Tittenhurst Park
Ascot Sound Studios Startling Studios
In 1969, John and Yoko were looking for a new place to live.They considered properties across southern England, among them a house in Churt, Surrey, once owned by the Great War statesman David Lloyd George, and a disused church in Hertfordshire. Their final choice was Tittenhurst Park, a white Georgian mansion near Ascot in Berkshire. Formerly the home of industrialist Peter Cadbury, it was listed at £145,000 and came with a seventy-two-acre estate featuring impressive gardens, a terrace of former servants’ cottages, and a mock-Tudor villa as large as the house in which John had grown up.
Situated a couple of miles from Ascot in Berkshire, Tittenhurst Park consists of a Georgian mansion set in 72 acres of parkland. The gardens themselves date back to 1763 and had been open to the public for many years until the late 60s. The park contained the largest private tree collection in England at the time, including many rare examples. The original building in the park was destroyed by fire in the early part of the 19th century and the present building erected in 1820.
They set about renovating the interior of the house and parts of the gardens to their own style.
Throughout 1970 two of the smaller rooms at the back of the house were converted into a recording studio by studio designer Eddie Veale and given the title of Ascot Sound Studios,
'John had just purchased a new home and asked me if I would like to build a studio within it, to save him from the commute into London. The equipment and the studio embodied various ideas John took from Abbey Road and Apple studios.
It was always intended to be a full -blown studio, not just somewhere to record demos.’ Eddie Veale
John and Yoko recorded their next series of albums here including the 'Imagine' album
The original layout of the house consisted of a number of small rooms so walls were taken out and much of the ground floor was converted to a single large room and decorated in white. This is the room featured in the 'Imagine' video.
The upper floors were converted into a private retreat for the two of them, complete with a separate kitchen, an expansive master bedroom, his-and-hers walk-in wardrobes, and a circular bath.
The desk was a custom build 20:8 put together by Dave Dearden (who went on to form 'Audient') using Cadac modules.
The tape machine was a 3M-56 1" 8 track. Mastering was on to a Studer B62 stereo with 706 varispeed unit,
Outboard included Compressor/limiters by DBX and Urei and wo EMT 140S stereo plates. As well as the EMT plates, a semi-derelict folly in the garden called the 'Dutch House' was set up for live echo. This became popular for drum sounds and also housed a church organ at some point.
Microphones included: Neumann U87s, U47 fets, and KM84is and AKGs
The first works to be recorded in the new studios were the twin Plastic Ono Band albums released simultaneously in December 1970.
The following year was spent recording Lennon's 'Imagine - with Phil Spector as co-producer - and Yoko Ono's album 'Fly', the two projects running in tandem. The film 'Gimme Some Truth' documents the recording of this album, and it features several scenes in the studio.
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'John and | thought we would make Ascot our home and live there for many, many years to come. Otherwise, why did we plonk a huge lake in the garden and plant feeble-looking plumand cherry saplings around the lake, which promised to become trees in twenty years’ time?' Yoko.
In August 1971, after making a number of trips to America throughout 1970/71 the couple finally decided to stay long-term in New York largely to escape the mayhem of the Beatles era and for John to focus on his family and private life.
Startling Studios
The house lay empty for a period of time and was then sold to his former band mate Ringo Starr, in September 1973.
Ringo moved into Tittenhurst in 1974 with plans to turn the studio into a 16 track for use by him and his musician friends. The original gear had been left by John and was stored until Eddie Veale had rebuilt the studio. At that time John’s desk was converted to a 16 track and a Studer 16 track machine added. The old 3M 8-track was also still there.
Ringo introduced some Interesting features to the grounds during his initial time there, including adding a seventy foot tall tyrannosaurus rex built out of fibre glass in the front garden together with a plastic rhino - a gift from Keith Moon.
Mike O'Donnell, who had previously been at Apple Studios was brought in as studio manager and engineer.
Mike O'Donnell:
'Barbara, my wife worked for the Beatles from 1964 and when they split she went to work for Ringo. When he acquired Tittenhurst Barb and I moved there and lived in one of the cottages. I was already at Apple Studios from 1971 and when Ringo decided to remodel the studio at Tittenhurst he asked me to manage it'.
'Pretty much all the gear was left behind including John’s desk, screens, mics the lot ... '
Mike O'Donnell and George Peckham
'I remember they had misspelt the word echo as “ehco” it would have cost so much to buy all new strips they decided to leave it (the desk) as it was. Although we used it for a few years it was a bit dated, no automation etc. and when Ringo moved abroad it was decided to turn Startling into a “state of the art” residential studio so it had to go'.
'Ringo bought Tittenhurst in 1973, and it was used more or less as his private studio up until 1975 when he moved out of the country for a while. It was then run as a residential studio until he came back in 1980.'
'Sadly that was the end of it as a business, he moved back into the house with his wife Barbara and it reverted to being a private studio until he sold the house in 1985. I then bought the MCI console and all the gear and set my own studio up within Shepperton Film Studios'. Mike O'Donnell - 2012
By the end of 1975, Ringo had officially moved to Monte Carlo for tax purposes. It was decided that the studio would be upgraded for full commercial use and the house turned into a residential studio.
An MCI desk was bought and the Studer converted for 24 track with the extra 8 track electronics located under the transport deck and Dolbys on the top of the machine.
Mike O'Donnell was then joined by David Tickle who came on board as house engineer. He had previously been working at Zodiac and Indigo Studios.
'Those rooms had beautiful oak panelled walls and banisters, but it had all been painted white. Ringo wanted all the paint taken off, so my first week was spent sanding down all of that'.
Engineer Dave Tickle in the control room of Startling Studios.
Other various rooms in the house were also employed as recording spaces as the house itself was no longer a main residency. Accommodation for the musicians and supporting cast was in the house's seven double and two single rooms. The facilities also offered a heated swimming pool, TV lounge, panelled games room and two berth Sauna.
The studio ran as a successful commercial facility until 1980. After John Lennon's murder, Ringo no longer felt safe in the US and returned home to England to live at Tittenhurst. The studio was duly closed to the public and once again reverted to his own private facility.
In early 1982, Ringo started work on 'Old Wave' at Startling, his ninth solo album being produced by Joe Walsh. To celebrate the end of the sessions, John Entwistle, Eric Clapton, and Ray Cooper joined Ringo and Joe for a jam session at the studios. During that session the mostly instrumental “Everybody’s In A Hurry But Me” was born. These were among the last sessions to be recorded at the studio.
By the mid 80s Ringo was spending very little time at Tittenhurst and the buildings and grounds started to fall into disrepair. The local authority actually took Ringo to court to gain access to the property to check on its condition.
In 1988, the property was sold for £5 million to HRH Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, President of the United Arab Emirates and ruler of Abu Dhabi. The Sheikh had the entire property renovated, and every room in the house including the recording studio was gutted and rebuilt.
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The Lennon desk was sold at auction by Sotheby's of London in December 1983 and was bought by Radio City in Liverpool for their 'Beatle City' museum.
