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Fairview Studios is an independent recording studio located in Willerby,
East Riding of Yorkshire The East Riding of Yorkshire, often abbreviated to the East Riding or East Yorkshire, is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the Yorkshire and the Humber region of England. It borders North Yorkshire to the north and west, S ...
, England. Established by a local man Keith Herd in 1966, it has recorded musical acts such as
Def Leppard Def Leppard are an English Rock music, rock band formed in Sheffield in 1977. Since 1992, the band has consisted of Rick Savage (bass, backing vocals), Joe Elliott (lead vocals), Rick Allen (drummer), Rick Allen (drums), Phil Collen (guitar, ...
,
Mick Ronson Michael Ronson (26 May 1946 – 29 April 1993) was an English musician, songwriter, arranger, and producer. He achieved critical and commercial success working with David Bowie as the guitarist of the Spiders from Mars. He was a session musici ...
, Red Guitars,
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and
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. Over the years the facility has become well respected within the
music industry The music industry are individuals and organizations that earn money by Songwriter, writing songs and musical compositions, creating and selling Sound recording and reproduction, recorded music and sheet music, presenting live music, concerts, ...
.


History

Keith Herd (born 1936) hailed from Holmpton,
East Riding of Yorkshire The East Riding of Yorkshire, often abbreviated to the East Riding or East Yorkshire, is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the Yorkshire and the Humber region of England. It borders North Yorkshire to the north and west, S ...
, the son of a farmer. Inspired by the music of
Bill Haley William John Clifton Haley (; July 6, 1925 – February 9, 1981) was an American rock and roll musician. He is credited by many with first popularizing this form of music in the early 1950s with his group Bill Haley & His Comets and million-sel ...
and
Tommy Steele Sir Thomas Hicks (born 17 December 1936), known professionally as Tommy Steele, is an English entertainer, regarded as Britain's first teen idol and rock and roll star. After being discovered at the 2i's Coffee Bar in Soho, London, Steele recor ...
, Herd formed his own outfit The Keith Herd Quartet and in 1962, recorded a demo of them in his own home in Willerby. Their then vocalist, Dave Tenney, was signed to a
recording contract A recording contract (commonly called a record contract or record deal) is a legal agreement between a record label and a recording act (artist or group), where the act makes an audio recording (or series of recordings) for the label to sell and ...
by
Dick James Dick James (born Reginald Leon Isaac Vapnick; 12 December 1920 – 1 February 1986) was a British music publisher and singer. He and Brian Epstein established The Beatles' publishing company, Northern Songs. Later, with his son Stephen, James ...
, although their collective musical ambitions faded. Tenney later sang part of the
novelty song A novelty song is a type of song built upon some form of novel concept, such as a gimmick, a piece of humor, or a sample of popular culture. Novelty songs partially overlap with comedy songs, which are more explicitly based on humor, and w ...
, "
Star Trekkin' "Star Trekkin' is a song by British novelty band the Firm. It parodies the original ''Star Trek'' TV series and prominently features comical voice caricatures of the ''Trek'' characters, provided by members of the band, a studio technician, and ...
", by
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which reached number one in the UK Singles Chart in 1987. Herd continued playing music locally and worked for a local music shop as a service engineer. A move in 1965 to a house named Fairview in Willerby, proved the catalyst to turn towards recording music as a career. Beginning in one of his two front rooms in the house, Herd initially recorded mainly local acts. He noted "at the time I started there were no studios in Leeds or Sheffield – even up to 1978 there still wasn’t a professional studio in Sheffield". One of the earliest recordings at Fairview was undertaken by Johnny Small and The Little People, a group which featured both Herd and Rick Kemp. Herd also worked for a while with his eventual lifelong friend, Basil Kirchin, on early experimental pieces. Initially charging £2.00 per hour, despite his limited equipment and experience he taped many hours of material that was issued in 2008 on the
compilation album A compilation album comprises Album#Tracks, tracks, which may be previously released or unreleased, usually from several separate recordings by either one Performing arts#Performers, performer or by several performers. If the recordings are from ...
, ''Front Room Masters – Fairview Studios 1966–1973''. Herd still played semi-professionally until 1973, when he decided to concentrate all his efforts into the recording studio. Converting a barn in his back garden, the present day version of the studio was born. Numerous varied musical acts utilised the premises down the years, with Roy Neave and John Spence joining as sound engineers. John Spence started in 1981 and has been the studio's chief engineer for the last 25 years, guiding the studio through its 50th anniversary in 2016. More recently, the Herd family moved to North Cave and run Fairview Duplication from that location.


Selected notable recordings


Other recordings

Other notable musicians who have recorded music at Fairview include
Barbara Dickson Barbara Ruth Dickson (born 27 September 1947) is a Scottish singer and actress whose hits include " I Know Him So Well" (a chart-topping duet with Elaine Paige), " Answer Me" and " January February". Dickson has placed fifteen albums on the UK ...
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,
Maddy Prior Madeleine Edith Prior MBE (born 14 August 1947) is an English folk rock singer, best known as the lead vocalist of Steeleye Span. She was born in Blackpool and moved to St Albans in her teens. Her father, Allan Prior, was co-creator of the p ...
,
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,
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, Computerman,
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, XIII, Dumpvalve, Lithium Joe, Cannon and Ball,
Kingmaker A kingmaker is a person or group that has great influence on a monarchy or royal in their political succession, without themselves being a viable candidate. Kingmakers may use political, monetary, religious, and military means to influence the ...
, The Farm,
Bruce Foxton Bruce Douglas Foxton (born 1 September 1955) is an English singer, songwriter and musician. Foxton's music career spans more than 40 years. He came to prominence in the late 1970s as bassist and backing vocalist of mod revival band the Jam. ...
,
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John Parr


Compilation album


See also

*
List of British recording studios This is a list of notable recording studios in the United Kingdom, arranged in alphabetical order by studio. A *AIR Studios - Lyndhurst Hall, London, England *Abbey Road Studios - St. John's Wood, London, England * Acer Studios - Greater M ...


References


External links


Official websiteVideo recording at Fairview Studios (April 2012)Museum exhibit of the vinyl record and cover of the original cast recording of ''Wilberforce''. Recorded at Fairview Recording Studio, Hull
{{Authority control Recording studios in England Buildings and structures in the East Riding of Yorkshire Mass media companies established in 1966 1966 establishments in England