Sarm Studios

Coordinates: 51°30′59″N 0°04′12″W / 51.5163°N 0.0700°W / 51.5163; -0.0700
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SARM Studios
Location
OwnerSPZ Group
AffiliationsCompanies within the building:
Websitewww.sarmstudios.com


Sarm Studios is a business run by Trevor Horn and Jill Sinclair that owns Sarm Music Village, and previously had owned Sarm East Studios and Sarm West Studios.

Sarm East Studios was a recording studio on Osborn Street at the southern end of Brick Lane in east London.[1] Sarm West Studios was the name given to Basing Street Studios after Horn and Sinclair purchased it.

History

Background

The building at 9-13 Osborn Street in Aldgate had housed The City of London Recording Studios,[1] which recorded radio programs and narration for newsreels from 1960 until going out of business in 1972. Shortly thereafter, Gary Lyons and Barry Ainsworth, two recording engineers who had been operating a tape copying service called Sound and Recording Mobiles, purchased the facility and named it using an acronym of their business name, opening SARM in July 1973.[2]

Studio

The studio was established by Jill Sinclair and her brother John Sinclair [3] with engineers Gary Lyons and Mike Stone.

In 1975, Queen recorded sections of "Bohemian Rhapsody" and "The Prophet’s Song" at SARM, and filmed the video for "Somebody to Love" at the studio the following year.[4] The band returned to SARM in summer 1977 to record portions of their album News of the World, including the hit song "We Are the Champions"[5]

Producer Trevor Horn became a frequent client at SARM, and he and Sinclair married in 1980. In 1983, Sinclair and Horn founded ZTT Records and purchased Island Studios on Basing Street, rebranding it Sarm West and the original SARM studio as Sarm East.

Over the years, SARM's East London studio played host to artists such as The Buggles, Yes, Dollar, ABC, Nik Kershaw, Art of Noise, Rush, and Billy Squier.

The studios later became part of Sinclair and Horn's holding company, SPZ Group. Sarm East closed in the late 1990s, but SPZ group continues the Sarm Studio legacy with Sarm Music Village.

Equipment

In the mid 1970s, Sarm was one of the first 24-track recording studios in England; it later became the first with 48-track facilities.[6]

In 1978, Sarm suffered extensive water damage and underwent a major renovation, including a control room redesign and the largest Trident TSM console built to date, with Allison automation system. At the same time, the 3M and MCI multitrack tape machines were replaced by a pair of Studer A80s (to be replaced later by Studer A800 Mk IIIs) with Dolby A.

In 1982, Sarm East was one of the first studios in London to install an early Solid State Logic 4000E mixing console.

Sarm's outboard equipment included an Eventide H910 Harmonizer, Lexicon 224 digital reverb, UREI 1176 compressors, and AMS digital delay.[2]

Sarm West (1982–2013)

Jill Sinclair and Trevor Horn, owners of East London's SARM studios, bought Island's Basing Street studios in 1982, renaming them Sarm West Studios to complement their existing East London studio. Horn and Sinclair also established offices at the Basing Street location for ZTT Records and Stiff Records labels,[7] as well as Perfect Songs and Unforgettable Songs publishing companies.

In November 1984, Studio 1 at Sarm West was the venue for the recording of "Do They Know It's Christmas" by the members of Band Aid in support of relief efforts for the 1984–1985 famine in Ethiopia, and in November 2014, the studios were used to record the Band Aid 30 charity single.[8]

In 1987, the studio's cathedral organ was recorded for George Michael's album Faith.[9]

In 2004 to 2005, Gorillaz recorded their album Demon Days at the studio. The album was made alongside Danger Mouse and featured many guests recording in the studio such as De La Soul, Shaun Ryder and Dennis Hopper

In May 2011, two new studios and music business offices were added. The redesign also included living accommodation, to facilitate a return to the studios' 1970s policy of long-term bookings.[7] The studios became part of SPZ Group,[10] a holding company belonging to Sinclair and Horn.

Sarm West was used by numerous notable artists, including Iron Maiden, Art of Noise, Nik Kershaw, Frankie Goes to Hollywood, Propaganda, Yes, Grace Jones, Seal, Marc Almond, George Michael, Madonna, Belle and Sebastian, Pet Shop Boys, KT Tunstall, Depeche Mode, East 17, Take That, Little Mix, Boyzone, Christina Aguilera, and Rihanna.[11][12]

Sarm Music Village

SPZ Group opened the Sarm Music Village 6-studio complex in nearby Ladbroke Grove in 2013 and closed the Sarm West Studios on Basing Street.[13] In 2018, the former church building was converted into nine luxury flats.

References

  1. ^ a b "Our History". SARM Music Village. Retrieved 9 October 2019.
  2. ^ a b Massey, Howard (2015). The Great British Recording Studios. Milwaukee, Wisconsin, US: Hal Leonard Books. ISBN 978-1-4584-2197-5. Retrieved 23 November 2021.
  3. ^ John Sinclair discography at Discogs
  4. ^ Bennett, John G (2009). A Journey Through Whitechapel and Spitalfields (PDF). Nottingham: Five Leaves Publications. p. 45. ISBN 978-1905512546. Archived from the original (PDF) on 20 December 2014. Retrieved 28 November 2014.
  5. ^ "Mercury Paradise Audio Files". Mercuryparadise.com.
  6. ^ Sefton, Jamie (20 October 2014). "Trevor Horn talks Frankie, SARM and synths". Musicradar.com. Retrieved 28 November 2014.
  7. ^ a b "Sarm Studios set for major revamp". Musicweek.com. 19 May 2011. Retrieved 28 November 2014.
  8. ^ Denham, Jess (13 November 2014). "Band Aid 30 song and music video to premiere on The X Factor results show this Sunday". The Independent. London. Retrieved 14 November 2014.
  9. ^ "Ex-Wham singer George Michael has passed away at the age of 53". FOX6Now.com. 25 December 2016. Retrieved 26 January 2017.
  10. ^ "Sarm Studios - Home". Sarmstudios.com. Retrieved 28 November 2014.
  11. ^ Potton, Ed (1 October 2013). "And now it's farewell to the pleasuredome". theaustralian.com. The Australian. Retrieved 2 December 2021.
  12. ^ Harrison, Andrew (May 2010). "Building The Perfect Beast". zttatt.com. Word Magazine. Retrieved 2 December 2021.
  13. ^ Duff, Simon. "Sarm Music Village: 'We really have gone from strength to strength'". prosoundnetwork.com. ProSound News. Retrieved 24 November 2021.

External links

51°30′59″N 0°04′12″W / 51.5163°N 0.0700°W / 51.5163; -0.0700

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