1961 EMI Studios in Color!!

Pretty cool to see the EMI control room and all the equipment in COLOR, especially The REDD board.

 

Interesting to hear the voice over at 1:01 speak of 'Rock and Pop" in this 1961 clip.
I'd have thought that the term Rock wasn't used until late 60's or early 70's.

 

Interesting to see their "biscuit" as a rolled up thing. Also, cool broadcast fitted Garrard 301!

 

Helen Shapiro

 

No session headphones!

 

Maybe my record cleaning ritual isn’t so tedious after all.

 

Look at those shiny U47s! If only they had made this little doc during the Please Please Me session.

Was that Harry T Moss cutting the master?

 

Ha!

My band recorded in Abbey Road in 1976 and we were offered a choice of headphones or a big skinny speaker column for recording the vocals.

 

Cool, eh? Wish I could have been an assistant tape engineer back then!

 

Very interesting video to watch. Thanks .

I looked up that Helen Shapiro song “Walkin’Back To Happiness”

It was a hit in the UK, making #1 there .
She didn’t have much luck in the US with it though, where it charted at # 100.

 

#1?!?!

 

According to Wiki, yes #1 in the U.K.

P.S. Pre Beatles the U.K. had their share of pop stars that regularly had hits there that didn’t even cause a ripple in the U.S.

 

Youre very welcome. I knew all of us here would dig seeing the EMI control room in 1961 in true color the way it really looked.
Its a very "English" type record, and I'm not surprised it didnt do well over here in 1961.


By the way, does anyone know what the small box on top of the console (at 2:08) with the faders is? It almost looks like a it was an EMI engineering retrofit of the console. But I'm sure someone here knows.

 

Oh, I wasn’t doubting you! I’m grateful that you posted that info. Just shocked that such a cornball record, even by 1961 standards, would make the top of the pops. I don’t recall seeing those background singers in “20 Feet From Stardom”.

 

Wait. LEAD?

 

That also caught my attention. I loved the “one in ten records is checked for quality.” If only most of the plants in operation today would follow suit.

 

This is one of my favorite books, with lots of technical information about the studios’ gear.

The Great British Recording Studios https://www.amazon.com/dp/145842197X/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_fEGACbNBEKZ2P

 

Thanks!! based on your reco, I just bought a copy. It looks great. Is there anything on Joe Meek?

 

Familiar ashtray at 3:30!

 

Curious as to what tape machine was used to cut the audio onto lacquers fitted on the turntable of the Scully lathe . . .

 

He’s talked about on nearly 30 pages.

There’s also an incredibly detailed book called “Recording The Beatles” but it’s OOP and is going for almost $500 on Amazon

 

Cor, look at all the people that used to be employed!

 

If they had done one on the Beatles, it would have been staged after the fact, as this one was.

RS144 premix box. Used to premix up to 4 mics to a single channel on the desk.

EMI BTR1.

 

Wow, because I have Recording the Beatles I looked it up on Amazon myself and sure enough, about 500 bucks .

What really caught my attention though is that although there are only 26 reviews of the book ALL of them are 5 stars . I’m not sure I’ve seen 100% 5 star reviews for anything on Amazon with more than two or three reviews .

 

Maybe the mod's could combine this and Steve's thread:
See Post 19: Recording "Walkin' Back To Happiness" inside Abbey Road Studio 1 film of Helen Shapiro