The World's Best Labels and Studios

The 1990s brought vast numbers of artists to the famous studios.  It’s an incredible roll

Manic Street Preachers

call of the creative talent of that decade and features artists such as the Manic Street Preachers (This Is My Truth, You Tell Me Yours) and Radiohead (The Bends).

Many more film scores were also recorded there after the success of the earlier efforts and these included Chocolat, Interview With A Vampire, The Fisher King and dozens of others.  The scores were directed by luminaries such as Ennio Morricone, Michael Nyman and Andrew Lloyd Webber.  Towards the end of the decade the three newer Star Wars films were edited at Abbey Road.

There also emerged a fashion for adding string sections to pop music recordings and Abbey Road was ideally suited for this.  Take That recorded there, along with Chris Rea, The Lightning Seeds and any number of bands taking advantage of orchestral sounds.

With the emergence of personal computers, the studio also looked toward the technology required to record in different formats and invested to make sure they were prepared for whatever the next decade had in store.

In fact the ‘noughties’  did not catch Abbey Road unprepared, their investments had left them well placed to branch out into other areas such as DVD authoring, interactive design and web development.  The biggest bands continued to record there and this

Oasis at Abbey Road

decade saw the likes of The Red Hot Chilli Pepper, Oasis and Massive Attack. In 2006 the studio celebrated it’s 75th anniversary.  Film projects during this period included The Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter series.

Bad news emerged in 2010 when EMI, faced with mounting debts, decided to put the studio up for sale.  This was instantly met with criticism although there were some interested parties, including property developers.  Many artists who recorded there have voiced their complaints and there has been talk of setting up a fund to purchase the studio privately.

By the beginning of the 1960′s Abbey Road had begun to achieve a global reputation. Cliff Richard had recorded his single “Move It” with The Drifters in 1958, regarded by some as the first genuine pop music record released in Europe.

Production of pop music records became the studio’s main focus as artists such as Helen

The Beatles

Shapiro and Shirley Bassey recorded there in the early 1960′s but it was the arrival of four lads from Liverpool who would forever be most closely associated with Abbey Road. Ringo Starr, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and John Lennon arrived in 1962. Following a commercial test earlier in the year George Martin signed up The Beatles and subsequently released “Love Me Do”, the band’s first commercial success.

Martin continued to work with The Beatles despite leaving Abbey Road in 1965 and the studio rolled on as successfully as ever with artists such as Gerry and the Pacemakers, The Hollies, Pink Floyd and many others recording there. The 1960′s also saw a progression from four track to twenty four track recording technology.

The 1970′s saw the continuation of the Pink Floyd phenomenon as a host of new artists

Pink Floyd's iconic Dark Side of the Moon album cover

arrived to record. These included Roy Wood, Simple Minds, Jeff Beck and The Alan Parsons Project among others. The 1970′s also witnessed the return of Paul McCartney with his new band Wings. Technology of course also progressed and the first non-EMI console was installed in Studio 3 – a 36 track Neve desk.

The 1980′s saw something of a change of direction for the studio. It began hosting orchestras playing film scores and to accommodate this extra work, a new studio (the Penthouse Studio) was added to the building. Soundtracks recorded here include Raiders of the Lost Ark, Brazil and all the Star Wars soundtracks.

The pop music didn’t stop however and new faces during this period included Kate Bush, Adam and the Ants and Duran Duran.

It’s an obvious choice and one that most people would not disagree with. Abbey Road studios, where The Beatles famously recorded is the most famous studio in the UK and possibly the world.

Incredibly, the Abbey Road studio was started way back in 1929 at a suburban address in

The Famous Crossing Shot

St. John’s Wood in London, 3 Abbey Road. It was the world’s first custom built recording studio and its creator was EMI (Electric & Musical Industries Ltd).

Although we now associate the studio with the more recent decades of popular music, the studio began with the production of music of it’s time and featured classical artists such as Yehudi Menuin and others such as Noel Coward. In fact Sir Edward Elgar conducted the London Symphony Orchestra in Studio One in the production of land of Hope and Glory.

Glenn Miller

Into the 1940′s and the Second World War the studio continued to operate, recording wartime ballads from, among others, Gracie Fields and George Formby. Glenn Miller recorded his last songs there in September 1944 before his disappearance over the English Channel.

Equipment at Abbey road was updated shortly after the war after German magnetic recording technology was discovered in Berlin and brought back to London.

In the 1950′s the first link with The Beatles arrived at Abbey Road – George Martin – the producer responsible for all but one of The Beatles albums. During the 1950′s he oversaw recordings by comedians Spike Milligan and Peter Sellers as well the Queen’s Christmas message broadcasts. The royal coronation was also recorded there in 1953 via direct communication form Westminster Abbey where the ceremony was taking place.

Towards the end of the 1950′s popular music began to take a foothold and some of the

Adam Faith

first artists to record at Abbey Road included Ruby Murray, Cliff Richard and the Shadows (then called The Drifters) and Adam Faith.

Part Two: the 1960′s – 1980′s……..