Colin Pierpoint blog 10 – Pebble Mill

Pebble Mill building circa 1970, copyright resides with the original holder, no reproduction without permission

Pebble Mill building circa 1970, copyright resides with the original holder, no reproduction without permission

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I was one of the first people to work in Pebble Mill Studios, because all the Midland sound editing facilities were in mono at the time, and some orchestral concerts were being recorded at OBs in stereo. In fact, the Producers like Richard Butt, had to travel to London to edit their programmes. I did try to tell the management that there were stereo editing channels at Wood Norton, a lot closer, but I don’t think they understood. (These days, Wood Norton would have jumped at the chance to charge for hiring out editing facilities, but this was before Total Costing, Producer Choice, and department Business Units. Not that I am saying these were necessarily a good thing). So, when the Pebble Mill building was nearing completion, we were allowed to use the cubicle of Studio 1 for tape editing.

To be fair, I must mention another of my disasters. I was using the new Studer tape machines in Studio 1, B62 I think. I had previously used the Studer C37 at Wood Norton on attachment as an Assistant Lecturer, but I was caught out by a feature of the new machine where the wind will inch back and too, but will lock on if you have pressed the stop button beforehand. Anyway, I mangled a tape of an orchestra. The producer, Ron Gardener kindly allowed me to keep the reel while I sorted it out. In fact I had everything except one chord of music, and I built that from copying other bits of the performance and editing them together. A few days later, I played this to Ron, who said that he would have accepted that, but he had since found that Alan Ward, the Studio Manager who recorded it, had a 7 and a half ips copy recorded at the time of the performance. So we used that just for one phrase, about a bar of music. Ron Gardener then very kindly said that I had done good work for him in the past and he was prepared to overlook it. Nice of him to say that, and the only tape I ever damaged, but I did let myself down.

Colin Pierpoint

The following comments were left on the Pebble Mill Facebook page:

Carolyn Davies: “Colin, was this why future trainee Audio Assistants had to editing in a missing phrase of music as part of their 1/4″ editing training at Wood Norton?? Great story…”

Andy Freeth: “lan Ward’s OB stores equipment list was always “one and a spare!” Hardly surprising that there was another recording ferreted away Colin!”

Save

Save

Save

Save

Save

Radio Studio 2

Photos by Martin Fenton, no reproduction without permission

Photos by Martin Fenton, no reproduction without permission

Studio 2 control room MF

Photo by Martin Fenton, no reproduction without permission

Photo by Martin Fenton, no reproduction without permission

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“This is the console in studio 2.  Studio 2 did more Big Band / studio music sessions and was multitrack. Studio 1 was more of an orchestral concert studio and had GP cababilities.”

Kath Shuttleworth

“It’s SSL 4000E, as Kath says in studio 2. I worked on them at Maida Vale, as a trainee we were told that it cost £2000 a channel! There was a similar desk in SCV6.”

Paul Hunt

“Ah… Studio 2 was my home from home…. So many memories…..”

Jane Ward

 

Studio 1 – Martin Fenton

Studio 1 control room

Studio 1 control room

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Studio 1 light

Studio 1 light

Studio 1 Neumann U47s

Studio 1 Neumann U47s

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Photos by Martin Fenton, no reproduction without permission. Martin took these photos in 2003. Radio Studio 1 was the largest radio studio at Pebble Mill, and was also used for some television series in the latter years of Pebble Mill.

“Studio 1 was once a venue for glorious orchestral recordings, but by this point it had been deliberately priced out of the market (Abbey Road number 1 was cheaper) and was used for little more than Farming Today

The Neumann U47s , I was told were used at the insistence of Radio 3, when Studio 1 was regularly used for orchestral concerts.” [The mics may be Neumann U87s, see comment below from Andy Groves.]

Martin Fenton

(The Neumann U47s were condenser mics apparently well known for their clear sound. They were apparently the favourite mic of the Beatles manager, George Martin.)

The following comments were left on the Pebble Mill Facebook page:

Caroline Feldon Parsons: ‘Lots of happy memories doing programmes for Radio 3 in that studio. Everything from live Lunchtime Concerts to live drivetime programmes like In Tune, and lots of recorded chamber music. I did a fair bit of page-turning for pianists too!’

Chris Marshall: ‘Yes, it was really busy with Radio 3 programmes until the bizarre decisions around Producer Choice and bimedia put paid to that. Tony Wass could give lots of info on the technical stuff.’

Jane Ward: ‘Occasionally larger scale orchestral and brass band sessions for Radio 2 took place in there as well. I produced a fair number and, like Caroline, was involved in other ways before that, either page turning or acting as orchestral librarian before I became a producer… I arrived at Pebble Mill in February 1987 as the Music Assistant, a post which not only served Radios 2 & 3 but which ultimately extended to become a research and support service for the whole building.’

Andy Groves: ‘I think you will find the mics are a Neumann U87 rather than 47. Both fine microphones.’

Peter Trevena: ‘I think that the lamp is still working on Doctors

 

 

 

Children in Need 2000

CIN 2000 running order front page, Chris Harris CIN 2000 vision gallery Chris Harris on racks CIN 2000 Studio 1 Chris Harris

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Copyright resides with the original holder, no reproduction without permission.

These stills are from the regional Children in Need output from November 2000.

The still with Pudsey is the front page of the running order for the evening show. The second photo is of the Vision Gallery controlling Studio 1. Chris Harris is on racks. The third photo is of the floor in Studio 1, which was usually a radio studio, but could be converted to TV, and was so during any re-fitting of Studio A.

Thanks to Chris Harris for sharing the stills.

 

AMS Logic 1 digital mixer

AMS Logic 1 Willie Stott

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Photo by Willie Stott, no reproduction without permission, taken at the BBC OUPC.

This was the first digital mixer at Pebble Mill. It replaced the BBC Type D desk in Radio Studio 1.

Thanks to Peter Poole for sharing the photo.

The following comments were left on the Pebble Mill Facebook page:

Carolyn Davies: ‘It was revolutionary! It made drama editing and mixing (and even doc editing) a dream! Radio 4 doc editing was transformed by it, no more losing your sentences in the tape on the floor…. The AMS Audiofile attached was introduced by the late great Mark Decker, pioneer of digital audio editing in the BBC, he made sure Pebble Mill were streets ahead of every one else when it came to digital broadcasting. Its down side? The green on black screen made white lines on the road appear pink after a long days edit….’

Kathryn Shuttleworth: ‘I wouldn’t say that digital did anything better than analogue when we had this mixer as it was a fairly new technology at the time. We did end up replacing it though……….with an analogue Calrec desk!’