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| Location |
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| Coordinates | 51°30′59″N0°04′12″W / 51.5163°N 0.0700°W /51.5163; -0.0700 |
| Owner | SPZ Group |
| Affiliations | Companies within the building:
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| Website | sarmstudios |
Sarm Studios is an independentrecording studio inLondon. Originally founded in east London in 1973, the studio's original location was renamedSarm East Studios in 1982 whenJill Sinclair andTrevor Horn purchasedBasing Street Studios fromIsland Records and renamed itSarm West Studios. Sarm Studios original locations were eventually succeeded by theSarm Music Village complex.
Sarm Studios was founded at 9-13 Osborn Street in Aldgate, in the building formerly occupied bythe City of London Recording Studios,[1] which recorded radio programmes and narration for newsreels from 1960 until going out of business in 1972. Shortly thereafter, Gary Lyons and Barry Ainsworth, tworecording engineers who had been operating a tape copying service called Sound and Recording Mobiles, purchased the facility with financial backing from businessman David Sinclair and named it using an acronym of their business name, opening SARM in July 1973. Ainsworth left the business in 1975, replaced by ex-Trident Studios engineerMike Stone.[2] David Sinclair's son and daughter, John[3] andJill, later became co-directors at the studio.
In 1975,Queen recorded sections of "Bohemian Rhapsody" and "The Prophet's Song" at Sarm Studios, and filmed the video for "Somebody to Love" at the studio the following year.[4] The band returned to Sarm Studios in summer 1977 to record portions of their albumNews of the World, including the hit song "We Are the Champions."[5]
In the mid-1970s, Sarm was one of the first 24-track recording studios in England; it later became the first with 48-track facilities.[6] Sarm's outboard equipment included anEventide H910 Harmonizer,Lexicon 224 digital reverb,UREI 1176 compressors, andAMS digital delay.[2]
In 1978, Sarm Studios suffered extensive water damage and underwent a major renovation, including a control room redesign and the largest Trident TSM console built to date, with Allison automation system. At the same time, the 3M and MCI multitrack tape machines were replaced by a pair ofStuder A80s (to be replaced later by Studer A800 Mk IIIs) withDolby A. In 1982, Sarm's East London studio was one of the first in London to install an earlySolid State Logic4000E mixing console.[2]
ProducerTrevor Horn became a frequent client at Sarm Studios, and he and Jill Sinclair married in 1980. In 1982, Sinclair and Horn foundedZTT Records and purchasedIsland Studios on Basing Street, rebranding it Sarm West and the original Sarm Studio as Sarm East.
Sarm East closed in 2001.[2] In 1981, Sarm opened Sarm West Coast, a residential studio inBel Air, Los Angeles.[7]
In 1982, Horn and Sinclair bought Island Records' Basing Street Studios in West London, renaming Sarm's original East London location Sarm East and their new West London acquisition Sarm West. Horn and Sinclair also established offices at Sarm West's Basing Street location for theZTT Records andStiff Records labels,[8] as well as thePerfect Songs and Unforgettable Songs publishing companies.
In November 1984, Studio 1 at Sarm West was the venue for the recording of "Do They Know It's Christmas?" by the members ofBand Aid in support of relief efforts for the1984–1985 famine in Ethiopia, and in November 2014, the studios were used to record theBand Aid 30charity single.[9]
In 1987, the studio's cathedral organ was recorded forGeorge Michael's albumFaith.[10]
In May 2011, two new studios and music business offices were added. The redesign also included living accommodation, to facilitate a return to the studios' 1970s policy of long-term bookings.[8] The studios became part ofSPZ Group,[11] a holding company belonging to Sinclair and Horn.
In 2013, SPZ Group opened the Sarm Music Village 6-studio complex inLadbroke Grove before closing the Sarm West Studios on Basing Street.[12]
Sarm closed the Sarm West Studios on Basing Street in 2013, and the former church building that housed the studios was converted into luxuryflats in 2018.[citation needed] In late 2017, Sarm West Coast in Bel Air was destroyed in theSkirball Fire.[7]
On July 12, 2022, it was announced that Sarm Music Village Inc. was acquired by Three Six Zero for an estimated $5.3m USD.[13] Three Six Zero CEO Mark Gillespie also founded the label Three Six Zero Recording, now headquartered at Sarm Studios.[14]
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