There's a bit about it on the Warriors page

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warriors_(Gary_Numan_album)

I vaguely recollect something from Bill Nelson's biography (written in the late 90s?) where he said Numan wanted a Nelson/Be Bop sound and had very fixed ideas, whereas Bill was always trying to move forwards and try work to the strengths of his collaborators. I think he said he had been surprised by the hostility from Numan and thought he had blown up the whole incident out of proportion.
Nelson himself had experience of working with unsympathetic producers - he said Roy Thomas Baker (who produced Queen's early albums) didn't really have much of a role in the sound of Futurama - and the band were left to their own devices with the engineer.