The Manor Studio

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The Manor Studio (aka The Manor) was a recording studio in the manor house at the village of Shipton-on-Cherwell in Oxfordshire, England, north of the city of Oxford. It was the first residential recording studio in the UK.

The manor house was owned by Richard Branson and used as a recording studio for Virgin Records, although artists signed to other labels also used the studios. The facilities were advertised as follows, as of 1973^[1]:

16/8/4 track studio 60 minutes from London 100 acre grounds Resident engineers Resident cooks Room for producers, wives, girl friends, roadies Day and Night recording Free food and beds Good rates etc

16 Track Ampex 20 Channel desk Equalization Dolby noise reduction Quadrophonic monitoring Phasing facilities Echo facilities: tapes/plates/springs/drums Grand piano Room for 40 musicians etc

In 1995, after the takeover of Virgin Records by EMI, The Manor Studio was closed as a recording studio by EMI.

Albums recorded here include, perhaps most famously, Tubular Bells by Mike Oldfield during 1972–73 when Oldfield was given a week to record the album at the studio. The Bonzo Dog Band were recording there immediately afterwards, hence the inclusion of vocals by Viv Stanshall, the lead singer of that band^[2].

[edit] Partial list of albums recorded at The Manor

• Tubular Bells (1972–1973) — Mike Oldfield
• Double Diamond (1973) — If
• Leg End (May 1973) — Henry Cow
• Faust IV (June 1973) — Faust
• October (1973) — Claire Hamill
• Unrest (February – March 1974) — Henry Cow
• Slapp Happy (1974) — Slapp Happy
• Frenzy (album) (November – December 1978) — Split Enz
• All Fall Down ( March 1982) — The Sound
• Born Again (1983) — Black Sabbath

[edit] References

1. ^ Notes in 25th Anniversary Edition of Tubular Bells, 1998
2. ^ Tubular Bells information