Playing sessions at BBC Maida Vale.
In a former band, in a former life Rich visited these hallowed studios on several occasions. Now playing with Man At Q And M we thought it would be too good an opportunity to pass up on his experiences regardless of who he was plucking for! So, here’s the article in Rich’s own tongue:
A BIT OF BACKGROUND HISTORY.
Maida Vale studios on Delaware Road in West London is a complex of seven BBC sound studios of which five are in regular use.
The studios have been used to record literally thousands of radio sessions for different BBC radio stations from 1946 up to the present day.
The complex was built in 1909 as the Maida Vale Roller Skating Palace and club until 1933 when the BBC reduced it to a shell and converted it as one of their earliest premises and it was used in WW2 as the centre for the BBC News operation. It has been the home of the BBC Symphony Orchestra since 1934. I remember being booted out of studio MV1 (the largest of the studios there) for sneaking in and banging the tympani’s at one of our sessions and the security guys didn’t seem to like it.
DONT PLAY HERE, LOOK WHAT HAPPENED TO BING!
Studio MV4 was the studio used mostly for John Peel sessions, it was a medium sized space with a vocal booth and a balcony which served for guests on occasion when they were invited along for live sessions. As I recall we did two of those live sessions with guests whilst I was with Melys and a good few others in MV4 on more regular sessions. We also did a session in studio MV3 which was a larger space and I remember a plaque on the wall saying that Bing Crosby had recorded his last ever session in there in 1977 shortly before he died of a heart attack. The studios were filled with such legends and you always got a feeling of being somewhere with real musical magic and nostalgia.
MR PEEL AND LIVERPOOL FC.
Some of my best times were spent whilst recording sessions at Maida Vale. John Peel was at one of the sessions I remember broadcasting his show live from there with us and it was the day Liverpool (he was a big Liverpool supporter) were playing in the European cup final and the team made a big comeback to win in extra time. John’s nerves were shot and he was pacing up and down outside before the show and it barely started on time.
Another session had a male voice choir singing on one of our songs and they sang ‘You’ll Never walk alone’ which caused him to become a little emotional which he was prone to do at times.
A GOOD OLD RESUME!
Out of the eleven sessions for John Peel that we did for Melys I think six were recorded at Maida Vale. The rest being recorded either on the road live for radio one events such as the in the City weekends and one of the sessions live in Groningen in the Netherlands for the Eurosonic festival which John Peel chose a band to play at each year. All of these were amazing experiences but there’s something a little magical about playing in those studio’s down there on Delaware Road.