Advision Studios was a recording studio in Fitzrovia, central London, England.
Origins Founded in 1954 by Guy Whetstone and Stephen Appleby, Advision originally provided voiceovers and jingles for television advertisements. The studio was initially located at 83 New Bond Street, but moved to 23 Gosfield Street in 1969.Discogs – Advision Studios – (profile and discography) The studio complex was built to be able to house a 60-piece studio orchestra and had a 35mm film projector screen for synchronising with motion picture images. Producer Martin Rushent began his career as a projectionist at Advision.
History By the mid-1960s, Advision had become one of the top London studios for rock and pop music. The Yardbirds recorded their 1966 album Roger the Engineer at Advision on a four-track machine. The Move recorded some of their early hits at Advision, engineered by Gerald Chevin, including "Flowers in the Rain" in July 1967. In early 1968, Advision became one of the first studios in the United Kingdom to obtain a professional quality eight-track machine, a Scully model 280 imported from the United States. Among the early artists to use the eight-track machine were T. Rex, the Who and Caravan. In 1970, the studio had a custom 24-channel desk, still recording to eight-track tape. Advision was also among the first studios in the UK to install 16 and 24-track machines in the early 1970s.
In 1971, a 20-channel Neve console was added to the mixdown suite. During the 1970s the studios' focus moved towards progressive rock music, and the company began producing music for bands such as Yes, Gentle Giant, Emerson, Lake & Palmer and Premiata Forneria Marconi, as well as Jeff Wayne's Musical Version of The War of the Worlds.
A 1974 re-fitting gave the studio a console built in California by Quad-Eight Electronics for quadraphonic mixing, and the UK's first computer-aided mixdown desk. Producers and engineers who worked at Advision include Eddy Offord, Eddie Kramer, Martin Rushent, Paul Northfield"Paul Northfield (Producer) 2013 Interview on the Signals of Intuition". The Signals of Intuition. 99.1 CJAM-FM. 2013-08-27. Retrieved 2013-08-28. and Hugh Padgham.
In 1990, the studio moved out of London. The new location opened in October in a converted church in Brighton, while the company simultaneously operated a mobile recording truck. The Gosfield Street location has been occupied since 1993 by a studio called The Sound Company.
Partial discography The following is a partial list of work either recorded, mixed or mastered at Advision Studios between 1966 and 1986, taken from . Artist Title Alexis Korner Just Easy (1978) David Bowie The Man Who Sold the World (1970) Buzzcocks Love Bites (1978) Cat Stevens Back to Earth (1978) David Essex Rock On (1973) Emerson, Lake & Palmer Tarkus (1971), Trilogy (1972), Brain Salad Surgery (1973) Elton John Caribou (1974) Gentle Giant The Power and the Glory (1974) Jeff Wayne The War of the Worlds (1978) John Mayall Empty Rooms (1969) John's Children Orgasm (1970) Kate Bush The Dreaming (1982) Mott the Hoople The Hoople (1974) The Move Shazam (1970) Osibisa Osibisa (1971) Pet Shop Boys Please (1986) Public Image Ltd Public Image: First Issue (1978) Queen Flash Gordon (1980) Rush A Farewell to Kings (1977) Slade Whatever Happened to Slade (1977) Soft Machine Fifth (1972) T.Rex My People Were Fair (1968) Wham! Last Christmas (1984) Yardbirds Roger the Engineer (1966) Yes Yes (1969), Time and a Word (1970), The Yes Album (1971), Fragile (1971),Close to the Edge (1972) Rory Gallagher Rory Gallagher (1971) Gerry Rafferty City to City (1978) Jimmy Somerville Read My Lips (1989)
References
External links Photograph from Advision Studios in New Bond Street (Photo was taken in December 1968. The Scully 8-track recorder can be seen in the background.) The Sound Company Ltd History of 23 Gosfield Street London at sound.co.uk (with full Advision client list)