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Olympic Studios

Coordinates: 51°28′31″N 0°14′27″W / 51.4752°N 0.2407°W / 51.4752; -0.2407
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This is an old revision of this page, as edited by 203.173.160.11 (talk) at 00:31, 11 October 2013 (→Artist roster, 1966-2009, includes: Add Jethro Tull). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Olympic Studios is an early 20th century building in Barnes, London which, after four years of closure, is scheduled to re-open on 14 October 2013 as a cinema. As well as a two-screen cinema, the building will include a café and dining room, a members' club and a recording studio.[1]

The building, which is at 117 Church Road, Barnes, was constructed in 1906 as a theatre for the Barnes Repertory Company, and later became a cinema. Guild TV purchased the building in the late 1950s and converted it into a film studio. In 1965 it was purchased by Olympic Sound Studios and became a renowned independent commercial recording studio, best known for the many legendary rock and pop recordings made there from the late 1960s onward.

The conversion from film to recording studio was undertaken by architect Robertson Grant and the acoustics were completed by Keith Grant and Russel Pettinger.[2]

The studios won Music Week Magazine's award for best recording studio five times. However, after forty years and a succession of owners, the studio facilities were closed down by the merged EMI and Virgin Group in 2009. Following the sale of the building, it has been converted into an independent local cinema to incorporate reminders of the building's history.

History of the recording studio

The original Olympic Sound Studios was established in central London in the late 1950s and was owned by Angus McKenzie who had bought Larry Lyons' Olympia Studio in Fulham. McKenzie then took a lease on a derelict synagogue building at Carton Street, off Baker Street in London's West End.[citation needed].

In conjunction with Richard Swettenham, McKenzie opened Olympic's Studio One with the tube recording console from Olympia[citation needed]. The Studio came to prominence in 1958. The senior sound engineer was John Timperley and he was responsible for a large number of recordings which made the top ten in the Melody Maker ratings. In 1962 Terry Allen joined the company as an electronic engineer assisting Dick Swettenham with his new transistorised sound desk. John Timperley's assistant was Roger Savage who quickly gained a reputation as a very good sound balancer. Terry Allen soon became studio manager and he was instructed by Angus McKenzie to dismiss John Timperley late in 1962. Keith Grant had worked at Olympic on a casual basis for some time and he was offered the position of senior sound engineer late in 1962. Dick Swettenham designed the first professional transistorised desk in the world, which was installed into Studio One during 1960, along with the first Four track tape recorder in England[citation needed].

Apart from Roger Savage there were several other young men who had their start at Olympic. Gus Dudgeon started as a tape operator and when he left Olympic he became associated with Elton John as his producer. Another successful employee was Michael Ross-Trevor who eventually joined CBS Records which was the start of a long career in classical music recording.

Studio One was used by many influential British groups including, The Yardbirds, The Jimi Hendrix Experience, Alexis Korner and Graham Bond[citation needed]. The Rolling Stones[3] recorded their first single "Come On" at Olympic, a number of Dusty Springfield hits and The Troggs successful single "Wild Thing", were also the result of recording sessions at Olympic, during the forty year history of this studio[citation needed]. Olympic was a popular studio with Decca, EMI, Pye and Philips recording A&R staff, as well as hosting London Weekend Television's music recordings.[4]

When the lease expired in 1965, the studio was bought from McKenzie by Cliff Adams and Keith Grant and they moved it to Barnes, a year later. The Rolling Stones were among the first clients of the new Olympic Studios in Barnes, consecutively recording six of their albums there between 1966 and 1972.[2] The Beatles worked at the studio to record the original tracks of "All You Need Is Love" and "Baby, You're a Rich Man". Jimi Hendrix recorded for his Are You Experienced album at Olympic, and of his albums Axis: Bold as Love and Electric Ladyland, all of the former and a substantial part of the latter were recorded at the studio. The Who recorded their albums Who's Next and Who Are You. It was used extensively by Led Zeppelin, who recorded tracks there for all of their studio albums up to and including Physical Graffiti in 1975. In the same year Queen used the studio for their album A Night at the Opera while David Bowie also used the studio. The studio also saw the production of great numbers of other landmark albums and singles, including by The Small Faces, Traffic, Hawkwind, The Moody Blues, Deep Purple, and Procol Harum's "A Whiter Shade of Pale".[4]

Over the 1970s, Grant commissioned his father, Robertson Grant, to re-design Studio Two, as the now working studio was causing problems with sound transmission to Studio One. Studio One, for example, might be recording classical music by Elgar while Studio Two would be hosting sessions with The Rolling Stones[citation needed]. Robertson Grant successfully innovated a completely floating space weighing seventeen tons, which was supported by rubber pads[citation needed]. The original album version of the rock musical Jesus Christ Superstar (1970), many film scores and orchestral works were recorded during this period. The studio also produced film music for The Italian Job (1969), the movie version of Jesus Christ Superstar (1973) and The Rocky Horror Picture Show, recorded in Studio Two in 1975[citation needed].

