associated with London as one of their seven talent scouts are invariably 'there' when a promising new band surfaces. Although Bennett appreciates the importance of a shrewd signing he places even greater importance on keeping an eye on up and coming engineers, producers and studios.

'It's all very well having a great live act and some great demos,' he says, 'but you've got to be able to get those across on record more than ever these days. Which is why a good engineer and producer are so crucial to the whole process. So we're constantly watching how young producers are shaping up and we frequently give the ones we think are talented demos to work on in the hope that one day we'll have very strong connections with a Trevor Horn of the future.'

So Bennett prefers to keep an ear to the ground rather than one hand on the Music Week producer listings when it comes to pairing a band with a producer and subsequent studio. 'You can play the Music Week game,' he agrees, 'and most of the majors do. You can check out who's doing what. Then you play the availability game to see if they want to do it and then if it's humanly possible for them to do it. But it's great if you've signed a band and there's a young producer that you know will suit them down to the ground.

'By using that tactic we were the first company to work with Stock, Aitken and Waterman. We'd heard some of the stuff they'd done and thought we'd give them a go. It was a gamble, admittedly, but you can't operate in this type of business without taking risks.

'You can find up-and-coming producers in several different ways. There are some who have come through the conventional channels of tea boy, tape op, engineer, then there are others who might be great programmers or musicians who are handy in the studio. Look at ZTT. Steve Lipson came up very quickly through the ranks there and they use a hell of a lot of programmers to produce records with excellent results. We've begun using Phil Thornally who has always worked as Alex Sadkin's engineer. We've had huge success from the off with Mike Thorne — who came up via the A&R route — from Soft Cell and Carmel to Bronksi Beat and the Communards.

'Good engineers with a strong musicality are always good ones to watch. There's a young guy called Duncan Bridgeman who I'm sure will end up as one of the country's top producers. He used to play in a band called Eye Level and he has a good head, not only does he get involved in the right situations with bands but he's a very good engineer, he can play and he's got very 'sparkly' ears. It's always good to know that the producer is an artist too, because then you'll feel much more confident about arrangements.'

"Ninety-nine per cent of music is unlistenable crap"Tracy Bennett

Some time ago Bennett predicted that 'black, R'n'B dance music' would become a major force in the British charts and promptly signed Run DMC.

'Everyone thinks Run DMC are signed to Def Jam in the States,' he says, 'but they're actually signed to an independent label called Profile. For some reason they were dropped by Island who they were signed to in this country and we signed them for everywhere in the world outside North America which turned out to be an even bigger coup than we thought at the time.'

His involvement in black R'n'B inevitably led Bennett to New York where he quickly familiarised himself with studio life there.

'I think the major difference between the studios in New York and London is that they are more efficient, better maintained, the house engineers are better and the session musicians are infinitely better. That said, they haven't got the vibe that a lot of London studios have but so much of that depends on the band and the staff anyway. New York studios are all meant to be very expensive but a lot of it depends on the dollar rate and the relationship you have with the studios.

'I think the house engineers in New York are sensational. Same with the session musicians. They've just been brought up living and breathing that music and so to play and record it is second nature whereas it's more difficult here. I'd have serious worries about letting a top producer work with a house engineer in London but if they wanted to work in New York I wouldn't be as worried.

'The studios I'd recommend in New York are Sigma, Skyline, the Power Station, Atlantic, the Hit Factory, Shakedown, Arthur Baker's studio is sensational — great atmosphere. He's doing a few things for us now, mainly remixes. He's just done this brilliant remix of the last Fine Young Cannibals hit. It's a Chicago type feel but it's thirteen minutes long so it won't be getting too many plays on the radio in its present form.'

In A&R terms, Fine Young Cannibals have been a nightmare for Tracy. Every decision he has made on their part has been a wrong one. 'It started with the first single, Johnny. They'd recorded a demo of it in three-and-a-half hours in a studio in Birmingham with a guy called Alvin Clark. I thought it was good but wanted to do a huge version of it. They kept saying: "It sounds good as it is to us, let's release the demo." I was thinking you can't release a demo! But it just didn't happen in the studio when they were trying to do a mega-version so we released the demo and it was a hit. Pretty well exactly the same happened with the second single. Again we released the demo after a certain amount of disagreement, again it was a hit.

'They've just brought in some demos for their new album with the most preposterous ideas for producer. They want Prince. They want me to get on the phone and get Prince to produce their album. I think that's ridiculous but then again I've been wrong in virtually every other decision I've made about the band. So, who knows? Prince might read this and ring them up begging to do the album!'