Apple Studios 3 Saville Row London. It's the late 1960's and The Beatles have been told that in order to avoid paying huge sums in tax they would need to spend some money, so they came up with the idea of creating their very own Abbey Road. Seemed like a good idea at the time, the reality was far different.
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In June 1968 they acquired the premises at 3 Savile Row in London, a five story townhouse that had formally been 'The Albany', a gentleman's club. The basement area was rebuilt as the studio and offices set up in the above floors. 
Maybe as a backlash against the regimented style of Abbey Road, they decide to build something much more 'far out' with the help of a young Greek electronics guy given the name Magic Alex, who John had met at a party. Alex promised miracles in modern recording but when the band turned up for the first recording sessions his efforts were at best a bad joke, at worst a disaster. This can be summed up with his invention of the 'Nothing Box', a box with 12 lights on it which ran for five years and did nothing!
So for the recording of the 'Let it be' album that had to go back to EMI, cap in hand and borrow enough equipment to make an album.
"The desk [console] was made of particle board. It had eight or 16 faders on it, and eight speakers on the wall, little Telefunken speakers, and an oscilloscope in the middle. They found out before doing Let It Be that there was no hole in the wall to pass the cables through from the studio to the control room. They had to run them down the corridor. "
Geoff Emerick was persuaded by Paul McCartney to leave EMI and join Apple to rebuild the studio and become chief engineer. Redesigning and rebuilding the basement took eighteen months.
"I had wanted a Neumann mixing console, which Neumann was actually designing. But with Apple's financial situation at the time, we never ended up with it. We ended up with a 16-track Helios, which became available — a very clean mixing console. "
 | Helios 36/16 Studer & 3M 16- track tape Machines 4 x EMT Plate Reverbs Cadac Monitors/Amps Studio size - 30' x 45' - height 11' . Control Room - 12' x 22' | |||
The Studio reopened again in September 1971. The first session was for the recording of the album 'Brother' by Lon and Derek Van Eaton who were one of the last signings to the Apple label.
 | On 30th January 1969, The Beatles played a live gig on the rooftop of Apple Studios. | ||
Apple Studios eventually got dismantled because Ringo decided that he wanted to put in a film scoring suite above it and use the equipment. This never happened and Ringo had set up his own studios in Tittenhurst Park anyway by 1974. In 1975 Ringo left the country due to tax reasons; John Lennon had already left in 1972. Caught in the legal wrangles of the Beatles split, Apple Studios was closed for good on 16th May 1975 despite having just been refurbished .
Recorded at Apple Studios :
The Beatles - Let it Be - 1969
Radha Krishna Temple - Goddess of Fortune - 1969
Lon and Derek Van Eaton - Brother -1971
Fanny - Fanny Hill - December 1971
Eulenspygel - Ausschuss - 1972
Mark Wirtz - Balloon - May 1972
Linda Lewis - Lark - 1972
Harry Nilsson - Son of Schmilsson - 1972
Paladin - Charge - 1972
Stealers Wheel - Stealers Wheel - 1972
George Harrison - Living In The Material World - 1973
Badfinger - Ass - 1973
Capability Brown - Voice - 1973
Ringo Starr - Ringo - 1973
Roger Daltrey - Daltrey - 1973
Wishbone Ash - Wishbone Four - 1973
Spooky Tooth - You Broke My Heart, So I Busted Your Jaw - 1973
Don Nix - Hobos, Heroes and Street Corner Clowns - 1973
The Sensational Alex Harvey Band - Next - 1973
Badfinger - Head First- December - 1974.
Tim Hardin - Painted Head
Nazareth - Loud ‘n’ Proud (1 track))
John Howard - Kid In A Big World - 1974
Tony Ashton & Jon Lord - First of the Big Bands - 1974
Linda Lewis - Not A Little Girl Anymore - Feb 1975
The Sensational Alex Harvey Band - Tomorrow Belongs To Me - 1975
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