The world’s most famous recording studio aims to celebrate the spirit of music scenes around the world with the launch of the first Abbey Road Studios Music Photography Awards (MPA). The new event is the first of its kind to recognize the art of music photography and will be judged by an esteemed global panel of industry creators. Photographers of all skill levels will be honored in a series of categories, beginning with the Hennessy Championing Scenes Award – a free-entry category highlighting the vibrancy of global subcultures and the people documenting the gritty underbelly of these burgeoning scenes. .

Among the judges is Simon Wheatley, an acclaimed photographer considered one of the most important chroniclers of London’s youth. He spent 12 years documenting grime culture and his book Don’t Call Me Urban! The Time of Grime, published in 2010, has been hailed as a classic of British documentary photography. “I had no idea what was going on, and I’m glad I didn’t because it gave me a purity that might have been compromised had I known I was capturing something precious” , Simon told Creative Boom.

“I was mesmerized by the brutality of this aggressive sound emanating from decaying concrete blocks. It was the voice of an underclass, Thatcher’s unwanted children living in a harsh individualistic world where the concept of ‘community ” had become so threatened. But despite this individualism, there was a legacy of unity that is no longer seen. Youth clubs were filled with people gathered in stairwells, street corners and squares . I miss it. The smartphone has reinforced this individualism and made us less communal. What has changed is the chaos in people’s lives.”

Since those days Simon has continued his work around the grime scene, as a photographer and filmmaker, and 2022 sees him gearing up to release a more comprehensive book that will cover the evolution of the genre to the present day. In 2018 he was asked to be the in-house photographer at Abbey Road Studios in London.

The Championing Scenes jury also includes acclaimed British photographer and filmmaker Rankin, Ghanaian-American artist and multidisciplinary creative Moses Sumney, visionary musician and DJ Shygirl from East London, legendary photography and Rockarchive founder Jill Furmanovsky, photographer musical pioneer Dana Scruggs, Rolling Stone Assistant Cinematographer Sacha Lecca and Abbey Road Studios Managing Director Isabel Garvey. As category sponsor, Hennessy will reward the Championing Scenes winner with a support package, including the opportunity to collaborate on an international project with the brand in 2023.

“I’m not just interested in the music itself, but where it comes from,” Simon says of the Awards. “Subcultures emerge from the cracks in society, and that’s what fascinates me the most. Grime reflected youthful discontent, and when I started hearing it, I wanted to grab the place of anguish and alienation from where he came from. I believe that a documentarian of the musical subculture should reveal the social texture of sound. I am delighted to celebrate other photographers’ ideas about the movements they document Grime was a big adventure – for me, that’s what photography has always been.

Alongside the Championing Scenes category, the Awards invite emerging and established photographers from around the world to participate in three other open-entry categories: The Studio Photography Award will celebrate images that capture the magic that happens when musicians come together to write, experience or record a Live Music Photography Award for images documenting live music moments in 2021 and the Undiscovered Photographer of the Year honoring top emerging and unsung talent.

Nominations for the Music Photography Awards are now open and can be submitted by photographers at all stages of their career via the official website website until midnight March 21, 2022. The winners of the nine categories will be announced and celebrated at an official ceremony on Saturday May 14, 2022, hosted at Abbey Road Studios.

LONDON – Abbey Road Studios, the legendary heart of The Beatles’ music catalog, celebrated its 90th anniversary this month.

A number of other famous artists – from Pink Floyd to Adele – have also used the recording studio. But it’s the Beatles and their chart-topping 1969 album – named after the street in London where the studio is located – that the venue is most closely associated with.

“I remember being pretty nervous most of the time in the recording studio, but also very excited – nervous excitement. It was fantastic to be in Abbey Road,” said Paul McCartney, according to the Autobiography of Beatles in 2000, “The Beatles Anthology.”

“We lived there,” he added. “I loved it so much that I even had a house around the corner. I never wanted to leave.”

