page_title: Abbey Road Studios
section_title: 1980s–2010s
hierarchical_section_title: Abbey Road Studios / History / 1980s–2010s
caption_attribution_description: English: Abbey Road street sign, London
context_page_description: Abbey Road Studios is a recording studio at 3 Abbey Road, St John's Wood, City of Westminster, London, England. It was established in November 1931 by the Gramophone Company, a predecessor of British music company EMI, which owned it until Universal Music took control of part of EMI in 2013.
  Abbey Road's most notable client was the Beatles, who used the studio — particularly its Studio Two room — as the venue for many of the innovative recording techniques that they adopted throughout the 1960s. In 1970, the studio was renamed from EMI in honour of the group's 1969 album Abbey Road.
  In 2009, Abbey Road came under threat of sale to property developers. In response, the British Government protected the site, granting it English Heritage Grade II listed status in 2010, thereby preserving the building from any major alterations.
context_section_description: Abbey Road Studios got its start in the film scoring business in 1980 when Anvil Post Production formed a partnership with the studio, called Anvil-Abbey Road Screen Sound. The partnership started when Anvil was left without a scoring stage when Denham Studios were demolished. It ended in 1984 when EMI merged with Thorn Electrical Industries to become Thorn EMI. Abbey Road's success in the scoring business continued after the partnership ended.
  From 18 July to 11 September 1983, the public had a rare opportunity to see inside the Studio Two room, where the Beatles made most of their records. While a new mixing console was being installed in the control room, the studio was used to host a video presentation called The Beatles at Abbey Road. The soundtrack to the video had a number of recordings that were not made commercially available until the release of The Beatles Anthology project over a decade later.
  In September 2005, American hip-hop artist Kanye West, backed by a 17-piece female string orchestra, performed songs derived from his first two studio albums at Abbey Road Studios. Recordings of these live renditions formed his live album Late Orchestration, which was released in April 2006. The cover art for the album makes use of the famous zebra crossing with West's trademark 'Dropout Bear' seen walking across it. In June 2011, South Korean boy band Shinee performed at the studio as part of its Japanese debut showcase in partnership with EMI and the group's local record label SM Entertainment, becoming the first-ever Asian artist to perform in the studio. In November 2011, Australian recording artist Kylie Minogue recorded some of her most famous songs with a full orchestra at Abbey Road Studios. The album called The Abbey Road Sessions was released October 2012.
  In September 2012, with the takeover of EMI, the studio became the property of Universal Music. It was not one of the entities that were sold to Warner Music as part of Parlophone.
  In February 2017, a rare BTR-3 tape recorder, previously used at Abbey Road, was recovered by members of Surge Radio, the student-run radio station at the University of Southampton, from their old Glen Eyre Halls studio after information on its whereabouts were provided to them by former Radio Glen Technical Manager Henry Walmsley, who had used the machine at the premises throughout the 1990s. Known by station members as 'The Beatle', it had been in use there until around 2001.
  The BTR-3 was donated to Abbey Road in April 2017.
caption: Abbey Road has become a London tourist attraction.
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