The EMI memorial, Cherry Lane Cemetery, which is both a grave marker and commemorative stone for 37 workers from The Gramophone Company, Blyth Road, Hayes killed when a V1 flying-bomb hit a factory surface air-raid shelter on 7 July 1944. Restored by EMI Archive Trust in 1994 by and again in 2009.
EMI are inviting former employees at the Old Vinyl Factory in Hayes, to come back and share their memories of the iconic site. The factory was a major employer for the town and produced records by some of the world’s best-known artists, including The Beatles, The Rolling Stones and Cliff Richard. The reunion will take… Read more »
Clip from the first ever piece of film footage shot in stereo, ‘Trains At Hayes’, produced by prolific engineer and innovator Alan Dower Blumlein, the inventor of stereo. This film was shot from a window in the EMI offices in Hayes, West London in 1935 onto the local train station to test this new technology… Read more »
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… Read more »
Tony Locantro worked for EMI for 54 years and during that time he worked with the EMI Archive Trust to curate Scott’s Music Box. This double CD compilation album showcases the music taken by Captain Scott on his fateful expedition to the South Pole. Tony was instrumental in choosing the correct pieces of music and artwork… Read more »
The Trust would like to thank Ricky Ford for sending in his memory of EMI. Ricky was an EMI recording artist as 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 »
We have been overwhelmed by all of the incredible stories and images sent in via our ‘Memories of EMI Campaign.’ We are now looking for your stories and memories of EMI, the Company, the music, the factories, the artists as well as the studios. We are hoping to capture your memories on film to share and keep for… 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 »
When Captain Robert Falcon Scott embarked upon the Terra Nova expedition to Antarctica and the south Pole in 1910 The Gramophone Company (the original name for EMI) lent the expedition two HMV gramophones and several hundred 78 rpm shellac discs, specifically chosen to boost the team’s morale, many of which are referred to in diaries… Read more »