To celebrate nine decades of recording music, Abbey Road Studios hosted a two-day festival this month dedicated to the next generation of music makers. The festival featured panels and other events covering a range of topics, from how to become a music producer or engineer, to the business of music publishing. While looking to the future, this milestone anniversary was also an opportunity for Beatles fans to remember the studio’s important place in musical history.

Abbey Road Studios, formerly EMI Recording Studios, opened on November 12, 1931. The Gramophone Company, one of the UK’s first record companies, had purchased a nine-bedroom house on Abbey Road in the north of London, in St. John’s Wood. neighborhood in 1929 and spent two years turning it into “the world’s first purpose-built recording studio,” according to the Abbey Road Studios website.

The Gramophone Company merged with the Columbia Graphophone Company in 1931, becoming Electric Musical Industries (EMI). The recording studio was renamed in the 1970s in honor of the Beatles’ album “Abbey Road”.

Over the years, Abbey Road Studios has been an integral part of many beloved film scores including “Indiana Jones: Raiders of the Lost Ark”, “The Lord of the Rings”, “Harry Potter”, “Star Wars” “,” Skyfall, “” Gravity “and” Black Panther “.

Lester Smith, the keeper of Abbey Road Studios’ impressive collection of microphones for the past 50 years, recalls working on the 2010 Oscar-winning film “The King’s Speech” with veteran sound engineer Peter Cobbin , who requested the microphone used by King George of Great Britain. VI.

“There were actually five microphones, and Peter asked me to try to get them to work,” Smith said in a statement earlier this month. “After being silent for 70 years, this was a very special occasion to try.”

Abbey Road Studios is also credited with important technological creations. Stereophonic, or stereo, sound was invented in the 1930s by Alan Blumlein, electronic engineer at EMI. Artificial Dual Track (ADT), a revolutionary technology that helps enhance vocals or instruments while mixing, was invented specifically for the Beatles in 1966 by Ken Townsend, sound engineer at EMI.

“There are composers who can hear if something was recorded at Abbey Road because it has such a distinct sound,” Isabel Garvey, general manager of Abbey Road Studios, told ABC News Wednesday.

Today, Abbey Road Studios not only makes musical magic, but is also a place of pilgrimage for generations of Beatles fans. Every day, people from all over the world come to cross the famous Abbey Road level crossing, as depicted on the iconic album cover art, and pay tribute to the band by writing on a graffiti wall in front of the studio building, which repaints itself. every few months to make room for new messages.

“The gravitational pull to Abbey Road is global,” Garvey said, “and it’s not just for The Beatles.”

In 2010, amid reports that the building could be sold, Abbey Road Studios was added to England’s List of Listed Buildings on the advice of the English Heritage charity. The crosswalk also became the first of its kind to be classified in the same year. Garvey said that means the building and its recording studios, especially the famous Studio Two, are virtually unchanged since the Beatles recorded there.

Abbey Road Studios remains at the forefront of technological and musical developments with its innovation arm, Abbey Road Red. Launched in 2015 as Europe’s first music-focused technology incubator, the program supports the efforts of entrepreneurs, developers and researchers. From an automated mastering platform to BrainRap, an AI-powered device that generates lyrics while an artist freestyle or sing, Abbey Road Red harnesses the scope and fame of the studio to foster a new wave inventions that will change the world of music.

Few recording studios are as well known as Abbey Road. Yet nothing destined this 16-room white mansion in the heart of London to become one of the world’s music hotspots when it was acquired by the label in 1929.
Image: Claudio Divizia / Shutterstock

NOTAbout ten years ago, the EMI label opened its own recording studios in London. The place has since become legendary, notably thanks to the Beatles and their 11th album, “Abbey Road”. In November, Abbey Road Studios will celebrate its 90th anniversary with a special festival.

Few recording studios are as well known as Abbey Road. Yet nothing destined this 16-room white mansion in the heart of London to become one of the world’s music hotspots when it was acquired by the label in 1929. It was not until two years later that the Abbey Road studios officially opened.

