New BBC Radio 4 series starts Monday 23rd – Friday 27th November 2015 each day at 1.45 pm (except Wednesday 25th at 3.45pm) This programme will be available shortly after broadcast. Cerys Matthews and Tristram Penna use their music industry careers to examine the legacy and stories behind some of the first Gramophone records recorded in Britain from… 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 »
The EMI Archive Trust was delighted to sit down with the wonderful Malcolm Addey. He was hired in March 1958 as a trainee/assistant engineer and after an unprecedented short three months was promoted and invited to join the renowned “pop” recording team of Peter Bown and Stuart Eltham. By July he had already recorded Cliff… Read more »
The EMI Archive Trust would like to wish you a very Merry Christmas. This tree’s revolving musical base is from Germany. Items like this were very popular around the beginning of the 20th century. This one is powered by a single spring, which rotates the Christmas tree and powers the two tune musical mechanism. We… Read more »
EMI has a long history of supporting artists and music in India. The Gramophone and Typewriter, Ltd. engaged agents in India as early as 1900 and soon established their Indian offices by 1901. In 1906 the site for a record pressing factory had been chosen in Sealdah, Calcutta. By 1946 The Gramophone Company of India… Read more »
On July 28, 1914, one month after the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife by a Serbian Nationalist, the Austro-Hungarian Empire declares war on Serbia, thus initiating the First World War. By August 4th 1914 Britain declares war on Germany, Austria’s ally. Published at the start of the First World War this popular… Read more »
We sat down with Nigel Bewley (Operations Manager and head sound engineer at the British Library Sound Archive) for our Memories of EMI Campaign. In this short video he shares this memory about his time making field recordings at one of the EMI factories in the early 90s. Nigel Bewley is a specialist sound engineer who worked… 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 EMI Archive Trust would like to thank Tris Penna for contributing this great memory about his time at EMI to our collection. Tris worked for EMI for 10 years (1987 – 1997) as a product manager, artist development manager and as A +R director. In this video he shares a short memory of his… Read more »