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Tuning up for another, recording session on Folkestone's own label. In
the control room, left, are partners Chris (with the beard) and Ian, with their
assistant, Ann.
On the
studio floor, above, are Fame and Fortune - Better known as Tony & Annette
Adams, of Chart Road, Folkestone - running through their song. Pet Parade.
No, its not Abbey Road or the famous Strawberry Studios, but simply the basement of Number 29 Harvey Street, Folkestone. To the casual observer, number 29 looks much the same as any other house.
Yet behind the quiet facade of the neat little building, the pounding of rock, country or folk music can often be heard as local groups and singers battle for chart success or, simply, recognition. For the house is the home of 26 year-old Chris Ashman, a local telephone engineer, who runs a recording studio in his spare time. The studio, called Kripps and using the CMI record label, has been built up with the help of his friend and partner, Ian Cooper, a 27-year-old bus driver from Bradstone Avenue.Studio experience has been given to dozens of other local acts. On the evening I attended, the studio was booked by a local cabaret duo called Fame and Fortune. They had a song called Pet Parade they thought could make a likely single, and together with a musician friend on mandolin were doing some preliminary takes.
Ian explains how he got together with Chris and the studio got of the ground: "We actually met each other through a mutual friend, John Budd, who used to be the engineer on Radio 390. I suppose that must have been around ChrIstmas, 1973, or January, 1974. We put the studio together to help local bands and musicians and we do recordings for them at cost," said Chris. "We do this as much as anything to stop them getting ripped-off by the big studios in london."
Chris has himself been a victim of the studio sharks, so he knows what he is talking about. "I was in a group and we went to this studio in London and did a session for an agency.
"It was really a big rip-off. We found that nearly every other group in the area had been pulled on the same thing. We want to try and prevent it happening;" Prices they charge, are purely nominal, he says, and mainly cover the cost of the tapes and electricity consumed. The actual cost compares admirably with the London prices.
"We charge £20 or thereabouts for a full evening," explains Chris. "In london, studio time will cost you anything from £14 to £55 an hour. When you compare our rates with that they work out at less than £4 an hour, plus the cost of tapes."
As with any recording studio a lot of crazy things go on. Herald photographer Vic Nelson moved in for a photograph. In the tiny control room. A figure who identifies himself as Ellis suddenly jumped up and in a frantic effort to keep out of the picture offered to disguise himself as a bat and hang from the ceiling.
'Chris, seated at the engineering panel, ignores it all. "Okay, okay," he said, "I think we'll. try the mandolin just one more time."
How do you judge a sound? Eapecially For You by Young Country does not have the sophisticated tricks of a Roxy Music.
But the sound is mellow. There are no buazes, hisses, whines or other dreaded nightmares
Young Country were a good choice. They have put together a pleasant collection of standards and not tried to over-reach themselves or the studio.
It makes you wonder why famous groups spend thousands of pounds searching the world for the elusive Eldorado of the "perfect" sound system.
If you are looking for good country and western music you could do worse than buy this rocord. It is available from most local record shops or from 'CMI ' Records, at 29 Harvey, Street, Folkestone,
F.D.S.
GIG
GUIDE HOME PAGE Tel.01303 893472
email chris@kentgigs.com RED
ADMIRAL RECORDS LLP Registered Office: The Cedars, Elvington Lane, Hawkinge, Folkestone,
Kent. CT18 7AD |