While it was frequently used by British composer Sir Edward Elgar in the 1930s, the venue gained international fame three decades later with the Beatles. Over the years, John Lennon and his band have recorded 190 of their 210 songs there, including classics like “Help! “,” Come Together “and” Let It Be “.

In recognition of these achievements, Abbey Road Studios will celebrate its 90th anniversary on November 11-12 with its own festival. The studios will host a number of artists, engineers and music professionals for a series of masterclasses, question-and-answer sessions, hands-on workshops and concerts. On the program are producer Steve Mac, guitarist and songwriter Nile Rodgers, singer Olivia Dean, producer and multi-instrumentalist Greg Wells and composers Steven Price and James Newton Howard.

Anyone interested in attending “Abbey Road Amplify” can enter a raffle on the official event website. The festival will also be broadcast live online for music fans around the world.

“As Abbey Road turns 90 this year, our focus is largely on the future and on creating opportunities to inspire and inform the next generation of artists, songwriters, composers and of producers. We were fortunate to welcome 90 years of musical innovation and creativity. within our walls, therefore, with friends in the industry, we share our knowledge and experience to help empower emerging talent early in their journey, ”said Mark Robertson, Brand and Communications Manager at Abbey Road Studios.

In addition to the festival, Abbey Road Studios will host many other arts and music events in November. These include Edith Bowman’s “Soundtracking” podcast, a “Tortoise ThinkIn” special and one of Tim Burgess’ “Twitter Listening Parties”.

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Abbey Road Studios has announced more details on its 90th anniversary celebrations – see everything on “Abbey Road Amplify” below.

Last August, world-renowned studios in London hosted an open house to mark 90 years of recording, with ‘Abbey Road: Open House’ giving visitors the opportunity to explore the three original recording rooms made. famous by artists including The Beatles, Pink Floyd, Kate Bush, Oasis, Kanye West, Adele, Ed Sheeran and Frank Ocean.

Next month, an event called “Abbey Road Amplify” will take place to continue the celebrations.

From November 11-12, the studios will reopen their doors to artists, creatives and aspiring music industry professionals for a two-day event featuring Q&A, live performances, masterclasses and more.

Celebrations include a Mix With The Masters music production masterclass, an Island Records ‘How to Get Signed’ workshop, conversations with Spotify, The Ivors Academy and more, with special guests such as Nile Rodgers, Paul Epworth , Steve Albini and Suite.

A live edition of Tim Burgess’s “Listening Parties” will also be part of “Abbey Road Amplify”, where he will be joined by Brix Smith, Steve Hanley and Simon Wolstencroft of The Fall to discuss the band’s album “Bend Sinister”.

Find out how you can register a ballot to attend free events and see the full lineup here.

It was announced earlier this year that a new documentary on Abbey Road Studios was in development, with Mary McCartney close to directing.

If these walls could sing is set to be the first feature documentary about iconic studios, produced by Mercury Studios – Universal Music Group’s must-have content studio.

TWO elementary school students lent their singing voices to a special choir recording session in a famous recording studio.

Rhu elementary school students Henry Walker, 10, and Dulcie Walker, eight, auditioned to be part of a Welcome Home singing choir, which was written by two military kids, Emily Rawlins and Lewis Elliott, to capture the feelings of the families of the armed forces. .

The song, which is part of a larger “Song of the Child Service” campaign, is the anthem for the UK’s annual Armed Forces Day, which takes place this Saturday.

Dulcie and Henry Walker

It won first place in the Never Such Innocence 2020/21 international competition, in which nearly 100 countries participated.

And a recording of the song was recently completed at Abbey Road Studios in London, where the Beatles recorded most of their 210 songs, with Henry, in P6, and P3 pupil Dulcie singing as part of a choir. single of only 20 students from all over the country. UK.

