Studio One
“This is where it all began, with the opening ceremony in 1931 with Sir Edward Elgar and the LSO, who performed Land of Hope and Glory. They did it very differently back then, with grand art deco up the walls, bare bricks… it looked cool but didn’t sound great – they didn’t nail the sound first time like they did with Studio Two.
“There was a stage at the back – the idea was to recreate a concert hall. They were still finding their feet with what a recording studio should and shouldn’t be, so there was a stage and they put chairs out and invited people to watch as though it was a concert! A very different approach to today…
“There was dissatisfaction with the sound [in here], so they started playing around with the acoustics a bit more. They reached the stage we’re at now in 1975; it’s now a wonderful, big sound, and we wouldn’t touch it for love nor money! It was originally designed with classical music in mind, and that was predominantly what
this then, released room most on wasof vinyl.the used repertoireWhenfor untilthe hadCD the kicked mid-70s.been doneoff, By and people were going back in the studio and re-recording everything again! But at the point in between, we were a bit stuck. People were playing badminton and five-a-side football in here – everything apart from using it as a studio!
“There were plans to turn it into four separate pop studios, as pop studios were sprouting up all over London. Luckily, that didn’t happen, as Ken Townsend (the GM at the time) said it was a historic room and there had to be another way.
“To this day we’re still doing loads of film scores in here”
There was a film scoring facility called Anvil who were losing their scoring stage; their lease was up. They’d recorded Alien there, the Star Wars films, and James Bond. So Ken said, “Why don’t you bring the clients, the projection equipment and the films here, and we’ll provide the space, engineers and mics?” Like a joint venture! “The first film we did here was Raiders of the
Lost Ark in 1981, and then it snowballed from there. Good ol’ Ken found a way! And to this day we’re still doing loads of film scores in here. Loads of classics have been done here over the years:
Aliens, Return of the Jedi, the Harry Potters, Lord of the Rings, the Bourne films, Willow, Brazil – it just keeps going! Certain composers just love this room and will only record in this room.
“Film sessions are different beasts to pop sessions. We have a big projector at the back of the room; the lights go down and each musician has their own little lamp, so it’s really vibey and it looks great.”
Before we head into The Front Room for our exclusive mixing session, Head of Audio Products Mirek Stiles takes us on a tour around Abbey Road’s multiple studio rooms