Beatles for sale: EMI puts Abbey Road studios on the market

The Abbey Road studios are to be sold by the EMI group, according to the Financial Times, in a notably hard-headed attempt by the company to reduce the debt burden it acquired during a leveraged buy-out three years ago.

The sale – which has not yet been confirmed by the group – might be expected to raise more than £10m, which would, even so, make only a small contribution to the private equity firm Terra Firma's need to raise £120m by June, to service a £3.3bn loan from Citigroup. <snip>

One of its advantages is that the studio is large enough to accommodate a full orchestra – Sir Malcolm Sargent, who lived round the corner regularly popped in – and so can record everything from symphonies to film scores for movies such as the Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter series.

In Studio 2, Cliff Richard performed what is regarded as the first European rock'n'roll record, Move It, in 1958; the Beatles recorded most of their albums and singles in the 1960s; Pink Floyd produced Dark Side of the Moon and Manic Street Preachers, Travis and Blur have also featured there.

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Abbey Road Studios to the public for a multi-media Beatles presentation that included photos of the group recording and snippets from master tapes. Chairs were set up in the studio where they did much of their recording. I was fortunate to attend, and will never forget the experience.

I only hope the eventual buyers respect the historical value of the place. It still attracts hundreds to its gates and the famous nearby crosswalk on a daily basis.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KnkDITDZT-M

sez it all

Currently all you can do is walk by and look at the gate and wall around it and walk across the famous intersection but I would think they could make some serious $$$ if they opened it up as a branch of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame or something.

when they did open it briefly in 83, I know it would be a huge success - and they could charge top dollar. I always wondered why they never pursued the tourism aspect further. It would be very lucrative, and, if handled well, with a solid reservations system, there probably wouldn't be much impact on the neighborhood in terms of crowds. There are already plenty of people milling around at all hours.

Better to explore its income-generating potential than to let it go. There is a hell of a lot of history in that building.

It's true.