NEWS

Wed 5th Nov 2008 - Hey Pals! Just a quick update on who's been who in Old School Studios in the last month or so: The Great Shakes, The Deets, Sargasso Trio, Girl In A Thunderbolt, Jim Musgrave, Natccu (from Japan), Compact Pussycat, The Kits (from Australia), Arcadia Lake, Juffage (Chicago, USA), Alaska Pipeline (from France), Grandama (Norway & UK), Buried In Pompeii. That's all the time I have for now chums, so tune in soon!

Fri 12th Sept 2008 - Hello everyone! I'm a bit busy, but just wanted to do a quick update to let you know who we've been recording in the last 2 months since I last spoke. Here you go: Comic Book Heroes (from London/Norwich), The Puncture Repair Kit (from Cambridge), The Snakes, Wreckless Eric & Amy Rigby, Long Bone Trio (3 more tracks for their debut LP), Black Time (from London), Beast With A Gun (from Great Yarmouth), Oldseed (from Canada), Tim Holehouse, Slim Limbs, Octoberman (from Canada), The Waxing Captors (from Ipswich), Aly Gynn, The Deets, The Lidi Berlins, Labasheeda (from Amsterdam).

Sun 29th June 2008 - WE'VE MOVED TO NORWICH!! WE'VE MOVED TO NORWICH!! WE'VE MOVED TO NORWICH!!
Yes, it's really true! Old School Studios is now in a converted barn in the beautiful countryside of Great Witchingham near Norwich, with wonderful views wherever you choose to look (apart from at me in the morning. Not pretty..). I'll be putting up some pics of the studio and those great views, hopefully today, though the only internet I have currently is Dialup, and a VERY VERY slow connection at that. But check the pictures page from later today, and fingers crossed.

Since we last spoke, apart from arranging the move of premises, we've still had time to record some great bands. I'll start the list with the FIRST BAND TO RECORD IN THE ALL NEW OLD SCHOOL STUDIOS: Kill It Kid (from Bath), Kicking Frames, Drunk With Pines, Fuck Dress, The Deets, Camille Davila, Lostown Legion, Lies Make Life Fun, Bo-Peep (from Japan), Vola & The Oriental Machine (from Japan), Thai Sweet, The Shame, Exit Hibernation, Beast With A Gun, Do-Re-Mi-Fa-So-La-Ti!, Mimas (from Denmark), Speedometer (9 piece soul/funk band), The Scrags (from Sweden).

Tue 15th Apr 2008 - The site has been down for a few months, as I decided to save a load of money and just use Myspace for my many websites. Well, I've changed my mind, cos Myspace is VERY unreliable. So we're back, in a tracksuit.

Here's a list of who's been in Old School Studios since we last spoke: Forever Falling, Comic Book Heroes (again), The Foster Kids, Social Group (again - R.I.P), Thee Vicars (again), Alto 45, Ben Walker (again), Master Solo, This Is Colour, Ray Brower, Kunk, The Three Fevers (again), Uh Ohs, The GeeGees, The Four Kicks (again), The Shame, Dirty Trainload (Italy), Josh Seldis (again), Show & Tell Recordings (again - mastering 2 records for Purple Wizard), The Notorious Hifi Killers, The Lost Levels (again), Long Bone Trio (again), The Neutrinos, Umbrella Assassins (again), Over The Sun, Daniel Fridholm, Solstice, Ned (France), Beast With A Gun, Cats Against The Bomb, The Talks (Hull), Rodent Emporium (Glasgow), Atomic Suplex.

Quite a list eh! And here's some of what's coming up: Beast With A Gun (again), The Scrags (Sweden), Speedometer, Mimas (Denmark), Do-Re-Mi-Fa-So-La-Ti!, Paper Dolls (USA), Black Time (London), The Shame (again), Jami Beste & The Nobodies (USA/UK), Fuck Dress, Heat From A Dead Star.

Mon 7th Jan 2008 - HAPPY NEW YEAR!!! - The last few months have been as busy as ever, and we have loads of great bands coming up soon as well.

