LONDON: April 15, 2026 — The Music Is Black: A British Story is the landmark inaugural exhibition at the new V&A East Museum in Stratford, scheduled to open on Saturday, April 18, 2026. Curated by Jacqueline Springer, this multi-sensory exhibition traces 125 years of Black British music, exploring its evolution from early 20th-century origins and… Read more »
The time the world’s first record producer nearly burned down the Vatican and ended up changing music history. It was quite the trip ‘FEE EXORBITANT FORBID YOU TO RECORD’ screamed the telegram from head office. No nuance, no shades of grey there. This was as unequivocal as it got. The recipient, Fred Gaisberg, had always… Read more »
Here at the EMI Archive Trust we love returning the spotlight to enormously consequential people in the history of EMI and the music industry who are not so well known any more but absolutely deserve to be so. This time, the very wonderful and amazing Mr Trevor Williams. As will become clear, it really is… Read more »
Malvern October 2024: Talk by Paul Alger – Vice President of Asset and Archive Management for Universal Music, for the City of London Phonograph & Gramophone Society (CLPGS) Annual AGM. This article was first featured in ‘For the Record’ No. 92 Winter Edition 2024, the journal of the CLPGS The article is shared with kind… Read more »
By David Brough – Chair Hayes Town Partnership At 3pm on Sunday 7 July 2024, local residents gathered at Cherry Lane Cemetery, Hayes, to mark the 80th anniversary of the exact moment a German V-1 flying bomb fell on what was then known as the Gramophone Company factory in Blyth Road, killing 37 people It… Read more »
7th July 2024, commemorates the 80th anniversary of those who died in the V-1 flying bomb attack on the EMI factory in Blyth Road, Hayes, Middlesex. As a result, a concrete shelter roof collapsed, killing thirty-seven employees, and injuring a further fifty-six. We honour the men and women based at the EMI Factory and Hayes,… Read more »
By Ally Pally, A historic piece of television heritage – a section of a prototype transmitter tower – has been transferred to the Palace from the former EMI research laboratories and manufacturing complex at Hayes, Middlesex, via the EMI Archive Trust. Built in 1935 to help deliver ground-breaking Marconi-EMI television tests, the tower formed the blueprint… Read more »
Bukhara, one of the holy cities of Islam, is now in modern Uzbekistan. Until the coming of Soviet power in the early 20th century Bukhara was the capital of a multicultural emirate stretching across much of Central Asia. Bukhara had its own court music, called Shashmaqam, many centuries old, in which instrumental music and classical… Read more »
On the 13th May 1907 opera singer (later Dame) Nellie Melba ceremonially placed the cornerstone for the Gramophone Company and Typewriter Ltd, New Cabinet Factory at Hayes, Middlesex. It is rumoured during this ceremony a time capsule of recorded music was deposited with the cornerstone. Whether or not this is true is difficult to say.… Read more »
It is with great sadness that we learned last week of the passing of Simon Blumlein after a brief illness. He was 87. Simon was an incredible friend to and supporter of the EMI Archive Trust. If the name ‘Blumlein’ is familiar to followers of the Trust it is because Simon was the eldest son… Read more »