RIP Abbey Road?

Bob-Dubery · 2010-02-17T07:50:44+00:00

EMI have put the Abbey Road studio building up for sale. I think the days of the great studios are pretty much gone now. And that propery is worth a small fortune just by virtue of it's location in a pretty posh part of London (quite close to Lord's cricket ground). The studio is best known because of it's association with the Beatles, but it's also where Dark Side Of the Moon was recorded, and where several top engineers, including Geoff Emerick and Alan Parsons, learned their trade under the likes of George Martin. A list of recordings made at Abbey Road is to be found here. The Times report on the studio's demise is here. I know that these days anybody can set up a studio at home, and this is not a bad thing. But I love the sound of so many 60s and early 70s recordings that were made in big studios with engineers who understood all that space and how to work with it. The Rolling Stones used to pick studios because the room had a sound they liked.

Squonk

Very sad as I had purposed to visit on my last UK trip, but ran out of time as I only had about three days in London.

Visted Covent Garden because there used to be Rock memorabilia shop , posters. badges, fridge magnets etc

In 2004 I saw Beatle fridge magnets ( all their Album covers), I desperately wanted to get a set but was told they all had moved to the Beatles Museum.

Renesongs

What !?? The place is a national treasure. If they looking for real estates they should rather kick those bums out of Buckingham palace down the road that would fetch a few quid. Besides the family that squat there are used to living frugally. I'm sure they would be just as comfortable living under a bridge somewhere.

vic

Sad indeed...but Mac and Co will rescue.

Bob-Dubery

Renesongs wrote What !?? The place is a national treasure. If they looking for real estates they should rather kick those bums out of Buckingham palace down the road that would fetch a few quid. Besides the family that squat there are used to living frugally. I'm sure they would be just as comfortable living under a bridge somewhere.

Don't worry Rene. In a couple of days time Gordon Brown will pop down there, give a speech about the Swinging 60s, the indomitable British Spirit, imagination and inventiveness (but he probably won't mention LSD or the sending back of OBEs), drop Sir Paul's name and fix a nice little blue plaque on the wall.

Banditman

Pretty close to the likely truth, Bob.

Because of the area & period facade a developer won't be allowed to raze the building, but it'll probably end up being converted into upscale apartments. With a blue historic building plate on the front.

I had the luck to get inside a few times when I worked as a despatch rider in London. The company I rode for at the time handled a lot of work for major labels (carrying masters etc.). One quiet evening the receptionist showed (as in opened the door but I couldn't cross the threshold) me Studio 1.

It'll be a real pity if it goes. As was mentioned at the start of the thread, certain studios have iconic status due to the sound qualities particular to them. Studio 1 at Abbey Rd, is/was one. There was an article on it a while back when it was undergoing renovations. A lot of sound engineers and top musos were worried it would lose its accoustic properties if changed in one hit. The workers ended up doing things like replacing a certain number of tiles at a time, just in case they changed the "feel" of the room.

On the subject of "that" pedestrian crossing - seemed like nearly every time I used Abbey Road there'd be a group of Japanese Beatles fans (they always appeared to be the most regular offenders) committing near-suicide trying to pose the album cover. Made for fun watching as it's a pretty busy corner just bheind the camera's viewpoint.

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