Born in
Battersea,
London, England, Kimsey began his career in 1967 at
Olympic Studios as a tea boy, before working his way up to assistant engineer. Kimsey engineered albums by
The Rolling Stones,
Ten Years After,
Spooky Tooth,
Emerson Lake & Palmer and others. He was the recording engineer and mixing engineer for
Peter Frampton's bestselling 1976 double live album
Frampton Comes Alive!. Kimsey's role expanded from engineering to include production responsibilities with Peter Frampton, the Rolling Stones, and others. Having done engineering on the Stones' albums
Sticky Fingers (1971) and
Some Girls (1978), he assisted
Mick Jagger and
Keith Richards closely in preparing the Stones' 1981 album
Tattoo You, leading to engineering and associate producer credits on the album. His work with the Stones continued as he co-produced
Undercover and
Steel Wheels. For
Bill Wyman's
self-titled third album from 1982, Kimsey served as co-producer (with Wyman) and engineer. He also mastered the album with
Ted Jensen, mixed it, sang backing vocals and co-wrote the song "Jump Up" with Wyman. In the 1980s, Kimsey produced
Killing Joke and contributed to the band's commercial success with the more melodic and mainstream albums
Night Time and
Brighter Than a Thousand Suns Kimsey produced
Marillion's 1985 album
Misplaced Childhood and its follow-up,
Clutching at Straws, and is credited as having contributed backing vocals to "
Incommunicado" from that album. Kimsey is also credited for mixing the performances of
Elton John,
Paul McCartney and
Cliff Richard & the Shadows on the Knebworth double album in 1990. In 2008, Kimsey was a judge for the 7th annual Independent Music Awards to support independent artists' careers. In 2014, Kimsey returned to
Olympic Studios, where he began his career. He is serving as the sound consultant and engineer for its live concert series and recording facilities. == Selected work as a producer ==