Here's a list of who's been in since we last spoke: The Deets (11 song LP recorded in ONE NIGHT), Social Group (again!), Umbrella Assassins, Clipe Sexo Amador, Bob from Sons Of Play, One Day Life, One Step Down, Audacity, Paul Goodwin, Thee Vicars (again!), The Fens, Comic Book Heroes, The GeeGees, Sometimenever, Vanilla Kick, Volunteers, Visual Offence, Ben Walker (again!), The Setbacks, Bearsuit, Oli Arditi's new band (what's their name?), Mr Jason & Chris The Underling (song for Planet Beet Radio Show), A Failed Perfection, The Uncovering.

And here's a list of who's coming up: Alto 45, Forever Falling, Thee Vicars + Social Group + Foster Kids + Comic Book Heroes (for PLANET BEET PRIVATE PARTY, recorded for our radio show!), Master Solo, This Is Colour, Ray Brower, The Talks, Dagger & Diamonds, Umbrella Assassins (again!).

Sun 7th Oct 2007 - A month on, and a load more great recordings. That Social Group debut single is still not quite finished, but we did manage to fit in one session of backing vocals and keyboard for the A-side, which we've decided will be "Scrabble". We'll be making a video for it, and it should be out on our own Lap Records label before the end of 2007. We've also recorded: Comic Book Heroes, Thee Vicars, The Mono Effect, The Great Shakes (formerly Electric Company, formerly The Suggestions) and Violet Violet. We've been very busy working on our Planet Beet gig stuff, as we recently moved venues, to The Old Maltings in Bury St Edmunds. We've put on 2 great gigs there sofar, and it's a lot of work, but a good little venue. Also we've been working on our own band, The Deets, as we had our 2nd gig last weekend.

Sat 8th Sept 2007 - So, here's some of the people who've been through the studio doors recently: Social Group (the debut single is nearly finished, and it's BRILLIANT!!), Making Eyes At Elvis, The Brownies, Long Bone Trio (again), Josh Seldis (again, for about the 6th time), Welcome The Tourist, Ben Walker (for the 5th or 6th time), The Loyal Few, Sammy Ault (again), Bear, My Little Red Door (winners of Cottenham Band Comp), The Hipshakes (for a radio session, AND we mastered their new single on "Show & Tell Recording") and Popup (brilliant band from Glasgow, recently roured USA as part of the BBC's "Brit Bus"). We've also improved our live room a bunch of times recently, and continue to fine tune it. There's a bunch of new MP3s on the sounds page, and soon to be added to our Myspace.

Thu 12th July 2007 - Another busy busy busy few months, with more great stuff recorded by: The Lost Levels, The Deets, I'm Just A Number (dialogue and music for a road safety film), Bathwater, Killola, Alice Walker again (this time for a BTR radio session), Hobopope & The Goldfish Cathedral, Ben Walker again (can't wait to hear his finished LP!), Thursday's Radiation, Copper Pilot, The Bleeps, High 5s All Round (6 songs for an EP, 4 of which are on their Myspace), Long Bone Trio (mixing their LP tomorrow), Vectro, Social Group (forthcoming single on Lap Records, our label), The Three Fevers (back for the 3rd time, this time for a BTR session), Sammy Ault. I'm in the process of putting links to all of those (or rather, the ones that have websites), so keep checking the Links page. I'll also be updating the MP3s on our MP3 page and on our Myspace in the next few days. I'm adding a song from High 5s All Round today, and songs by Long Bone Trio, Josh Seldis and others over the next week. Keep 'em peeled!!

Tue 8th May - Had another load of great acts recording great sounding songs here in the last week, including: Alice Walker Band (winners of Haverhill Band Comp), Ben Walker (no relation) with help from Dale, Al Lindsay & Oli Arditi, The Resistance (BRILLIANT BTR Radio Session, which will be on the Breakthru Radio site this weekend onwards), Josh Seldis (back for the third time). All of which have turned out sounding lovely. We've put up one of Alice Walker's songs on our "sounds" page, and there'll hopefully be more to follow from the other acts in the next few days.

