The first home of Olympic Sound Studios was in central London in the late 1950s, owned by Angus

McKenzie, who had purchased Larry Lyons' Olympia Studio in Fulham. McKenzie then took a lease
on a derelict synagogue building at Carton Street, off Baker Street in London's West End. [9]
In conjunction with Richard Swettenham, McKenzie opened Olympic's Studio One with
a tube recording console from Olympia Studio.[10] The Studio first came to prominence in 1958; its
senior sound engineer was John Timperley, who was responsible for a large number of recordings
which made the top ten in the Melody Maker ratings. In 1962 Terry Allen joined the company as an
electronic engineer, assisting Dick Swettenham with his new transistorised sound desk. John
Timperley's assistant was Roger Savage, who quickly gained a reputation as a particularly good
sound balancer. Terry Allen soon became studio manager and was instructed by Angus McKenzie to
dismiss Timperley late in 1962. Keith Grant had worked at Olympic on a casual basis for some time,
and was offered the position of senior sound engineer late in 1962. Dick Swettenham designed the
first professional transistorised desk in the world, which was installed into Studio One during 1960,
along with the first Four track tape recorder in England.[10]
Apart from Roger Savage, several other young staff gained their start at Olympic. Gus
Dudgeon began as a tape operator and when he left Olympic became associated with Elton John,
as his producer. Another successful employee was Michael Ross-Trevor, who eventually joined CBS
Records, at the start of a long career in classical music recording.
Studio One was used by many influential British groups including The Yardbirds, The Jimi Hendrix
Experience, Alexis Korner and Graham Bond.[11] The Rolling Stones[12] recorded their first single
"Come On" at Olympic; a number of Dusty Springfield hits and The Troggs' successful single "Wild
Thing" were also the result of recording sessions at Olympic during the forty-year history of the
studio. Olympic was a popular studio with Decca, EMI, Pye and Philips recording A&R staff, as well
as hosting London Weekend Television's music recordings.[13]
After being notified in 1964 that the lease on the Carlton Street premises would not be renewed, in
1965 McKenzie sold his share of the business to Cliff Adams and John Shakespeare. They then
moved it to new premises in Barnes, with the guidance of Grant, when the lease ran out in 1966.
Keith Grant oversaw the development of the new studios, bringing in his father Robertson Grant, an
architect, to assist.[14]
Engineer Eddie Kramer recalled: "Olympic Studios in 1967 was at the cutting edge. We were very
innovative and of course we had, I think, the best console in England and possibly the world at the
time".[15] "We were ahead in terms of design."[16] The Rolling Stones were among the first clients of the
new Olympic Studios in Barnes, consecutively recording six of their albums there between 1966 and

1972.[4] The Beatles worked at the studio to record the original tracks of "All You Need Is Love",
[15]

having been happy with their time there recording "Baby, You're a Rich Man". Jimi

Hendrix recorded for his Are You Experienced album at Olympic, and of his Axis: Bold as
Love and Electric Ladyland albums, all of the former and a substantial part of the latter were
recorded at the studio. The Who recorded their albums Who's Next and Who Are You. It was used
extensively by Led Zeppelin, who recorded tracks there for all of their studio albums up to and
including Physical Graffiti in 1975. In the same year Queen used the studio for their album A Night at
the Opera while David Bowie also used the studio. The studio also saw the production of great
numbers of other landmark albums and singles, including by The Small
Faces, Traffic, Hawkwind, The Moody Blues, Deep Purple, and Procol Harum's "A Whiter Shade of
Pale".[13]
In 1969 Grant again commissioned his father, this time to re-design Studio Two, as the now working
and unexpectedly popular studio was causing problems with sound transmission to Studio One.
Studio One, for example, might be recording classical music by Elgar while Studio Two would be
hosting sessions with the Rolling Stones. Robertson Grant successfully innovated a completely
floating space, weighing seventeen tons, which was supported by rubber pads. The dcor and
furnishing of the new Studio Two was designed by Mick Jagger.[14]
Later on, Grant added probably the first instant acoustic change, using rough sawn wooden slats
which could cover or reveal sound-absorbing panels behind them and thus change the acoustics.
This made the room suitable for the recording of both rock and orchestral music at the pull of a cord.
[10]

By the turn of the 1970s, many orchestral works and film scores and the original album version of
the rock musical Jesus Christ Superstar were being recorded at Olympic. The studio produced film
music for, among others, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1968), The Italian Job (1969), the movie
version of Jesus Christ Superstar (1973), The Rocky Horror Picture Show, recorded in Studio Two in
1975, and Life of Brian in 1979.
Olympic's sound mixing desks were a creation of the maintenance staff and built specially for the
studios. They became famous as Olympic desks[17] and were developed by Dick Swettenham, Keith
Grant and later Jim McBride in conjunction with Jim Dowler. Swettenham later started to
manufacture the consoles commercially as Helios desks. The first desk of this type was
commissioned by Grant as Helios One for Studio Two. Olympic desks and their Helios offspring are
highly regarded for their sonic qualities today.[18]
In 1987, Virgin Music bought the studios. After consulting with Sam Toyoshima, a Japanese studio
builder who declared the studio "unfit to record music in", the property was refitted to a different

practical and acoustic specification.[12] Barbara Jefferies, then Studio manager for Virgin Music at
Olympic Studios,[19] instructed that the master tapes of the studio's vast library of recording sessions
be discarded.[20] The disposal of these tapes was unsecured as they were put into skips outside the
building and left for days, and some ended up as highly sought-after bootlegs.[21] The studio
continued to attract many leading artists during the period of the 1990s and 2000s,
including Madonna and Bjork.
For many years, copyright problems with the use of the word "Olympic" prevented the history of the
studio from being more widely promoted, which became an important factor behind the greater
public recognition of its arch-rival Abbey Road Studios, which was promoted by EMI, over Olympic.[22]
In December 2008, the Virgin EMI group announced that the longstanding studio facilities would be
closed,[23][24] and in February 2009 the studios were confirmed closed.[18] In the absence of any studio
buyer, in the era of computer-based recording, it was at first thought Olympic would lose its musical
and cinematic connection and be redeveloped as flats and shops.[25] However, in 2013 a new smaller
studio facility opened at Olympic, designed with the help of original members of the studio, and
envisaged to continue operating alongside its original role as cinema, which has also recommenced
in line with its history and with the help of studio staff, using the latest audio cinema techniques. [5]