At this time Mick Jagger became involved with the decor and furnishing of the studio and produced a contemporary design[citation needed]. Later, Grant added probably the first instant acoustic change using rough sawn wooden slats, to cover or reveal sound absorbing panels behind, thus changing the acoustics. This made the room suitable for the recording of both rock and orchestral music at the pull of a cord[citation needed].

In 1987, Virgin Music bought the studios. After consulting with Sam Toyoshima, a Japanese studio builder who declared the studio "unfit to record music in", the property was refitted to a different practical and acoustic specification.[3] Barbara Jefferies, then Studio manager for Virgin Music at Olympic Studios,[5] instructed that the master tapes of the studio's vast library of recording sessions be discarded.[6] The disposal of these tapes was unsecured as they were put into skips outside the building and left for days.

Olympic's sound mixing desks were a creation of the maintenance staff and built specially for the studios. They became famous as Olympic desks[7] and were developed by Dick Swettenham, Keith Grant and later Jim McBride in conjunction with Jim Dowler. Swettenham later started to manufacture the consoles commercially as Helios desks. The first desk of this type was commissioned by Grant as Helios One for Studio Two. Olympic desks and their Helios offspring are highly regarded for their sonic qualities today.[8]

In December 2008 the VirginEMI group announced that the Studios would be closed.[9][10] In February 2009, the Olympic Studios website stated that the studios were closed for business[8] and later the site only displayed allied services.[11]

Associations

Olympic became known for the quality of the recordings which were produced in the studios. It was also a training ground for many successful producers, technicians and engineers, such as:

Artist roster, 1966-2009, includes

References

  1. ^ "The Olympic Studios". The Olympic Studios. Retrieved 9 September 2013.
  2. ^ a b c Andy Scott (October 2009). "Zani-Save Olympic Studios". zani.co.uk. Retrieved 3 March 2010.
  3. ^ a b c "The very best of British recording studios". scenta.co.uk. Retrieved 3 March 2010.
  4. ^ a b c d e Nick Coleman (1 February 2009). "Olympic Studios". Independent.co.uk. Retrieved 13 April 2009.
  5. ^ Second Wave. "The Smoothside Organisation". smoothside.com. Retrieved 3 March 2010.
  6. ^ "Some Stuffs: London's legendary Olympic Recording Studio to close". thisisbooksmusic.com. 15 December 2008. Retrieved 3 March 2010.
  7. ^ Nick Coleman (1 February 2009). "Olympic Studios". The Independent. Retrieved 13 April 2009.
  8. ^ a b "Olympic Studios closes: A sad day for music". realmusicforum.com. Retrieved 3 March 2010. Cite error: The named reference "Sad day for Olympic" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
  9. ^ Pro Sound News (12 December 2008). "Olympic Studios". Pro Sound News Europe.com. Retrieved 13 April 2009.
  10. ^ Music Week (12 December 2008). "Olympic Studios". Music Week.com. Retrieved 13 April 2009.
  11. ^ "Olympic Studios website address". olympicstudios.co.uk. Retrieved 3 March 2010.
  12. ^ "Roger Savage". Milesago. Retrieved 11 July 2013.
  13. ^ "Spondfirm: Sound Post Production". Soundfirm. Retrieved 11 July 2013.
  14. ^ "808state at Olympic studios 1995". 808state.com. Retrieved 4 December 2012.
  15. ^ a b c d e f g "First Night Records Online Store, Annie Get Your Gun – 1986 London Cast". first-night-records.co.uk. London, United Kingdom: First Night Records. Retrieved 20 June 2012.
  16. ^ "Aqualung Q&A with John Burns". jethrotull.proboards.com. 13 July 2011. Retrieved 11 October 2013.

Complete articles

51°28′31″N 0°14′27″W / 51.4752°N 0.2407°W / 51.4752; -0.2407

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