Cash strapped EMI record label wants £30m (US $47) for world’s most famous studio

EMI the record label made famous by The Beatles is in deep trouble and ready to sell Abbey Road to help keep the banks at bay.

They’ve reportedly put Abbey Road studios on the chopping block. £30m is a big chunk of the £100m (US $147) they need to raise to avoid defaulting with Citibank.

Last year EMI lost £1.75bn (US $2.75 billion) which is hard to fathom. EMI is home to the Beatles, who are said to have made close to $1 billion last year from the re-issue of the Beatles catalog, Rock Band and other oldies now back in vogue. How badly does someone manage a business to lose US $2.75.

Nostalgia aside, Sir Paul McCartney doesn’t want Abbey Road. Fans and wannabe have been photographed walking Abbey Road’s zebra crossing since the picture made the front cover of their last released album, Abbey Road.

(This video combines two outtakes from the Abbey Road sessions)

Sir Paul told the Newsnight programme some people associated with the studio may be “mounting some bid to save it. There are a few people who have been associated with the studio for a long time who were talking about mounting some bid to save it,” said Sir Paul. “I sympathise with them. I hope they can do something, it’d be great.” BBC News

The studio was converted from a Georgian house to a studio in 1931. Until 1958 it was a favourite studio for classical recordings.

In 1958, Cliff Richard and the Drifters (later renamed The Shadows) recorded their first hit Move It at Abbey Road. Cliff Richard was a transition rock artist who liked the smooth crooner style. His star rose and fell quickly up against grittier rock artists like the Beatles and The Rolling Stones.

The Beatles recorded there from 1962 to 1969. It was at Abbey Road that The Beatles and George Martin worked out some of the modern studio recording tricks heard in albums like Revolver and Sgt. Peppers.

If you didn’t get The Beatles Stereo Box Set when it came out, Amazon.com have it on sale for $175 and Amazon.ca has The Beatles Remastered Mono Box Set at $189 which is less than Amazon.com.

Time moves on and the record business isn’t what it used to be. They blame digital downloading which is partially to blame. The real reason is the dearth of new music that is worth listening to. How many CDs have you been dying to buy lately? Not many since the studios are producing trite material.

Cliff Richards

I can remember listening to Cliff Richards around 1960/61. John Lennon said that “before Cliff and the Shadows, there had been nothing worth listening to in British music.” Wikipedia

Richards became an Anglican and somewhat fervent proponent of Christian lifestyle, the antithesis of a rock musician. Clean cut, no smoking, no drugs, no hard drinking and no wild sex parties with groupies would have made Richards odd man out in the crazy days of post-Beatles English rock music. Stories have Richards these days as either an evangelical, Jehovah’s Witness or “living” with a long term partner who is a Catholic priest.

Despite his fading star, Cliff Richards has had a comfortable career selling more than 250 million albums. He has millions of adoring fans. Here’s Summer Holiday one of those songs that was a hit way back when.