Rhu Primary teacher Michelle Cowan told the Advertiser: “As a teacher to Henry, I am very proud of him and Dulcie for confidently singing with other like-minded children, as well as being part of a fabulous opportunity to support Children’s Day. armed forces. ”

A demo version of the song can be heard at neversuchinnocence.com/song-of-the-service-child.

The national football season may be over, but it is definitely the ‘time of the season’ for Hertfordshire group The Zombies.

A track from the legendary band from the 1960s served as the soundboard for the launch of the new Chelsea Football Club 2021-2022 kit.

The Champions League finalists’ online promotional video features star players Mason Mount, Hakim Ziyech, Timo Werner, Callum Hudson-Odoi, Fran Kirby, Sam Kerr and Pernille Harder, and the music perfectly suits the psychedelic vibe of the 60s from launch.

Zombies singer Colin Blunstone, a longtime Blues fan, is pictured on the Chelsea FC website holding and proudly wearing the new 1960s-inspired indoor band.

A native of Hatfield, Blunstone, 75, formed The Zombies in St Albans with keyboardist Rod Argent in the early 1960s, with the original line-up first reuniting at the Blacksmiths Arms.

The group gained international fame with their debut single She is not there, but the Rock & Roll Hall of Famers broke up before the end of the Swinging Sixties. They have since reformed.

The time of the season was a number one American hit on the Cash Box Top 100 Singles Chart in March 1969 – and found new audiences 52 years later.

From seminal Odessey and Oracle album, the single failed to make it to the UK when it was released, despite The Zombies’ huge success with the 1964 single. She is not there.

Chelsea FC are not the first to use the iconic track.

Ridley Scott’s 2017 crime thriller All the money in the world, which stars Oscar-nominated Christopher Plummer as billionaire J. Paul Getty, also presents the song.

Portions of this film were filmed on location in Blunstone’s hometown, with Jacobean manor Hatfield House doubling for Getty’s UK home.

“It’s a very interesting song because it’s been in so many movies,” Blunstone said when speaking to the Chelsea official site.

“I think if someone is trying to bring up a feeling from the ’60s, this is one of the songs that is used the most.”

The singer said it was great for the band as it introduces their music to a “whole new audience who wouldn’t know this song any other way.”

He added, “He was number one in America but never number one here, but most people know that from the movies.”

The staunch Blues fan is even linked to a former Chelsea title winner, 50s and 60s winger Frank Blunstone.

“I came to Chelsea for the first time with my father and this is the only time I have met Frank Blunstone,” reveals Colin on the Chelsea site.

“My dad was Frank’s dad’s cousin, and I never really understood what that makes me.”

The Zombies were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2019, along with The Cure, Def Leppard and Roxy Music.

At the induction event in Brooklyn, they performed The time of the season, a song the band will no doubt perform at Under the Bridge Hall in Stamford Bridge on Friday March 4, 2022.

Before that, The Zombies are due to broadcast a concert from the famous Abbey Road Studios in London, where they first recorded The time of the season in the 1960s.

The Zombies – Live from Studio Two will be the first and only “World Tour in One Night” livestream on September 18th.

The British pioneers of psychedelic pop will give a concert spanning their entire career at Studio Two on Abbey Road, and return five decades later to the sacred space where they recorded their flagship album. Odessey and Oracle in 1967.

Fittingly, the band’s concert coincides with the start of Abbey Road’s 90th anniversary celebrations.

The show will be broadcast on Veeps.com, the streaming platform founded by Joel and Benji Madden of Good Charlotte in 2017. Good Charlotte was headlining the Slam Dunk Festival South in Hatfield Park in 2018.

The Zombies live stream event on Saturday, September 18 will begin at 12:00 p.m. Pacific Daylight Time (PDT), 3:00 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time (EDT), and 8:00 p.m. BST.

The concert will be followed by an online Q&A session with founding members Rod Argent and Colin Blunstone.

Hosted on “the other side of the pond” by legendary rock journalist David Fricke, the group will also answer questions from a virtual audience of surprise guests.

