EMI Studios, Abbey Road Studios • London • UK

Details

Type: Recording studio
City: London
Country: UK

Location

Location: EMI Studios, Abbey Road Studios • London • UK

Other locations in London

Abbey Road Studios (formerly EMI Recording Studios) is a music recording studio at 3 Abbey Road, St John’s Wood, City of Westminster, London. It was established in November 1931 by the Gramophone Company, a predecessor of British music company EMI, which owned it until Universal Music Group (UMG) took control of part of it in 2013. It is ultimately owned by UMG subsidiary Virgin Records Limited.

The studio’s most notable client was the Beatles, who used the studio – particularly its Studio Two room – as the venue for many of the innovative recording techniques that they adopted throughout the 1960s. In 1976, the studio was renamed from EMI to Abbey Road.

In 2009, Abbey Road came under threat of sale to property developers. In response, the British Government protected the site, granting it English Heritage Grade II listed status in 2010, thereby preserving the building from any major alterations. […]

The long and unwinding road that cuts through the tree-lined suburbs of North London leads to an unassuming house, set back from the main road.

This house is, of course, Abbey Road Studios.

Our first arrival was thrilling: we entered by the tradesman’s entrance – still not qualified to use the grand front door – and discovered that this ‘house’ went on forever with studios, rooms, offices and cupboards, filling every inch of its vast interior.

Studio Two was bigger than anything we had worked in before and, as we set up our basic equipment, we marvelled at its grandeur. Four boys in their early twenties starting a recording career that would last for, who knows, five, six years, or perhaps even longer.

The memories of that first session and the ones that followed are still vivid and remind me of how far we travelled, and how much we learned.

Our guide in the process was George Martin, who at that point was a junior producer in EMI’s hierarchy.

We gazed in wonder at the magic of the recording process and how they could turn our live noises into a real record. After, we climbed the long stairway to the control room, where the grown-ups lived, to hear what we had achieved. […]
Paul McCartney – From 2019 “Abbey Road” Deluxe Edition

From nicolasleroy.fr – Entrance of Abbey Road Studios in 2018

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