This Studio began as a concept back in 1968 when the Rolling Stones decided they wanted to change the environment in which they were making their records. Up to this time they had worked in a 9 to 5 studio situation and as Mick Jagger had just bought a massive country house called Stargroves it was decided to try to use it for recording. All the necessary equipment had to be brought to the house and so the idea of putting the Control Room into a lorry came about and Ian Stewart, known to many as the Sixth Rolling Stone, was always a prime mover for this idea. Under his guidance various top engineers and producers, including Glyn Johns, were consulted and the project was realised by Dick Swettenham, whose company Helios Electronics was making mixing consoles for the most exclusive studios at that time, and so in 1970 the Rolling Stones Mobile began to roll. Conceived originally to work only for its makers the Mobile and Stargroves soon found popularity with other bands such as the The Who, The Faces and Led Zeppelin so the concept turned into a long term business.

Originally the maximum number of microphones that could be handled at one time was 20 and the recording format was 8 track.

As the Mobile began to do "Live" recording it was soon found that 8 track was insufficient and an upgrade to 16 track took place.

A great deal of fine output has come from the Mobile including much of the Stones' album "Sticky Fingers" and all of "Exile On Main Street" which was tracked in the South of France, and the recording for T.V. of the legendary Rolling Stones Hyde Park concert. Locations varied enormously from halls to barns to castles with many being in Europe and include the Casino at Montreux, Switzerland. This is worthy of mention because during the making of the first of three albums for the rock band Deep Purple the Mobile nearly caught fire as it stood next to the Casino which was razed as a result of an accident by someone unconnected with the recording project. The Mobile was quickly moved, despite the muddy ground, and the sessions restarted elsewhere and produced a song about the fire called "Smoke On The Water" which features the Mobile.

A major venture undertaken in 1979 was to visit the USSR to record a performance of the Katchaturian ballet "Gayaneh" by the Latvian company Ballet Riga with a 72 piece orchestra for big screen presentation. Another interesting project involved driving to Greece and capturing a concert at the Acropolis by Nana Mouskouri on her first visit to her homeland since being exiled twenty one years previously.

In later years the pattern of work shifted more towards broadcast oriented products for major U.K. clients such as LWT, B.B.C., Capital Radio, Tyne Tees and others, both from the U.S.A. and Europe, but with most of the 'sound for vision' projects being generated by independent production companies. This prompted the inclusion, in 1982, of a synchronising computer, enabling audio and video tapes to be run in perfect time , and this put the Mobile in the position of being able to record a show and then provide finished audio ready for transmission. This feature enabled the Mobile to provide the entire sound for about several T.V. series incorporating such artists as Miles Davis, Willie Nelson, Paul Young and the Chieftains. Some very large and prestigious live projects were undertaken by the such as "The Event", being Sir Cliff Richards' 25th anniversary concert, Dire Straits, Diana Ross, and the inaugural show for the Olympics to be held in Barcelona in 1992, all of which exercised the technical capabilities of the unit to the extreme. The only way that area of work could realistically be continued would have involved changing the console which was out of the question because the old Helios sounded so good.

The Studio and Equipment

The Studio was housed in a custom built body on a rigid chassis, the overall size of this lorry being 9.75 x 3.96 x 2.44m (32’x 13’x 8’), and finished in blue. It was air-conditioned, with windows and was as spacious as possible with a balanced acoustic environment.

The power requirement is single phase at about 24 amps and could be picked up from almost any source including wall sockets.

Listed below is the equipment normally carried on the Unit:

2 3M M79 24 track machines

1 3M M79 2/4 track machine

2 Revox A77

2 3 head cassette machines

1 Fostex D20 Timecode DAT Machine

1 JVC 8500 U Matic machine

Q-Lock 310 synchroniser with Timelink

32 - 24 Helios mixing board

20 input additional mixer

72 mic. lines over 100 metres

50 active microphone splits

Full Dolby "A Type" System (50 Tracks)

Andy Munro M2 Monitoring System,  Yamaha NS10s and Auratones

Sony colour CCTV system

Approx. 100 mics., including Shure, AKG, Neumann, Beyer,

Sennheiser, Countryman, Sony and Nady radio mics.

Approx. 20 MSL DI boxes. C-Tape & Magnasound pick-ups.

Limiters & Compressors: 2 x Urie 1176LN.

4 x Audio & Design F 700.

2 x Brook Siren DPR402

Delay & Reverberation: Lexicon 224. AMS 1580s Eventide 910.

Yamaha Rev 7 & 2 x SPX90

Ancillary: Pultec, Langeven, Orban-Parasound equalisers.

Kepex, Roger Meyer gates. Bel flanger.

MXR phaser.

Radio and cable talk-back systems.

Full mains stabilisation.

Ampex 456 Grand Master tape. Chrome cassettes.

Staff complement included crew, engineer and maintenance personnel.

The Studio was based at Pinewood Studios in Buckinghamshire where it could be quickly linked to any of the Film or Sound stages and to a conventional Music Studio environment. In addition lines were available to Pinewood’s own facilities for Post Production work. For more information on any of the facilities, from analogue recording and mixing to Audio Post Production, or pricing and availability.........

Copyright © Mick Mckenna 1995