Female producers take top music awards

Women took several of the top awards at Wednesday's Music Producers Guild (MPG) Awards, marking a sea change in a profession typically dominated by men.

Alt-pop artist FKA Twigs won best single (Pendulum) and best album (LP1), both of which she co-produced.

Catherine Marks was named breakthrough producer of the year for her work on Wolf Alice's Mercury-nominated album My Love Is Cool.

Sylvia Massy, whose credits include REM and Prince, won an inspiration award.

The US producer, who has 25 gold and platinum albums to her name, was also honoured for her efforts to preserve and promote vintage recording equipment, and for her work as a writer, artist and educator.

Figures compiled in 2010 suggested less than 5% of record producers were female, although the figure is thought to have risen as technology allowed music to be created at home studios or on laptops.

"The diversity of talent winning MPG Awards this year is truly outstanding and we are proud to be reflecting the ever rising number of women in the top tier of music making," said MPG award director Tony Platt.

Elsewhere, the awards honoured Swedish pop svengali Max Martin, whose recent hits include Ellie Goulding's Love Me Like You Do, The Weeknd's Can't Feel My Face and large swathes of Taylor Swift's global smash album 1989.

He was named best international producer, while Olga Fitzroy, who works closely with Coldplay, was named recording engineer of the year.

Charlie Andrew won the top honour - producer of the year - recognising his contribution to albums by Alt-J, Sivu and Marika Hackman in 2015.

The award means he automatically received the 2016 Brit Award for best producer, which was presented at the same time.

The lifetime achievement prize went to Youth, who sat behind the mixing desk on classic albums like The Verve's Urban Hymns, James's Seven and Together Alone by Crowded House.

The musician, whose real name is Martin Glover, is also the bassist in Killing Joke and has recorded three experimental electronic albums with Sir Paul McCartney under the name The Fireman.

He was presented his award by The Verve's Richard Ashcroft; and they went on to play Bittersweet Symphony, accompanied by David Gilmour, Jah Wobble and Sex Pistols drummer Mark Cook.

Finally, Beatles engineer Geoff Emerick won the MPG Award for innovation.