Olympic Studios - History

History

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 in London's West End.

In conjunction with Richard Swettenham, McKenzie opened Olympic's Studio One with the tube recording console from Olympia. Keith Grant joined the company in 1958 from IBC Studios as music engineer. 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. Studio One was used by many influential British groups including, The Yardbirds, The Jimi Hendrix Experience, Alexis Korner and Graham Bond. The Rolling Stones 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. 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.

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. 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".

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. Robertson Grant successfully innovated a completely floating space weighing seventeen tons, which was supported by rubber pads. 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.

At this time Mick Jagger became involved with the decor and furnishing of the studio and produced a contemporary design. 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.

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. Barbara Jefferies, then Studio manager for Virgin Music at Olympic Studios, instructed that the master tapes of the studio's vast library of recording sessions be discarded. The disposal of these tapes was unsecured as they were put into skips outside the building and left for days.

In December 2008, rumours began to circulate that the studios would be closed and the VirginEMI group announced that the Studios would be closed. In February 2009, the Olympic Studios website stated that the studios were closed for business and later the site only displayed allied services.