Odyssey Studios
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Odyssey Studios was a recording studio based near
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in London and opened in 1979. It was set up by
Wayne Bickerton Wayne Bickerton (born Arthur Ronald Bickerton; 11 July 1941 – 29 November 2015) was a British record producer, songwriter and music business executive. He became well known, with Tony Waddington, as writer and producer of a series of UK chart ...
as an extension of
State Records State Records is a British independent record label, established by Wayne Bickerton, Tony Waddington and John Fruin in 1975. The label released hits by many successful artists including The Rubettes, Mac & Katie Kissoon and Delegation. In ...
, the label he had set up with
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and John Fruin in 1975. The studio closed in 1989 and the building was subsequently sold to Jazz FM.


Albums recorded at Odyssey

Through the 1980s, many artists recorded at Odyssey Studios, including
Cliff Richard Sir Cliff Richard (born Harry Rodger Webb; 14 October 1940) is an Indian-born British musican, singer, producer, entrepreneur and philanthropist who holds both British and Barbadian citizenship. He has total sales of over 21.5 million s ...
,
Paul McCartney Sir James Paul McCartney (born 18 June 1942) is an English singer, songwriter and musician who gained worldwide fame with the Beatles, for whom he played bass guitar and shared primary songwriting and lead vocal duties with John Lennon. One ...
,
Kate Bush Catherine Bush (born 30 July 1958) is an English singer, songwriter, record producer and dancer. In 1978, at the age of 19, she topped the UK Singles Chart for four weeks with her debut single "Wuthering Heights (song), Wuthering Heights", ...
,
George Michael George Michael (born Georgios Kyriacos Panayiotou; 25 June 1963 – 25 December 2016) was an English singer and songwriter. He is considered one of the most significant cultural icons of the MTV generation and is one of the best-selling musici ...
,
Spandau Ballet Spandau Ballet () were an English new wave band formed in Islington, London, in 1979. Inspired by the capital's post-punk underground dance scene, they emerged at the start of the 1980s as the house band for the Blitz Kids, playing "European Da ...
and
Roger Daltrey Roger Harry Daltrey (born 1 March 1944) is an English singer, musician and actor. He is a co-founder and the lead singer of the Rock music, rock band The Who. Daltrey's hit songs with The Who include "My Generation", "Pinball Wizard", "Won't Ge ...
. Below is a list of some albums recorded either in part or entirely at Odyssey Studios.


Set-up and equipment

Studio One in Odyssey was 1,400 square feet and had room for 50 musicians, which meant it could facilitate orchestral recordings and could be used for other activities such as video shoots. Studios 1 and 2 were equipped with MCI consoles and tape machines. Peter Jones (chief engineer) went to Fort Lauderdale, home of MCI, to commission all the equipment. At the time, they were the largest consoles that MCI had produced, and a hole in the factory wall was required to accommodate the extra length of the chassis. The studio was designed by Keith Slaughter and constructed on the "floating" principle to ensure total sound insulation. Studio Two, which was a mixing suite with capacity for 8 musicians, had an MCI 6000 48 Channel Desk which offered up to 48 tracks of recording, or the capacity to mixdown. Upstairs there was a radio facility, which offered a studio and separate control room plus a lounge area. Odyssey was one of the first studios to install a satellite linkup, which effectively turned the studio into a miniature radio station and allowing it to broadcast any session live around the world.


References

{{Coord, 51.517, -0.163, display=title 1979 establishments in England 1989 disestablishments in England Audio engineering Audio mixing Local mass media in London Recording studios in London