In early 1940, Alan Blumlein and his team at the EMI Central Research Labs began work on the technology behind the Capacitance Altimeter. This device works by measuring the differences in charge between a low-lying aircraft and the charge at Earth’s surface, therefore enabling aircraft and other vehicles to fly at night and in cloudy… Read more »
The Trust would like to thank Ricky Ford for sending in his memory of EMI. Ricky was an EMI recording artist and has shared a little about his time with the label. It was 1961 in Bristol a truly daring and controversial musical called A MAN DIES was produced, it was the first RocknRoll religious musical.… Read more »
In 1924, The Gramophone Company was commissioned by the royal household on behalf of Princess Marie Louise to make a bespoke set of six miniature records and a miniature gramophone for Queen Mary’s Doll’s House. The Doll House was to be filled with an extensive collection of fully functioning miniature pieces carefully selected to showcase the… Read more »
Huge congratulations to all of this year’s Grammy winners! The original article, posted in June 2014, was amended in May 2026. Did you know that the Grammy Award was originally called a Gramophone Award? It is given by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences to recognise significant achievements in the music industry. The… Read more »
In December 1900, William Barry Owen (co-founder of the British Gramophone Company) gained the rights to sell and manufacture the newly developed Lambert Typewriter. The name of the company was then changed to “The Gramophone and Typewriter Ltd.” The Lambert Typewriter was initially taken on as insurance against the possible failure of the Gramophone as… Read more »
Alan Blumlein was a senior sound engineer at EMI’s Central Research Laboratories (CRL) on the Hayes factory site. He joined the company when Columbia and The Gramophone Company merged in 1931. Over his lifetime he was a prolific inventor, developing huge technological advances within the sound engineering field. After a night at the cinema with… Read more »
This silver spade was used to cut the first sod on the site of the Gramophone and Typewriter Company building. World-famous Gramophone Company tenor Edward Lloyd was given the honour of breaking the first sod at the Blyth Road site on February 9th, 1907. This spade is currently preserved at the EMI Archive Trust. David Hughes, former… Read more »
The EMI Archive Trust honours the enormous sacrifices made by those in times of war. Please support The Royal British Legion’s work through the Poppy Appeal.
The Trust would like to thank Margaret Carvalho, who has kindly agreed to contribute a memory to our Memories of EMI Campaign (#memoriesofEMI.) She sent in a picture of herself aged 16 and told us about her trip to see the recordings of a Radio Luxembourg show. “When I was 16, I remember travelling to… Read more »
Rupert Perry’s Story of Manchester Square, 1987. Recorded at the EMI Archive, 2nd October 2013. The Trust would like to thank Rupert Perry, who has kindly agreed to be the first person to contribute a memory to our Memories of EMI Campaign. RP: It was a momentous day, it was a momentous week because we… Read more »