You Can Help To Save Abbey Road Studios!

Im all for them saving the studios so long as they dont come to the public for donations.

Its the stupid idiots at EMI who give multi million pound record album deals to crap artists that have been the down fall of the company

Second that motion. Hear, hear!

Not a penny will come from me for such an ill-advised and monstrosly wasteful plan.

If I want to part with hard earned cash it will be to some cause which has some benefit apart from salving a rose-tinted sentimentality for a past era. A cause that actually benefits people who can use the help, such as the Haiti Appeal for example ...

ATB from George

quote:

Please go to their website to indicate your support

I have done - it's something worth saving - as a NT member I'll write in and see if something can be done.

Its the stupid idiots at EMI who give multi million pound record album deals to crap artists - I agree, but it is Abbey Road Studios I'd like to see saved not EMI - though I do feel sorry for genuine people who work there and could lose out. If it;s saved through the Trust then donations will be voluntary unlike many things that I have to give money to whether I like it or not.

I agree if you're not interested in our musical heritage or just don't want to donate then you shouldn't have to give. I think HMG should extend this idea to other things it gives our money to. I don't want to give a penny to fuel the global warming myth, but seems I have to fund people flying all over the world to go on and on and on about it - can't those interested do the funding and the rest of us save our heritage from the bull-dozers - is that too much to ask?

That is exactly the opposite of my view. I would prefer the jobs of the emplyees of EMI to survive at the expense of the studio perhaps. Prefering to preserve objects or buildings to attempting to preserve the welfare of people is extra-ordinary order of priorities IMHO.

Who could seriously believe that preserving a building is more impportant than the welfare of people who depend for their employment on the continued existence of the building's current owner's staus as an ongoing business organisation and employer? It does appear that this is a likely choice ...

It reminds me of people [Elgar included] who bemoaned the sad death of horses in the First World War, but who thought that it was a good thing and becoming that young soldiers should sacrifice themselves for their country in such terrible conditions.

To be honest I have never had any time for sentimentality of this sort. People first, things second, IMHO ...

George

quote:

would prefer the jobs of the emplyees of EMI to survive at the expense of the studio

Add 1 more vote for that - the experience & knowledge locked away in those people is the priceless part

The ALW offer is in my view not the way forward.
The building does nothing, the iconic bit is probably the zebra crossing, & that's a few yards away from the studio.
Studio One may be one of the best rooms around for sound especially a big orchestra, but the room sound can be reconstructed in another location.

Think about it as a business proposition - The building land is worth a fortune for redevelopment.
That money could easily go towards a new purpose built recording studio, better equipped, voiced for many & more flexible recording needs, more specific built for purpose rooms, & more accessible - lets face it the parking arrangements at Abbey Road are a joke.

quote:

Think about it as a business proposition

Isn't it more important than that - business is what we do because we have to to eat, its boring and tedious but has to be done.

However, this is one of the world's finest recording studios where the Beatles recorded some of greatest music ever made.

I, too, would like to see the real workers who understand music recording keep their jobs.

Here is my favourite song about business

If Sir Lord Macca throws in a marigold, I'll donate a fiver - consistent with our relative wealth. Sensibly though, without a business proposition the only future for the place is as a museum.

ROTF, sorry to sound uncaring - but I too do agree is a national treasure.

My point is that its the people who make the recordings, not the building.
But if we want the Abbey Road expertise to continue, then a new building designed for the purpose should be built in a more suitable location, but most important is the people working in the facility are retained to continue the expertise.

The fact is that the Abbey Road building is a jurasic time warp with no space to expand or bring it up to date. The various rooms internally are excellent, but are limited to the building footprint.
I said parking is a joke. On site parking is restricted to a small number of assigned car parking places only, an orchestra means people make there own way by public transport, or by a group bus that has to stop outside on the road to unload. And don't loose sight of the fact that Studio One is purpose built for large orchestral work.

This is a simple hard nosed business decision IMO.
Buy & keep the old building & it will slowly fade away as a recording studio & become an inert museum - OK if that's what people want to do. But sell it & relocate to a building with world leading facilities & it will thrive as a recording studio.

