Abbey Road up for sale – lend us a tenner,eh?
By Fran Ashcroft
So, Abbey Road is to be sold off against EMI’s massive debts. The story got plenty of media coverage this week, which is guaranteed to attract the wealthiest and most inappropriate buyers.
Let’s see, Macca of course will be sniffing around but won’t cough up enough to win this particular Ebay auction. Neither will the remaining major labels, preoccupied with their own financial black holes. It could be a tax write off for Simon Cowell, perhaps. But most likely will go to some faceless consortium wanting to aquire “the franchise”. It’s more or less certain the next owners will have no interest or experience in the world of recording at all, which begs the question to the studio’s long term future. There just isn’t a lot of profit – if any – in a world class recording facility right now (just look to the USA to see their own extensive casualty list). God forbid Disney will get their hands on it and launch Beatle World…
Of course EMI has been in trouble for decades, and changed ownership several times..Thorn, Virgin, and now Guy Hands. The old 70s joke ran:
“What’s the difference between EMI and the Titanic?”
“The Titanic had a good band”.
But it’s not solely their music division that’s cost them money. EMI was spread too thin for too long in everything from consumer electronics to armaments. However this time the writing seems to be on the wall. No more takeovers or mergers - its assets will be broken up and sold off piecemeal, starting with the studio.
There’s only one thing for it – we’ll have to have a Recordproduction.com whip round.
3 Responses to “Abbey Road up for sale – lend us a tenner,eh? Fran Ashcroft”
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The Compressor Needs You! We’re going to Buy Abbey Road!
Fran Ashcroft has posted a blog! It’s not often the Compressor’s loins get stirred, but Fran may have had more luck than Mrs Compressor recently!
Here’s the plan. I need 999 of you to give me £30,000! I’ll put up £30,000 of my own. That makes £30,000,000 with which we will purchase Abbey Road.
We will each own 0.1% of Abbey Road. I can run it for you and we can vote for a committee to represent the consortium. We will maintain Abbey Road as a studio, but we’ll also look at everything required to make this business viable.
I know it hurts, but that will include ANYTHING required, because I personally believe it can be made viable (and I haven’t even seen the numbers!)
The Compressor will present monthly financials to the shareholders and there would be full transparency.
As and when we can identify a buyer who will ensure the on going legacy….we’ll sell it!
What can be easier than that?
If you have £30,000 and 998 friends….drop me a line on compressor123@hotmail.com
Apparently it’s not for sale: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/8527095.stm
well thankyou BBC after running the story it WAS for sale last Tuesday. However EMI as a whole still is, to the best of my knowledge. As for a ‘revitalisation’ plan, let’s hope it’s not along the lines of the 1980 one where they ripped the guts out of it…..