The Cupboard Under the Stairs #GearThatMadeUs

The Cupboard Under the Stairs #GearThatMadeUs

2nd December 2021

We’re looking back at some key pieces of equipment that helped establish and define Abbey Road Studios. This week it’s not a single piece, rather a cupboard full.

Containing all sorts of interesting percussion instruments and quirky noise makers for use on comedy records, the cupboard under the stairs in Studio Two was previously known as the “Trap Room”. It housed thunder sheets, wind machines, old bells from ships, rolls of paper to tear, and a gravel tray to simulate footsteps.
 
Peter Sellers
Peter Sellers in Studio Two
 
Comedy records at Abbey Road go all the way back to 1931 when Bud Flanagan and Chesney Allen recorded ‘Underneath the Arches’. George Formby then recorded ‘When I’m Cleaning Windows’ here in 1936.

As soon as George Martin became head of A&R for Parlophone Records in 1955 (even before, as assistant to Oscar Preuss), he lead the charge on almost every comedy recording at Abbey Road, championing the format and remodelling Parlophone into a legitimate and profitable label.

The 1950s and ‘60s saw British icons such as Max Bygraves, Peter Sellers, Spike Milligan, Dudley Moore, Flanders and Swann, Leslie Phillips and Morecambe and Wise all grace Studio Two with their antics.
 
Left: Beyond The Fringe - Peter Cook, Alan Bennett, Dudley Moore and Jonathan Miller. Image by EMI staff photographer, Ken Palmer
Right: Morecambe and Wise in Studio Two. Image by EMI Staff Photographer, John Dove
 

#AbbeyRoad90 #GearThatMadeUs

Check out the Fender Rhodes and the EMI Studio Mixer.

 
 

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