Kind of sad to see it go, but as you and they say, a studio just isn't necessary anymore. Much can be done on a laptop these days, and this is only the first stone rolling down the mountain.

http://www.rogerwaters.org/abrdstory.html

I was also surprised by the idea that the brand is worth more than the facility. While I understand the importance of a strong brand, I wonder how many artists feel that the brand is what matters most. I suspect that artists care more about the spirit of the place.

My general feeling is that music should be created in time and space, not in a laptop.

McCartney commented that he knows of a group of individuals (surprised he's not one) that plan on putting in a bid to save the studio.

I've been there twice and as a fan of so many bands that have recorded there it was like the musical equivalent of a trip to Mecca.

Bill

Macca is overly wealthy, how come his ass wont just dole out the money if it is so important.

my feelings... it is just a building. A british fella on one of the pro recording forums said it best.

""It's an average recording studio in a crappy location. Take the sentimentality away and it's a piece of toss basically.

Some great albums were recorded there, but they'd probably be even greater if they'd been recorded somewhere else.

At the end of the day, it's just a shite building. Demolish the shitter and build something worthwhile.

FFS. It's a building, not a God.""

Well, IMO nobody can be blamed for being a bit sentimental about this. But strictly it is just a building.

Throw your nut

They record in France

Their car industry is all gone
Now come the recording studios

Studio Guillaume Tell in Suresnes:

Brian Ferry
Elton John
Depeche Mode
Phil collins
Joaz Baez
Harry Bellafonte
Ray Charles
Radiohead
Peter Gabriel
Jean-Michel Jarre
Michel Legrand
Roger Waters

Quote:
Well, IMO nobody can be blamed for being a bit sentimental about this. But strictly it is just a building.

I recorded an album with my band at Abbey Road in August 1972. We mainly worked in Studio 3, but one magic day we worked in Studio 2, the "Beatles Studio." Our tape op was this young kid who, when the producer was out to lunch, did some fantastic-sounding mixes of our stuff. He later became famous as Alan Parsons!

I remember one day standing in line behind Wagnerian soprano Birgit Nilson, who was recording in the big Studio 1, at the snack bar. Great stuff.

So yes, I am more than a bit sentimental about Abbey Road.

And what happened to the album, I hear you ask? We were signed to Warner Bros and had a US tour lined up to promote it. Except that the producer did a runner with the 5-figure advance, Abbey Road never got paid, Warners canceled the tour, and the band broke up.

Which is partly why I ended up editing Stereophile :-)

Incidentally, the 1972 US tour was supposed to start at My Father's Place, in Roslyn, NY. I drove through Roslyn last summer and couldn't help wondering how things might have ended up differently.

John Atkinson
Editor, Stereophile

Quote:

Quote:
Well, IMO nobody can be blamed for being a bit sentimental about this. But strictly it is just a building.

I recorded an album with my band at Abbey Road in August 1972. We mainly worked in Studio 3, but one magic day we worked in Studio 2, the "Beatles Studio." Our tape op was this young kid who, when the producer was out to lunch, did some fantastic-sounding mixes of our stuff. He later became famous as Alan Parsons!

I remember one day standing in line behind Wagnerian soprano Birgit Nilson, who was recording in the big Studio 1, at the snack bar. Great stuff.

So yes, I am more than a bit sentimental about Abbey Road.

And what happened to the album, I hear you ask? We were signed to Warner Bros and had a US tour lined up to promote it. Except that the producer did a runner with the 5-figure advance, Abbey Road never got paid, Warners canceled the tour, and the band broke up.

Which is partly why I ended up editing Stereophile :-)

Incidentally, the 1972 US tour was supposed to start at My Father's Place, in Roslyn, NY. I drove through Roslyn last summer and couldn't help wondering how things might have ended up differently.

John Atkinson
Editor, Stereophile

Sad

So you never made any records?

Let's hope the SOB producer is rotting from all the drugs he's done.

That's a great, if bittersweet, story John. I know how you feel- almost. I had a very brief brush with artistic fulfillment at the AFI in Los Angeles in the mid-'70's. Things took a bad turn and I moved my young family to the Great Northwest for a change of scene. I never went back.

That building is built on top of hundreds of corpses from the 1665 plague. What goes around comes around.

Quote:
So you never made any records?

