A little history about the Olympic Studios recording studio

taken from their official website at olympiccinema.co.uk

After a few years as a studio for television commercials, in 1966 it was converted to the Olympic Sound Studios, with room enough to house a 70-piece orchestra. The Rolling Stones were among its first clients, recording six consecutive albums between 1966 and 1972. The Beatles worked at the studio to record the original tracks of All You Need Is Love and Baby, You’re A Rich Man. The Who recorded their classic albums “Who’s Next” and “Who Are You”. It was also where Led Zeppelin recorded their debut in October 1968, prompting engineer and mixer Glyn Johns to call the album “a milestone… one of the best rock’n’roll albums ever made, and I’m just grateful that I was there”.

Queen used the studio for their groundbreaking album “A Night At The Opera” and the studio saw the production of many other landmark albums and singles by artists such
as The Small Faces, The Jimi Hendrix Experience and Procol Harum, who recorded A Whiter Shade Of Pale here.

The studio also recorded and produced film music for “The Italian Job” (1969), the film version of “Jesus Christ Superstar” (1973) and “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” was recorded in Studio Two in 1975. Over the next 30+ years, artists who recorded at 117-123 Church Road included B.B. King, David Bowie, The Jam, Pink Floyd, Duran Duran, Oasis, Barbra Streisand, Nick Cave, Madonna, Prince and The Spice Girls.

The Olympic was acquired by Richard Branson’s Virgin company in 1987, subsequently becoming part of EMI’s portfolio when the major label acquired Virgin in 1992. U2 were the final act to record on the site in December 2009 with their album “No Line On The Horizon”.