Blog
One of those ”once in a lifetime” things…..
Written by VictoriaDenison
We all know that these days you don’t have to go into a professional recording studio to record your next “hit single”. A few minutes in your bedroom/bathroom with a laptop and ‘hey presto’ you’re a YouTube sensation (or not). But when your track involves over 100 singers you need to think again. Where are you going to find a space to record all those voices simultaneously in wonderful stereo? One option is to take yourself and your fellow choir members to Studio One at the infamous Abbey Road Studios, which is where I found myself a couple of weeks ago with over 100 other members of the Richmond Rock Choir – a amateur group who get together once a week because we like to sing. There are no auditions, no sheet music, no pressure. It’s just for fun. (Think of the Military Wives Choir plus a smattering of men in the bass section and you’ll get the general idea).
The day at Abbey Road was the inspired idea of our very own Gareth Malone – Jim Hawkins. He hired Studios One and Two for a weekend and took 5 different choirs to record one song, in turn – ‘True Colors’ by Cyndi Lauper. The song was written by Billy Steinberg and Tom Kelly and, according to Wikipedia, ‘Steinberg originally wrote True Colors about his own mother. Tom Kelly altered the first verse and the duo submitted the song to Cyndi Lauper. Their demo was in a form of piano-based gospel ballad like “Bridge over Troubled Water”. Steinberg told Songfacts that “Cyndi completely dismantled that sort of traditional arrangement and came up with something that was breath-taking and stark.”
Jim’s arrangement of the song must have been more like the original – he accompanied us with just a piano. Actually not ‘just a piano’ – it was the Steinway D concert grand piano belonging to Studio One at ABBEY ROAD STUDIOS. It can’t get much better than that, surely?
When you hire Abbey Road for the whole weekend for 5 large choirs (which, incidentally, costs in the region of £16,000), the first thing you have to do is negotiate ‘the crossing’. This took quite some time as we waited for number of tourists as they posed for photos standing on the painted footprints of the Fab Four, much to the annoyance of the motorists. To get an idea of how busy it can be, take a look at the crossing’s webcam: http://www.abbeyroad.com/Crossing
Once inside, we made our way to Studio Two, passing along corridors and staircases adorned with photos of previous recording artists….from Cliff Richard to Lily Allen via The Rolling Stones, Bowie, Queen and many, many others. A sobering moment and enough to make a casual choir member feel rather humbled. Studio Two is where The Beatles recorded and, as we stood on the spot where they too would have stood, Jim played Lady Madonna on the actual piano Paul McCartney played when they recording the track back in 1968. A special moment.
Then it was time to go to Studio One for our 90 minute recording session.
We took our places in front of the Steinway, surrounded by 20 microphones…so no place to hide! We were all quite surprised to receive our own pair of headphones too – not something we are familiar with when we practice in the church hall in Richmond. Anyway, it meant we could all hear the dulcet tones of our amazing sound engineer, Simon Rhodes, as he made supportive and helpful comments after each take.
This is Simon’s biography as published on the Abbey Road website:
‘Simon joined Abbey Road Studios in 1987, after completing an honours Degree in Physics and Music. Internationally respected for his high standards and versatility, Simon has recorded over 100 film scores including Avatar and Harry Potter 1 & 2. In 2008 he was invited to Beijing, to record the music for the Opening Ceremony of the Olympic Games. His Grammys credit his work with the Berlin Philharmonic under Claudio Abbado and the LSO under Sir Colin Davis. He also works closely with manufacturers, developing future equipment.’
http://www.abbeyroad.com/Engineers/Engineer/21/Simon-Rhodes
You can also see his full discography on the website over 13 pages. I haven’t yet seen the reference to True Colors by Richmond Rock Choir but I daresay it will be up there soon 😉
After the obligatory warm up, we did two takes and listened to them back. There were some errors – the ending a little flat, one or two wrong words, a loss of energy in verse two. Jim reminded us to sound out the vowels and remember the phonetic pronunciations, so we sing ‘trew car-lors’ and ‘larve yoo’. And then the lovely Simon asked us to go over a couple of lines again, ‘just in case we needed them later’. Then we did the third and final take – the real thing. Simon was happy and he said as much in his smooth and reassuring voice through the headphones – a slight pause for effect and then, ‘…thank you Richmond, that was great’. And apparently, within the confines of the Studio One control room, he told Jim that, for amateurs, we sounded very professional and were a pleasure to have in the studio – calm, compliant and happy to be there, unlike some of the clients he has dealt with over the years!
So you must be wondering what on earth it sounded like after all this build up. Thanks for your patience, here it is. (PS. In tribute to the Fab Four we also recorded a version of ‘Here Comes the Sun’ but for copyright reasons I can’t play you that one, sorry.)
TRUE COLOURS RICHM ABBEY ROAD 2013 by jameshawkinsmusic