Beatles for sale: EMI puts Abbey Road studios on the market

[Farin]

Building made famous by 1969 fab four album and its celebrated cover still draws fans from around the world

[smaller]Stephen Bates | guardian.co.uk | Tuesday 16 February 2010 | Link[/smaller]

From the outside it still looks like what it once was: a Georgian town house in the suburbs of north London with a famous pedestrian crossing once trodden by the Beatles nearby. But on the inside it contains a notable slice of British and recording musical history. And shortly, apparently, it is going to be up for sale.

The Abbey Road studios are to be sold by the EMI group, according to the Financial Times, in a notably hard-headed attempt by the company to reduce the debt burden it acquired during a leveraged buy-out three years ago.

The sale – which has not yet been confirmed by the group – might be expected to raise more than £10m, which would, even so, make only a small contribution to the private equity firm Terra Firma's need to raise £120m by June, to service a £3.3bn loan from Citigroup.

The studio's worldwide fame – in contrast to other much more anonymous recording studios – rests squarely on the legacy of its Beatles' recordings in the 1960s, specifically the Abbey Road album of 1969 with its celebrated cover picture of the group wandering across the pedestrian crossing in the road outside the studio.

Although the crossing has since been moved, slightly, it still attracts fans from across the world and the company repaints the fence outside the studios every month to obliterate the latest graffiti posted there.

The 1831 villa became the world's first custom-built recording studio in 1931 with Sir Edward Elgar conducting the London Symphony Orchestra in Land of Hope and Glory.

One of its advantages is that the studio is large enough to accommodate a full orchestra – Sir Malcolm Sargent, who lived round the corner regularly popped in – and so can record everything from symphonies to film scores for movies such as the Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter series.

In Studio 2, Cliff Richard performed what is regarded as the first European rock'n'roll record, Move It, in 1958; the Beatles recorded most of their albums and singles in the 1960s; Pink Floyd produced Dark Side of the Moon and Manic Street Preachers, Travis and Blur have also featured there.

In the new, hi-tech world in which bands can record on laptops, however, its studios are said to have become too expensive. The FT quoted a media lawyer saying: "The brand is worth more than the building … what you have is a very expensive piece of heritage. If an artist goes to a label and asks to record at Abbey Road they will be met with maniacal laughter."

[RonJonSurfer]

Let's chip in to buy it and make it the new Songfacts home office.

[RockyRaccoon]

^ Agreed

[Tenacious_Peaches]

Word. I've got five bucks I can chip in.

[Farin]

Paul McCartney reveals possible bid 'to save Abbey Road'

[edna]

Let's chip in to buy it and make it the new Songfacts home office.

YES!!!

[Farin]

We can work it out: National Trust 'open to buying' Abbey Road studios

Organisation already owns other Beatles' sites, including childhood homes of Paul McCartney and John Lennon

[Levis]

EVERYBODY CHILL - Andrew Lloyd Webber has swooped in to the resQ

Edited February 19, 2010 by Guest
Did I say Weber? That guy's a philosopher, no? I didn't mean him

[Levis]

Nope, I was wrong - link

[Farin]

EVERYBODY CHILL

indeed, but for another reason:

Abbey Road NOT for sale, says EMI

much ado about nothing it seems