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TW Studios
211 Fulham Palace Road Fulham, London SW6.
TW Studios history started off as a small basement demo studio under a music shop on the corner of Fulham Palace Road and Lillie Road. It was set up in 1972 by the two musician/shop owners Chris Tompkinson and Gary Wilson in on the suggestion of future engineer/producer Alan Winstanley who used to visit the shop as a schoolboy to look at the guitars.
It took it's name from the surnames of the two owners
It started with two Revox tape machine before becoming 4 track with a TEAC and and Allan and heath desk.
TW STUDIOS are tucked away behind a drab shop front off London's Fulham Palace Road. To gain entry you have to go round the side, through a used car lot and down three crumbling steps. The building looks so ramshackle it's difficult to tell whether it's in a state of terminal collapse or whether it's being shored up at the eleventh hour". Chas de Whalley, Sounds, 17 September 1977
"We used to run a weekly ad in Melody Maker, offering the studio at £3.50 an hour, and it became so successful that they made enough money to buy the building next door and open a second studio -- this time an 8-track.”
By 1973 it was an 8 track with a Trident B series and Levers Rich Tape Machine.
In 1st March1975 The Jam came into the studio to record 4 tracks and this would set a trend for the future direction of the studio leading to the most prolific period in its history.
January–February 1977 Rattus Norvegicus
By the second half of the 70s, TW was the right studio in the right place at the right time for the punk and New Wave movement.
Small enough to keep costs down but with equipment and personal able to deliver top quality productions for release, they soon went 16 track then 24 track and turning out hit singles and albums.
The Stranglers laid down their first three albums there – all top-sellers
‘We had a Trident B 28-channel 16-track with 3M M79 tape machine and a rack-mounted Studer. We had compressors, noise gates and EQ: there was a Urie 1176 Limiter, an Audio & Design Compressor and an Eventide H910 Harmoniser
but we had this AKG BX20E spring reverb, like an echo machine, which was a 5’ high wooden box. I used this on Knock On Wood. I just leaned over onto it and got those thunder sounds. But I think by the time we did No More Heroes in July 77 – or at least by January 78 for Black And White – the owners decided to update to the MCI 400 Series which was a 24-track desk.
The pop scene was also changing; the standard guitar bands being replaced with new synth outfits. A different type of studio was required, and work began to dry up
Alan Winstanley's career as both an engineer and producer became very successful and he eventually left TW Studios to become freelance.
By the end of 79, he and Martin Rushant had gone into partnership to set up Genetic Studios in Berkshire.
transferring their production projects to their new studio.
They had both been an integral part of the success of TW, both in attracting signed and successful bands, and bringing in new talent.
The owners moved the studio to Putney with the intention of building a more modern environment, away from the punk punk basement ethos and hopefully to appeal to the New Romantic genre of the changing popscape. Unfortunately, the new set-up didn’t last long.
The old basement studio became a dingy night club but this was a step too far for the neighbours and after numerous complaints the license was revoked, the basement is now left abandoned, behind a locked steel gate.
Recorded at TG Studios
ANDRÉ VERDET ET LA GROUPE BELTÉGEUSE "PICASSO BLUE-POÈMES"
ANNETTE PEACOCK “THE PERFECT RELEASE"
AR AND CLONES "BACK AND IN AGAIN"
BANCO "BANCO"
BARBARA DICKSON "ANSWER ME"
BARBARA DICKSON "HERE WE GO"
BIDDU ORCHESTRA "EASTERN MAN"
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