Abbey Road is one of the most famous recording studios across the universe.
And according to the Financial Times yesterday, EMI Group Ltd. is giving the studio a ticket to ride, in order to reduce leftover debt from a 2007 buy-out. While EMI has made no reply to reports of the sale, the studio is expected to go for tens of millions of pounds.
The studio has been used to record Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon, various albums from The Rolling Stones, Radiohead, Coldplay, Wings, and The Lord of the Rings soundtrack—and, as should hopefully be obvious, The Beatles’ album by the same name.
But what goes on it the studio is not enough to save it. According to Pete Nash, chairman of the British Beatles Fan Club,
“Modern recordings can be done these days in somebody’s bedroom. I think the glory days of Abbey Road are long gone. It might be more valuable as a museum.”
Still, it’s possible people might come together to save the studio. On BBC Newsnight, Paul McCartney said,
“There are a few people who have been associated with the studio for a long time who were talking about mounting some bid to save it. I sympathise with them. I hope they can do something, it’d be great. I have got so many memories there with The Beatles. It still is a great studio. So it would be lovely if somebody could get a thing together to save it.”