Intelligent Sound

Introduction:

The Abbey Road Studios was established in November 1931 by one of the predecessor of the British music company EMI, which happens to be its present owner. It is located at 3 Abbey Road, St John’s Wood, Westminster City, London, England. The premises have been used to remake and remaster much of the recordings of classical music made at the Kingsway Hall apart from its usual purpose of being a recording studio.

It is most noted for the fact that famous bands like Pink Floyd and The Beatles used the studios for using the various innovative recording techniques adopted by them in the ‘60s and the ‘70s. The Abbey Road Studios received a boon from the British Government in 2010 through which it acquired a status stating it to be a historic site. This helped it from falling prey to the threat of sale to any property developer.

History:

The Abbey Road Studios have been at the epitome of the music industry for almost 70 years. It boasts of recording almost 90% of all The Beatles’ songs. Their last song together was also recorded at the studios. They named it “Abbey Road”. It also turned out to be their best selling work. The site at which the Abbey Road Studios are built was originally a private home built in 1830. The Gramophone Company ltd. Which later on became EMI first started its work at this site in 1931.It was on 6th of June 1962, that The Beatles first arrived outside the studio in a big white van carrying their old and worn out equipment. This was followed by almost ten years of continuous hits delivered by The Beatles. These years were dubbed by some as the Beatles’ years. As a result, the Abbey Road Studios was a viewed as a shrine for all Beatles’ fans. Big time hits such as “Help!” and “I Want to Hold Your Hand” were recorded by the Beatles’ at the studio. All this made the Abbey Road Studios one of the leading recording studios in the world.

The Studio:

The Abbey Road Studios comprises of four studios in all. The largest of them all is studio one. Studio two is about half the size of studio one. Studio three is a more moderate sized room. But the best of them all is the Penthouse studio. It looks down upon the garden of the Abbey Road Studios. The building also consists of 2 extremely luxurious apartments and a licensed bar.

As it is a commercial business, it is not open for tours. But in 1983, there was a short 2 month period in which the studios were opened for public tours which included an hour and a half long video presentation in studio two. However, after that the plans for conducting tours got cancelled and there are no public tours available as of date.