With all of their tour plans postponed until 2022 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, The Zombies jumped at the chance to do a “world tour” overnight.

The Global Stream is the band’s only live performance in 2021.

“We are really thrilled with this opportunity to reconnect with our fans,” said lead singer Blunstone, “and most importantly to reach places around the world like Australia and South America, where we have never had the chance to play live before! “

The band members are also excited to try new songs during the concert.

With the enforced break from touring, the current Zombies lineup – vocalist Blunstone and keyboardist Argent, as well as Steve Rodford (drums), Tom Toomey (guitar) and Søren Koch (bass) – have invested their creative energy in the recording. from the long awaited sequel to their album Billboard charting 2015 I still have this hunger.

Says Argent: “Of course I know the last 15 months have been tough for everyone. What suddenly makes us feel good is finally being able to continue recording our new album!

“We just finished the fifth song, and there are already three more currently in the works to be rehearsed and recorded.

“The initial reaction to the completed runs was great, and the feeling of excitement is almost like starting over!”

The Zombies burst onto the scene in 1964 at the forefront of the “British Invasion” with hit singles like She is not there and Tell him no.

The original members – Blunstone, Argent, bassist Chris White, guitarist Paul Atkinson and drummer Hugh Grundy – first entered Abbey Road, then called EMI Recording Studios, in June 1967, armed with a budget of recording of £ 1,000 from CBS Records and the ambition to self-produce their second album, Odessey and Oracle.

The group entered Studio Two on the heels of the Beatles, who had just finished Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, and benefited from the Fab Four’s new advancements in multitrack recording – and also the mess they left behind!

Argent recalls: “They left quite a few instruments lying around Abbey Road Studios, including John Lennon’s Mellotron, which was found all over the album.

“I didn’t ask permission from anyone, I just used it because it was there!”

Released in 1968, Odessey and Oracle was initially a commercial disappointment, leading to the separation of the group.

Ironically, a year later the last track on the album, The time of the season, became a chart-topping single in the United States.

And over the decades, Odessey and Oracle was rediscovered as a pop touchstone, regularly making lists of “Best Albums of All Time” in the likes of Rolling stone and Mojo, and quoted by Paul Weller and Dave Grohl of the Foo Fighters.

Following the split from the original group, singer Blunstone developed an acclaimed solo career, with hits such as Say you don’t mind what happens to broken hearts, and Old and wise with the Alan Parsons project.

Rod Argent, meanwhile, rocked the arenas of the 70s with his eponymous band Argent, best known for their hits. Keep your head up and God gave you rock and roll.

But the legend of the Zombies went on to live a life of their own. At the start of the new millennium, Blunstone and Argent were inspired to resurrect zombies.

With relentless touring and new critically acclaimed releases, the group has slowly reclaimed their legacy while developing new generations of fans.

After receiving their fourth nomination in five years, and with a wave of support from audiences and their peers, The Zombies joined Fleetwood Mac frontman Stevie Nicks, Radiohead, The Cure, Def Leppard, Janet Jackson and Roxy Music as that ranks 2019 in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.

The time of the season continues to permeate popular culture and is featured on an exclusive tee that debuts at Urban Outfitters in July.

The live concert on Veeps will see the band perform new tracks.

Rod Argent said: “We are going to include, of course, a lot of Zombie classics, but also some brand new songs that we are very excited about on our brand new album that we are recording right now.

“We really hope you can join us on September 18th.”

For tickets for The Zombies – Live from Studio Two, visit https://thezombies.veeps.com/

The new Chelsea kit is available for purchase now – buy from the official Chelsea online store or from the Stadium Megastore at Stamford Bridge.

Zombies to perform special live concert at Abbey Road Studios in September

Music news
May 19, 2021
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Abbey Road Studios in London, via the starter incubator arm Abbey Road Red, acquired Audiomovers, a technological start-up for remote production and musical collaboration.