After the band broke up, I joined Kala (who formed out the dregs of Australian acid-rock band Quintessence) and did a tour with them. I then worked in cabaret clubs for a while, which was great sight-reading training. (We generally had a new singer or comedian to back every 3 nights and performed with very little rehearsal.) I also worked in a London strip club at one point - see http://www.stereophile.com/asweseeit/881/ . As a professional musician, you got to keep the money coming in somehow :-)

The band reformed in 1974 to back English singer Helen Shapiro on tour and the three of us did a lot of session work, appearing incognito on many singles by other artists. We were signed as the Obie Clayton Band to DJM Records in 1974 and recorded an album for them in 1975 at Sawmills Studio in Cornwall, later to become the studio of choice for Oasis. Our engineer on that album was Jerry Boys, who went to to record Buena Vista Social Club. The three of us then backed singer-songwriter Bunk Dogger on an album, First Offence, released on RCA in 1978 - see http://www.albumcredits.com/Album/35631#/Album/PerformanceCredits/35631 .

You can find a photo of us with the keyboard player who joined us soon after the Helen Shapiro gig started, performing on a 1974 English TV Show at http://forum.stereophile.com/photopost/showphoto.php/photo/1308 .

The band fell apart in 1976, and my then wife showed me a newspaper ad for an editorial assistant for Hi-Fi News. I had been reading the magazine since the late 1960s and applied for the job. I got it - phew - becoming Hi-Fi News's Stephen Mejias, but kept both careers going until 1978 when it was obvious I was going to have to choose one or the other. I think I made the right choice.

Quote:
Let's hope the SOB producer is rotting from all the drugs he's done.

Amen to that thought!

John Atkinson
Editor, Stereophile

Which one is you?

http://forum.stereophile.com/photopost/showphoto.php/photo/1308/password//sort/1/cat/508

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I also worked in a London strip club at one point -

Now, you're talking! Tell us some really good juicy stories about that experience.....

Quote:
Which one is you?

http://forum.stereophile.com/photopost/showphoto.php/photo/1308/password//sort/1/cat/508

the one playing the bass

I am saying it with a tremor in my voice
I had a brush with artistic fulfillment (love the wording) when I was cast in a movie in 1966, opposite a beautiful girl

Much later in life I was able to fulfil my unbound creativity and found my voice on the internet

Quote:

Quote:
So you never made any records?

After the band broke up, I joined Kala (who formed out the dregs of Australian acid-rock band Quintessence) and did a tour with them. I then worked in cabaret clubs for a while, which was great sight-reading training. (We generally had a new singer or comedian to back every 3 nights and performed with very little rehearsal.) I also worked in a London strip club at one point - see http://www.stereophile.com/asweseeit/881/ . As a professional musician, you got to keep the money coming in somehow :-)

The band reformed in 1974 to back English singer Helen Shapiro on tour and the three of us did a lot of session work, appearing incognito on many singles by other artists. We were signed as the Obie Clayton Band to DJM Records in 1974 and recorded an album for them in 1975 at Sawmills Studio in Cornwall, later to become the studio of choice for Oasis. Our engineer on that album was Jerry Boys, who went to to record Buena Vista Social Club. The three of us then backed singer-songwriter Bunk Dogger on an album, First Offence, released on RCA in 1978 - see http://www.albumcredits.com/Album/35631#/Album/PerformanceCredits/35631 .

You can find a photo of us with the keyboard player who joined us soon after the Helen Shapiro gig started, performing on a 1974 English TV Show at http://forum.stereophile.com/photopost/showphoto.php/photo/1308 .

The band fell apart in 1976, and my then wife showed me a newspaper ad for an editorial assistant for Hi-Fi News. I had been reading the magazine since the late 1960s and applied for the job. I got it - phew - becoming Hi-Fi News's Stephen Mejias, but kept both careers going until 1978 when it was obvious I was going to have to choose one or the other. I think I made the right choice.

Quote:
Let's hope the SOB producer is rotting from all the drugs he's done.

Amen to that thought!

John Atkinson
Editor, Stereophile

Ah, what a very interesting part of your life's story! Back in those days I chilled in a haze of smoke, more or less every day for years on end. Stuped, red, anti-social and anti-everything. Amazing there's still a few brain cells left!

I adore Helen Shapiro, and have a CD with all her singles. A real marvel. I have always been a sucker for that alto of hers. I believe she has been in the theatre business in London ever since.

Thanks for sharing, JA

Quote:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-iGB9dhI5Rk

Too bad those knuckleheads find the need to deface the wall and signs with their senseless graffiti.

Lloyd Webber looks like hes gonna buy maybe