Maybe that nice Sir A L-Webber chap will save it?

So a lot more than even the site of the old studio complex is worth even for development!

Sheer madness, but then we live in a sentimental world where bankers, star musicians, footballers, and useless celebrities are paid more than doctors or airline pilots [etc], because these celebrities offer so much! Not, IMHO!

Even preserving the studio complex is about the celebrity status of the people who made records there, and not a sensible allocation of resources in increasingly difficult times. The jobs and expertise of the people who make recordings are worth far more than the studios, IMHO. Many are the causes that could be supported that would benefit real people more than keeping the studios as some sort of museum or celebrity shrine! The site itself is completely not relevant so long as the real asset, the recorded masters, are preserved and in responsible hands. And the huge expertise that EMI actually has is not squandered to unemployment, and skills lost as a result. Loosing the EMI tradition of making grand recordings would be the real extra nail in the coffin of UK Ltd from this affair. Not loosing some studios that were perfect in 1929 when conceived!

ATB from George

quote:

Originally posted by Lee Henley:
Its the stupid idiots at EMI who give multi million pound record album deals to crap artists that have been the down fall of the company

I'm not sure that's the only issue causing EMI's current woes. This just compounds the problem that Guy Hands paid too much for it in the first instance, borrowed heavily from Citigroup and, with falling revenues, still needs to service that debt.

Regards, CB

Yes we get the point George, you are against it. It ain't likely to be your money, so that's that.

I hear that Lord Webber will be buying Abbey Road - regardless of cost.

Good man, IMO.

The saving of this with the money from a Philanthropist would be a good solution in my view.

ATB from George

quote:

Originally posted by Mike Lacey:
I hear that Lord Webber will be buying Abbey Road - regardless of cost.

Good man, IMO.

Brilliant - it seems that in the end when something is that important you just have to rely on the Lord.

Hope it will remain as it is.
Some told me italian national broadcast company want to get it.
That would be a HUGE waste for the entire world.

Just read on the BBC web site that it's no longer for sale, so you can all save your pennies:

EMI released a statement saying the studios, made famous by a Beatles album, should stay under its ownership.

The firm added it had rejected a offer for the historic building last year and was working with "third parties" about funding a "revitalisation project".

Source: BBC

Regards, CB

Let us hope this means EMI consider that the future is fine enough for them to keep their traditions going onwards and upwards!

EMI is my favourite music recording company, and I wish them every success, even if I would love to be in a position to shake up the back-catalogue release policy! So much great music making locked away in the vault!

Their quality of restoration from master parts means that even for the out of copyright recordings, their in-house re-issues are almost always guaranteed to have better quality than third party issues, based on the contemporary commercially released discs.

ATB from George

Andrew ... Superstar!

According to BBC News, its now a listed building.
Not for its architectural merit but for its historical value.
I am not sure what this will do, I guess not much.

It will probably introduce a load of costly additional "Red-tape" in the event that the studio complex requires major remodelling in the future.

Once again the governement steps in with micromanagement of an emotive and populist issue, which is done for political reasons rather sticking to trying to guide the economy towards stability.

Also if EMI need to sell the studios now, I would venture that the "listing" of the building will devalue it, which may be a bad thing for the survival of the company itself. I would consider that the survival of EMI is far more important than that of the studios at Abbey Road. Others may disagree, and no doubt the government has used this issue to show its "caring face," no doubt peceiving my view [which may at least be seen as rational in difficult economic times] as being likely that of a minority.

Please save us from meddling politicians, for the sake of the prosperity of the country.

ATB from George

Join the real world George, MPs are and have always only been in it for themselves. Who told you they are there for your benefit?

MPs are there as our servants. Reminding people of our representitives muddled, and sometimes self-serving behaviour is a useful corrective in the real world.

Those who dislike this uncomfortable fact are the ones not living in the real world.

I prefer to consider things from a rational view-point.

George

quote:

Originally posted by GFFJ:
I prefer to consider things from a rational view-point.

Words of wisdom indeed. Any kind of rational thought seems long to have gone out of fashion in UK politics. We are now more or less dictated to by a bunch of bungling crackpots who in the real world would simply get fired.

EW