Fri 27th April 2007 - We've recorded LOADS of bands since the last update, including: The Four Kicks, Social Group, Minutes Before Dusk, After The Circus, The Foster Kids, Monroes, The Three Fevers (again), Cheeky Cheeky & The Nosebleeds, Josh Seldis, Fuzzface, Citizen Band (formerly CORD), On The Balcony, Steph Hope (from Comic Book Heroes). We have LOADS more bands coming up in the following weeks, including: Alice Walker Band, Ben Walker, The Deets, Josh Seldis (again), Bathwater, Killola, The Deets, Long Bone Trio, You Had Me @ Hello (again)..
We'll be updating the pics page, and adding many more MP3s to the "sounds" page, so keep'em peeled! We're also in the process of making our live echo chamber upstairs, for REAL reverb, cos we're not really fans of digickal reverb.

Weds 7th Mar 2007 - We've added two more MP3s to the "sounds" page, by Rosalita and Fingersmith. They're both from our "BTR Live @ Old School Studios, UK" radio show, which we make every week for Breakthru Radio in the USA.

Sat 3rd Mar 2007 - Recorded loads of great stuff recently, including some brilliant sounding Led Zeppish stuff from The Four Kicks (check the clip on the "sounds" page), and a bunch more radio sessions for our weekly "BTR Live @ Old School Studios, UK" show for Breakthru Radio in the USA. In the coming weeks the show will feature sessions from (among others) Al Lindsay, Social Group, Minutes Before Dusk, Fuzzface, and The Four Kicks who we just mentioned above. Last week's session was by local reggae group The Peoples Choice, featuring local legend Sam Marsh (ex-Jacobs Mouse) who is also in local hardcore punk supergroup "Volunteers", who coincedentally will ALSO be recording a session for us in the coming months, so look out for that. Here's a direct link to Show 5 anyway:

Show 5 - The Peoples Choice

In other studio related news, we've got a bunch of new valve compressors and an extra patchbay, which we'll be wiring up this week.

Fri 23rd Feb 2007 - We now do a weekly "live in session" type show for Breakthru Radio, a big internet radio station in the USA. Our show goes online every Saturday and is called "BTR Live @ Old School Studios, UK", so go and check it out. Here's some direct links to the first 4 shows:

Show 1 - The Shadow Project
Show 2 - The Morning People
Show 3 - Rosalita
Show 4 - Fingersmith

All the bands play and sing completely live at Old School Studios, and we mix and record the set live to stereo analogue tape, just like nature intended, hehe. In the coming weeks we have sets from The Peoples Choice, Al Lindsay, The Four Kicks, Social Group, Fuzzface, The Incidentals, Ghosts Of The Brown Cobra, Volunteers, and many more. We'd appreciate it if you could spread the word about the show to as many people as possible. We've recorded 7 shows sofar, and they all sound great, so please take a listen. In "new equipment" news, we have 4 new valve compressors and another patchbay, cos our patchbays were all full up.

Tue 13th Dec - We've put up 7 new mp3 clips by a band called Morning Wood. They're a covers band, and they've just finished recording and mixing these songs here.

Sat 25th Nov - We recorded a great new young local band today called The Three Fevers. It was a Soundcheck Special, so the songs were played live and recorded straight to stereo. We've put one of them, "Fluffy Feet", on the MPs page, so have a listen. We've recorded lots of other people recently by the way (more info soon), and we'll be adding more MP3s here and on Myspace soon.

Fri 17th Nov - We've re-arranged our control room, which included Anna & I building a new equipment rack, which is luuurrrvely. So, check the new pic at the top of the "pictures" page. We got the digital camera working again, incase you were on the edge of your seat with worry.. We're going to be adding some new MP3s to our MP3s page, and also to our Myspace. We'll let you know when that happens of course, but this is a pre-announcment.