Audiomovers enables music professionals to stream, listen to and record high-resolution multi-channel remote audio in real time, with multiple collaborators.

The move marks the entry of the iconic Universal-owned recording studio into the remote music production space.

Founded in 2017 by Igor Maxymenko and Yuriy Shevyrov, Abbey Road says Audiomovers “quickly gained recognition during the pandemic” among producers, mixers, songwriters and studios needing to collaborate remotely.

The start-up will continue under the name Audiomovers, with product and technology led by the founders that will now be supported by the resources and expertise of Abbey Road Studios.

Audiomovers is a subscription service priced at $ 3.99 per week, $ 9.99 per month, or $ 99.99 per year, with a free weekly trial available worldwide.

The platform supports lossless multi-channel audio, up to 7.1 surround sound and also includes a set of plugins, to listen and Listen to the receiver, as well as mobile apps, with beta desktop software coming soon.

“It’s a natural extension of Abbey Road, allowing creativity beyond the physical building. “

Isabelle Garvey, Abbey Route

Isabel Garvey, General Manager of Abbey Road, said: “Over the past year we have seen 100% of studio sessions requiring some level of remote access and the name Audiomovers has been mentioned several times.

“We believe the shift to remote music production is here to stay and we want to be part of this new world, supporting musical creation in all its forms, no matter where the creators are located.

“It’s a natural extension of Abbey Road, allowing creativity beyond the physical building. “

“We are delighted to give them the commercial and operational firepower their business deserves to reach its full potential. “

Dom Dronska, Route de l’Abbaye

Dom Dronska, Abbey Road Head of Digital, added: “Igor and Yuri have created the perfect solution for the way people produce and write music these days, and we are in awe of how their business started out. has proven that its product market is suitable, in such a short space. of time.

“We are delighted to give them the commercial and operational firepower their business deserves to reach its full potential. “

“We’ve designed Audiomovers for those who need audio excellence, that’s exactly what Abbey Road is. “

Igor Maxymenko and Yuriy Shevyrov

Igor Maxymenko and Yuriy Shevyrov said: “With an admirable portfolio of audio plug-ins and production tools, as well as years of experience developing start-ups, we felt that Abbey Road Studios was the the natural home of our business.

“We have designed Audiomovers for those who need audio excellence, which is exactly what Abbey Road is all about.

“We have an ambitious and innovative roadmap and, thanks to the Abbey Road team, we can become the global choice for remote audio collaboration. “

Music trade around the world

Sam Smith revealed he stole a small souvenir from Abbey Road Studios in London when he was 15.

Specifically, Sam, 28, enlisted their mother to sting the object during a tour of the famous venue, where the Beatles recorded their eleventh album, Abbey Road.

Appearing on Australian show The Project on Monday, the singer admitted to pocketing an Abbey Road-branded mug.

“I’ll be honest, I didn’t take it, my mom took it. Seriously, my mom put it in the purse. I didn’t have a purse. It was a mug, an Abbey Road mug, ”Sam said with a laugh.

Sam added that “Abbey Road is such a sanctuary of music” and that they “wanted a piece of this shrine to take home! ”

The artist shared a photo of the simple black and white mug on his Instagram earlier this month.

Sam captioned it: “I stole this Abbey Road mug when I was 15. Can’t wait to take it home in a few weeks !!”

To celebrate the release of their new album Love Goes, Sam will be holding a special live performance at Abbey Road Studios this week.

Tickets for the live concert went on sale on October 6, ahead of the October 30 performance, and prices started at just GBP 4 (AUD 7.30).

Sam told fans on Instagram last month: ‘I am very happy to announce a once-in-a-lifetime show at iconic Abbey Road Studios on October 30th to celebrate my new album Love Goes.

“I will be joined by my amazing group for a full show with new and old songs, and this is the only time you can see me perform live this year.

“We work so hard to make sure this show is really special, and I can’t wait to sing for all of you.”