Sarm Studios
Sarm Studios is an independent recording studio in London. Originally founded in east London in 1973, the studio's original location was renamed Sarm East Studios in 1982 when Jill Sinclair and Trevor Horn purchased Basing Street Studios from Island Records and renamed it Sarm West Studios. Sarm Studios original locations were eventually succeeded by the Sarm Music Village complex.
Location
- Notting Hill, London, England
SPZ Group
Companies within the building:
- ZTT Records
- Stiff Records
- Perfect Songs
- Unforgettable Songs
- Blacklist Entertainment
- TCP International
History[edit]
Sarm East (1973–2001)[edit]
Sarm Studios was founded at 9-13 Osborn Street in Aldgate, in the building formerly occupied by the City of London Recording Studios,[1] which recorded radio programs and narration for newsreels from 1960 until going out of business in 1972. Shortly thereafter, Gary Lyons and Barry Ainsworth, two recording 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 engineer Mike Stone.[2] David Sinclair's son and daughter, John[3] and Jill, 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 album News 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 an Eventide H910 Harmonizer, Lexicon 224 digital reverb, UREI 1176 compressors, and AMS 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 of Studer A80s (to be replaced later by Studer A800 Mk IIIs) with Dolby A. In 1982, Sarm's East London studio was one of the first in London to install an early Solid State Logic 4000E mixing console.[2]
Producer Trevor Horn became a frequent client at Sarm Studios, and he and Sinclair married in 1980. In 1982, Sinclair and Horn founded ZTT Records and purchased Island Studios on Basing Street, rebranding it Sarm West and the original Sarm Studio as Sarm East.
Over the years, Sarm's East London studio played host to artists such as the Buggles, Yes, Dollar, The Mood, ABC, Nik Kershaw, Art of Noise, Rush, and Billy Squier. Sarm East closed in 2001.[2] In 1981, Sarm opened Sarm West Coast, a residential studio in Bel Air, Los Angeles.[7]