Fri 10th Nov - We've got a bunch of new equipment, including Glensound compressors and fantastic passive EQs from the early 70s, and a 70s Allison Research Gain Brain compressor. We've had a change around in the control room too, and Anna and I built a lovely wooden equipment rack, on wheels! This means that we could take the overbridge rack out of the control room, giving the room a more open feel. There'll be new pics on here soon. Our digital camera has just stopped working though..

In other news, we've had Shannon Hope in on her work experience all this week, and she's helped us get a lot of stuff done, including plasterboarding and filling the lounge wall, which she'll be sanding down and painting tomorrow. We had a jam, with me, Jason, on drums, and Shannon on guitar. She also helped me test out some drum mic setups, by playing the drums for me, whilst I twiddled with equipment in the control room. She's a great multi-instrumentalist, and we'll be booking her new band soon at the resurected Planet Beet.

Mon 9th Oct - We now have a Hire service, so check out the "hire" page if you need a PA system, CD Decks, Mics, Monitors, or any number of other things for your gig/party/play/meeting/presentation/etc...

Wed 4th Oct - We've also added an MP3 of Heartbreaker to our Myspace, and to the sounds page here. I've uploaded it 5 times to myspace over the last few days, but it still won't play.. Hopefully it works on everyone else's computer. Myspace is so flaky though, it rarely ever works properly for more than a few minutes..

Mon 2nd Oct - We've just added an MP3 clip from singer/songwriter/painter/performance artist Aly Gynn. It's just a one minute clip of one of her songs, but it gives you an idea of the high sound quality that we can achieve. Check it out if you're an acoustic musician.

Wed 27th Sept - We've added a bunch of pics of the control room to the site, and more info on the "Soundcheck Special", as well as updated info on the "info" page, including maps if you don't know where we are. We'll have our studio phone line fitted in the next few days, but until then keep leaving your messages on our answerphone, or email us, and we'll get back to you soon as we can.

Sun 24th Sept - Goto Heartbreaker's Myspace page to hear the results of their "Soundcheck Special" last week. For more info on our Soundcheck Special deal look to the right of this, and click on the "more info" link.

Sat 2nd Sept - We're opening this week, and we're now ready to start taking bookings. We're painting at the moment. Doing the finishing touches is very rewarding.

Sat 12th Aug - We've now completed the structure of: the live room, lounge, storeroom, offices, kitchen, toilet, and we're now mainly doing plasterboarding inside the live room. Lights will go in later in the week. I think we'll be open in a few weeks, fingers and toes crossed!

Thu 6th July - We've got loads of the building work done, including the outer wall of the "live" room, lots of work on the kitchen and toilet, but there's still LOADS to do. Looking good sofar though! Stay tuned!

Mon 5th June - Work is underway to convert our new premises into Old School Studios. We have a crack team of commando builders, and the plans are looking great. Stay tooned.

Weds 3rd May - We are currently moving out of Northgate St, and into our new place. The studio won't re-open for a little while though, cos we have to build a few rooms. More news as things start happening.

Sun 9th April - The building that the studio's in has been sold, so we'll be moving premises in early May. Hence, we're only taking bookings till the end of April. So, if you want to book, do it as soon as possible, otherwise you'll have to wait a while until our new place is ready.. Last week we recorded and mixed a World Cup song for The Squad. Apparently Virgin are probably releasing it. I played drums and bass guitar on it, and have been asked to be in the video, but I'm a bit too shy for that, hehe. Also, finished mixing all 3 songs for the next Cosy Cosy single on REPEAT Records.

Mon 3rd April - I've added a new Mr Jason song to the sounds page. I recorded it last night.

Tue 28th Mar 2006 - We recorded a bunch of Animal Planet songs completely live tonight, including vocals. They turned out so well that one might be used on the forthcoming AP debut LP. There's now pics of the BBC mixers on the pics page.

Thur 23rd Mar 2006 - #2 - We tested the Glensound BBC mixers out tonight, and they sound absolutely brilliant! We'll be using them on most new recordings from now on I think.

