Berry Street Studio was a
recording studio
A recording studio is a specialized facility for sound recording, mixing, and audio production of instrumental or vocal musical performances, spoken words, and other sounds. They range in size from a small in-home project studio large enoug ...
in
Clerkenwell
Clerkenwell () is an area of central London, England.
Clerkenwell was an ancient parish from the mediaeval period onwards, and now forms the south-western part of the London Borough of Islington.
The well after which it was named was redisco ...
,
Central London
Central London is the innermost part of London, in England, spanning several boroughs. Over time, a number of definitions have been used to define the scope of Central London for statistics, urban planning and local government. Its characteris ...
. Established in 1970, Berry Street is built along traditional lines, having a large live area, incorporating acoustically live and dead zones, together with
isolation booth
An isolation booth is a cabinet used to prevent a person or people from seeing or hearing certain events, usually for television programs or for blind testing of products.
Its most visual use is on game shows, where an isolation booth (either po ...
s, and a
control room
A control room or operations room is a central space where a large physical facility or physically dispersed service can be monitored and controlled. It is often part of a larger command center.
Overview
A control room's purpose is produc ...
.
During its history, Berry Street has been used by musicians such as
Elton John
Sir Elton Hercules John (born Reginald Kenneth Dwight; 25 March 1947) is a British singer, pianist and composer. Commonly nicknamed the "Rocket Man" after his 1972 hit single of the same name, John has led a commercially successful career a ...
,
Billy Bragg
Stephen William Bragg (born 20 December 1957) is an English singer-songwriter and left-wing activist. His music blends elements of folk music, punk rock and protest songs, with lyrics that mostly span political or romantic themes. His music is ...
,
Michael Nyman
Michael Laurence Nyman, Order of the British Empire, CBE (born 23 March 1944) is an English composer, pianist, libretto, librettist, musicologist, and filmmaker. He is known for numerous film soundtrack, scores (many written during his length ...
,
Radiohead
Radiohead are an English rock band formed in Abingdon, Oxfordshire, in 1985. The band consists of Thom Yorke (vocals, guitar, piano, keyboards); brothers Jonny Greenwood (lead guitar, keyboards, other instruments) and Colin Greenwood (bass) ...
,
Freddie Mercury
Freddie Mercury (born Farrokh Bulsara; 5 September 1946 – 24 November 1991) was a British singer and songwriter, who achieved worldwide fame as the lead vocalist of the rock band Queen. Regarded as one of the greatest singers in the ...
,
Barry White
Barry Eugene Carter (September 12, 1944 – July 4, 2003), better known by his stage name Barry White, was an American singer and songwriter. A two-time Grammy Award winner known for his bass voice and romantic image, his greatest success came ...
,
Paul Young
Paul Antony Young (born 17 January 1956) is an English musician, singer and songwriter. Formerly the frontman of the short-lived bands Kat Kool & the Kool Cats, Streetband and Q-Tips, he became a teen idol with his solo success in the 1980s. ...
,
Devilish Presley
Devilish Presley are an English gothabilly band from London, England.
History
A gothabilly band that formed in East London in 2002, they released six albums on their own label November Tenth Records and toured constantly for eleven years bui ...
,
Pigbag
Pigbag were a British post-punk band, best known for their instrumentals, active between 1980 and 1983.
Origin and formation
Pigbag were formed in Cheltenham in late 1980 by Chris Hamlin, a fashion student at Cheltenham Art College. Hamlin ...
,
The Slits
The Slits were a punk and post-punk band based in London, formed there in 1976 by members of the groups the Flowers of Romance and the Castrators. The group's early line-up consisted of Ari Up (Ariane Forster) and Palmolive (a.k.a. Paloma R ...
, and others. In the 1980s it was run by the British record producer
Dennis Bovell and was used for recording much British and Jamaican
dub and
reggae
Reggae () is a music genre that originated in Jamaica in the late 1960s. The term also denotes the modern popular music of Jamaica and its diaspora. A 1968 single by Toots and the Maytals, " Do the Reggay" was the first popular song to use ...
. During Bovell's tenureship, it also regularly played host to legendary dub producer
Adrian Sherwood
Adrian Maxwell Sherwood (born 20 January 1958, London, England) is an English record producer specialising in the genre of dub music. He has created a distinctive production style based on the application of dub effects and dub mixing technique ...
. Since 1993 it has been run by the British producer
Kevin Porée
Kevin Porée (born 11 February 1965) is an Irish/British record producer, songwriter, composer, arranger and recording engineer. He is best known for his work with Mark Hole, Paul Young, Dr. Feelgood), Wilko Johnson, Cockney Rejects, Brian McFa ...
.
Berry Street's main console is a custom built GP40 by John Oram.
The studio's additional recording channels include
Neve, Amek,
Solid State Logic
Solid State Logic (SSL) is a British company based in Begbroke, Oxfordshire, England that designs and markets audio mixing consoles, signal processors, and other audio technologies for the post-production, video production, broadcast, sound ...
, Trident and Oram; its microphone collection includes
binaural and
Ambisonic systems; and it also houses a
Solid State Logic
Solid State Logic (SSL) is a British company based in Begbroke, Oxfordshire, England that designs and markets audio mixing consoles, signal processors, and other audio technologies for the post-production, video production, broadcast, sound ...
Superanalogue mixing system.
Berry Street Studio also has a successful live and location recording division, Berry Street Remote, and since 2010 has also offered a video production service.
References
External links
Berry Street Studio'' - Contact details
{{Authority control
1970 establishments in England
Recording studios in London
Buildings and structures in Clerkenwell