Arena: Produced by George Martin

[skeggysteve]

Just watched this and I'm surprised that nobody has commented on it.

A very good programme, I didn't know just how many good tunes/songs George had written/produced.

Yet again the BBC show how good they are at this sort of thing.

For anyone that missed it IPlayer link:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b010t9hz/Aren...

[jet_noise]

Dear skeggysteve,

I enjoyed this too, so much stuff I had no idea about.

Parlophone had a very odd roster, all those comedy records then the Beatles, and how close did he come to turning them down?

Also the Air studio in Montserrat being clobbered by nature, green piano mould etc,

regards,
Jet

[Eric Mc]

I didn't watch the programme but I've heard Martin talk about his career on many occasions. His main job prior to The Beatles was looking after all the oddball artistes that EMI relegated to the Parlaphone lable - such as The Goons and the various offshoots.

[P5Nij]

Watched and enjoyed it too.... interesting to hear from George himself that his salary back in the 60s was quite meagre compared to those around him. Brian Epstein went from a Mk10 Jag to a brand new Bentley, all four Beatles had Radford Mini Coopers bought for them by Epstein and had numerous flash motors of their own (particularly George Harrison), yet George Martin had to make do with a Triumph Herald!

[DanoS4]

Thanks for the link - I forgot to SKY+ it.

Interesting to hear about the mould etc. Reminds me of a session I did out in Jamaica at the studio Bob Marley was about to move into prior to his death.
It was pretty close to the ocean, so the tape decks (we're talking 2" analogue tape!" £60k) were getting issues with salt/build-up on the delicate electronics....

Expensive consequence of beautiful location.

Dan

[TimJMS]

Only just watched this. When you think back to how many supergroups worked there through the 1980's and how several very important albums were recorded there, I'm very surprised the studios were never restored.