Thur 23rd Mar 2006 - We'll be adding a clip of local rock covers band "Trouzakoff" in the next few days. They recorded and mixed 5 songs in just one 8 hour day. Phew! We've just aquired 2 old ex-BBC mixers. They're Glensound MX6s, which were made from 1973. They were made to very similar specs as Neve & Calrec stuff from that time, probably because they all designed and made equipment for the BBC. Glensounds owner Len Davis is a bit of a legend, and designed many of the classic BBC mixing desks.

Tue 14th Mar 2006 - Added an MP3 of Animal Planet's "Rebel In Sector G", which is sounding fantastic, complete with saxomophones, handclaps, Queen style harmonies etc..

Sun 5th Mar 2006 - I've added a clip of Cosy Cosy's forthcoming single "Wash & Go" to the "sounds" page. Not sure if it's finished yet, but I thought y'all might like to hear it, as we mixed did it yesterday. Oh yeah, and there was another local newspaper article about the studio, this time with 2 photos, in the Mercury. We've scanned all 3 articles, and will be putting them on the site soon..

Mon 20th Feb 2006 - We'll be finishing off songs by Where's Jonny?, Cosy Cosy & Animal Planet soon, so I'll be putting lots more clips up..

Mon 6th Feb 2006 - There's 2 more Polariss clips on the "sounds" page, as well as mastered versions of the other 2.

Sun 29th Jan 2006 - There are now 2 clips Polariss on the "sounds" page. We've got 2 more songs left to mix.

Fri 27th Jan 2006 - #1 - I'll be putting clips of 2 finished songs online, hopefully tonight, otherwise tomorrow. They're from the still-in-progress Polariss sessions.

#2 - So, the Bury Free Press article was in today's issue. There were also 2 pics, one of me and Anna in the control room, and one of Steph (from Polariss, who're working on 4 new songs at the studio). The article is also online, but only has 1 of the pics: http://www.buryfreepress.co.uk/ViewArticle2.aspx?SectionID=1580&ArticleID=1329249

#3 - The studio, and the BFP article, are also mentioned today in the "Ruby In Bury" blog, and one of the pics from this site will be added soon: http://livinginburystedmunds.blogspot.com/

Weds 18th Jan 2006 - So, yes, if you buy/steal The Bury Free Press this Friday you'll see pics of the studio. I've no idea what will be written about it, or what pic or pics they'll use, cos the photographer took a bunch of pics, All the pics looked good though, so it should be cool.

Mon 16th Jan 2006 - We've been recording Polariss for the last few days, and it's sounding brilliant. Just a few more bits to record, and then onto the mixing. I'll put clips up when it's finished. I've also been recording drum tracks for Weezish, trying to recreate the drum sounds of Weezer's classic "Blue Album" has been fun. There's a few new pics up, and there'll be more in a few days. The Bury Free Press will also be taking pics of the studio on Wednesday, and writing a piece which I'm guessing will appear in their Lifestyle supplement either this friday or next friday. Our SPECIAL OFFER has been extended until the end of January, so you can still get 10% off, if you hurry!

Mon 9th Jan 2006 - We're now open for business!! We'll put some new pics up in the next few days.

New Years Eve 2005 - There are now some pics of the studio on the "pictures" page!! We're open for our first booking on 8th January. We're running a SPECIAL OFFER where you get an extra 10% off the listed prices if you book one or more days of recording between 8-18th January. We only started this offer yesterday, and a few days have already been snapped up, so get in there QUICK if you're interested.

Weds 28th Dec 2005 - We've been working very, very long hours getting the studio ready, and the live room is very nearly finished. It looks great, and sounds great. The control room is 1/3 ready, and the lounge will start taking shape tomorrow. It's all very exciting. We also have a big storeroom which will double as another live room.

Weds 22nd Dec 2005 - We found out this afternoon that we have premises. We've already confirmed three bookings, so get in there quick! We'll be open in January 2006.