Chris Bond: Let's give thanks as iconic studios are saved for posterity

IN an age where just about everything can be bought for a price, we should perhaps stop and give thanks to the Government and English Heritage.

Those who walk the corridors of power usually attract more venom than praise, but Culture Minister Margaret Hodge's decision this week to make the historic Abbey Road studios a listed building should

be applauded.

The future of the venerable music studios, where everyone from Elgar to The Beatles have recorded, had been thrown into doubt recently amid reports that they could be sold off. The speculation led to an outpouring of public concern with the likes of Sir Paul McCartney and musical supremo Andrew Lloyd Webber voicing their interest in either saving, or buying the studios.

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EMI, which owns the site, was moved to quell rumours of a sale and now the Government, on the advice of English Heritage, have given the building grade II listed status. The reason for listing the property, whose official address is 3 Abbey Road, was due to its outstanding cultural significance, rather than its architectural merit.

Announcing the decision, which safeguards the venue, the Culture Minister said: "Music – of whichever genre – is the thread that follows us through all our lives and Abbey Road Studios have produced some of the very best music in the world."

It's not often that I find myself agreeing wholeheartedly with any politician, let alone a minister, but in this instance I do. Because Abbey Road has a unique place in British music history.

EMI originally bought the building in 1929 transforming it into the studios that are now famous throughout the world.

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In November 1931, Sir Edward Elgar conducted his famed recording of Land Of Hope and Glory with the London Symphony Orchestra in studio one, and during the Second World War it was used for Government propaganda recordings.

Since then, the diverse list of stars to have recorded there includes Peter Sellers, Blur and Radiohead, while some of the most influential albums of all time, such as Pink Floyd's Dark Side Of The Moon were recorded in its cavernous rooms.

Most famously of all, though, Abbey Road was home for almost all of The Beatles' recordings, including their final album which was named after the studio and featured a sleeve of the band crossing the street outside.

This in itself has become an iconic image and many moons ago, while still a student, I paid a visit to this leafy west London suburb. I, like so many others before and since, walked sheepishly across the world's most famous zebra crossing and read the unrequited,

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esoteric messages scrawled on the grafitti-covered walls outside.

Some might say it's just a building, at the end of the day. But that would be denying the alchemy created by the musicians inside, the spirit of which we can hear every time we turn on the radio. And that, surely, is priceless.