The Cellar - Nov 29th, 2018: Rock Recording History For Sale

With all the talented musicians here in the Cellar we should be able to assemble some of you, cut a couple albums,
then it’s money for nothing and groupies for free, especially if we can get the wrecking crew to help out.
But we need a recording console to work the magic.
This HeliosCentric recording console will be auctioned next month at Bonhams in London.
It’s a composite of two earlier Helios Electronics units, commissioned by Elvis Costello and Chris Difford of Squeeze in
1996 taking two years to be married for their HeliosCentric Studios.

http://cellar.org/2017/console.jpg

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The older part of the HeliosCentric dates to 1970, and sat in Island Records’ Basing Street Studio 2, in West London, until 1974. During that time, it saw Cat Stevens record “Peace Train,” the Rolling Stones add strings to “Angie,” and Bob Marley and the Wailers lay down “Get Up, Stand Up” and “I Shot the Sheriff.” Stephen Stills also used the console to record his eponymous debut solo album in 1970—the only album ever to feature guitar contributions from both Jimi Hendrix and Eric Clapton.

But the unit’s towering achievement might have been during sessions for Led Zeppelin’s officially untitled fourth album, released in 1971. While most of that record was famously produced in the Rolling Stones’ mobile studio while Zeppelin stayed in Hampshire’s Headley Grange house, work on it began at Basing Street in December 1970. It was there that the band completed most of “Stairway to Heaven,” and Jimmy Page even returned months later to record his climactic guitar solo, cementing the console’s place in rock history very early in its career.

http://cellar.org/2017/console2.jpg

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The second half of the HeliosCentric comes from part of the console used in Alvin Lee’s personal studio between 1973 and 1979. Lee, the guitarist and vocalist for the band Ten Years After, worked during that time with collaborators such as George Harrison, Mick Fleetwood, and Ronnie Wood (who later joined the Stones).

It remains to be seen whether this piece of recording history will eclipse the EMI TG12345 MK IV, on which Pink Floyd recorded Dark Side of the Moon. Bonhams sold that last year for $1.8 million.

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