Highbury Studio

About

Birmingham's oldest and most established studio, running since 1980, managed by John Mostyn.
www.highburystudio.com

Story

A boutique recording and rehearsal studio with a fascinating history, hidden in the back streets of Kings Heath, Birmingham.

A studio made for musicians who love to play.

When you step into Highbury Studio, you know that time has stood still since 1980 when this old cricket bat factory became the studio of choice for some of Birmingham’s finest.

Highbury is an analogue recording studio, the only single rehearsal room in Birmingham. With only one room there’s no sound leakage from next door. We are all yours with nothing and no one to distract you.

It has stood the test of time as a rehearsal and recording resource for the local music community and opens its time-slip doors to artists from further afield who like the warm sound.

ABOUT HIGHBURY STUDIO:

The 36 square metre live room is really enjoyed by musicians and singers alike. We have a pa, a selection of back line to use plus a tuned piano and assorted keyboards.

Bob Lamb’s drum kit is popular and as he spent 30 years getting it to sound right here, we mess with it as little as possible.

We can however move the whole lot out if you have a rehearsal emergency with your samba band.

The control room has:

* a Teac Tascam Series 15 24-8 Analogue Desk
* a Tascam ATR-60 1″ 16-track Analogue Multitrack Recorder
* Digital Mastering to Acoustica 4.1
* JBL Radiance Series 77 VX Monitors
* Seating for up to eight persons comfortably.

If you need a good live room but analogue tape doesn’t suit your project we can rig up Pro Tools at the drop of a hat.

Rob Peters – Studio Engineer and Producer

Rob has been recording music since the age of eight, starting in mono.

His early studio work was in home-made studios around Moseley,where he recorded UB40 amongst others and was in the heart of the Moseley music scene through the ’70′s and ’80′s where his love of recording onto tape emerged, by now in stereo.

In the late ’80′s and early ’90′s he worked as both engineer and producer in studios as varied as The Church in London – where he worked on The Eurythmics live album, Loco in Wales with Boo Hewerdine and Dep International in Birmingham, whilst developing his own Wafer Thin Studio.

As a musician, he has worked in studios such as Abbey Road with Everything But The Girl, The Old Smithy with Dangerous Girls and Livingstone in London with Ruby Blue.

He now spends his time engineering at Highbury and like John occasionally tour manages just for a change. When not doing any of the above he can be heard playing cajon with The Kings of Spain or more loudly drumming with bid!


STUDIO HISTORY:

Following a great few years as drummer in The Steve Gibbons band In 1979 Bob Lamb recorded probably the most successful album ever produced in Birmingham, Signing Off by UB40. He was in his basement flat in Cambridge Rd Moseley at the time.

As word of his production prowess spread many musicians flocked to his door and the flat couldn’t cope.

In 1981 Bob saw the old cricket bat factory in Highbury Rd for sale and developed it into a state of the art studio with his own flat above.

Duran Duran, Stephen Duffy and many other artists used it to rehearse and record. Later, Ocean Colour Scene prepared their breakthrough Moseley Shoals album here.

Bob wound down his activities recently, the last album recorded here being Ruby Turner’s wonderful ‘I’m Travelling On’.

At a chance meeting in Moseley in the summer of 2010, Bob and John Mostyn realised that John’s desire to run a studio for a while chimed serendipitously with Bob’s dream to do some world wide traveling. A plan was hatched, a deal was struck and John took over the studio in November 2010. Bob is by the 3rd palm tree to the left somewhere.