Cello session at the legendary RAK Studios for Jamie Brown and Charlie Freeman

RAK Studios

I’ve worked at RAK as a recording engineer and producer a number of times. I recorded the band Texas in Studio 1 about 25 years ago! I produced My Life Story sessions for about a week in 1996 in Studio 1 and Studio 3. And we recorded a bit of Bernard Butler‘s second solo album there. My ex-wife was chef to the stars there for about a year in the early 90s. It’s a fabulous place: a grand building in the very smart St John’s Wood area of London, with both Abbey Road Studios and Regents Park not far away. Of course it was started by the legendary Mickie Most, producer of Hot Chocolate, Suzi Quatro, The Animals, Lulu and many others. The wonderful API desk in Studio 1 has been there since the 1970s.

I returned last year to chat with Danton Supple for RecordProduction.com – here’s a selfie I did outside that day!

Jamie Brown / Charlie Freeman

Having done some online recording for Jamie Brown producing Charlie Freeman during lockdown, I had a surprise text from Jamie asking if I would be free for a session playing some cello at RAK, again for Charlie doing some music for film. Of course! Diary suitably cleared and travel plans made, I was so excited to be heading to RAK again – this time accompanied by my cello Anna, and sitting on the other side of the glass!

Studio 3

I thought we were going to be in one of the smaller rooms, but fortunately the session had been upgraded! Studio 3 was the scene of some of my aforementioned My Life Story sessions back in the dim distant past. So, what a treat it was to play and record there. Jamie and engineer Ali made my cello sound wonderfully rich. RecordProduction.com’s Mike Banks was fortuitously in town too, so when he’s developed the film I’ll post some of his pics. In the meantime here are some of my snaps – hover for captions…