Paul Travers was a musician and producer at Chestnut Studios, Churt for many years and when the opportunity arose to take the studio on in ’86 he jumped at it. After redeveloped, designed by architect Neil Grant, the studio, reopened, under new management, as The Music Room, Churt. The studio was one of only a handful of studios equipped with the digitally controlled analog Trident Di-An (DIgitally ANalog) console.
In the UK, Raphael Preston is better known as an audio engineer, most notably from ’77 to ’84 at Nemo Studios, London with Vangelis. But he also recorded music himself, including the 7″ single Rien Qu’à Toi. , This cover of Yazoo’s Only You, with French lyrics, was recorded at The Music Room and produced by Travers and John Hyne before it was released by Ariola [109 143] in France in ’87.
In ’89, Vicki Morgan released the 12″ single Always on My Mind on Parlophone [12R 6231] which was recorded at The Music Room. The track was written by Travers with Steve Piggott, who has credits on Sheena Easton, Living in a Box, Pet Shop Boys, and Scritti Politti recordings, amongst others. In fact, between them Travers and Piggott handled the arrangement, engineering, produced and the keyboards, while Stuart Bruce mixed, and Morgan provided her own backing vocals along with Tessa Niles of The Strictly Unreasonable Zang Tuum Tumb Big Beat Colossus who featured on Grace Jones’ Slave to the Rhythm.
The studio hosted Indie rockers The Frogs in ’90, who recorded four tracks that would go on to be released on World Touch Records [CROAK 001] as the God Knows the World is Insane 12″ EP. That same year Tim Smit, he of The Eden Project and Soho, produced – with co-producer Travers – General Confusion featuring Rhythm Machine’s Mission from God, the A-side of the Hyperactive Records 12″ single. This along with the two tracks by Rhythm Machine on the B-side, which was also labeled as the A-side, were recorded at The Music Room. Touch The Stars, the 7″ single from Watergate, on Naked Records [NR 21 WG], was laid down in Churt as was the B-side Do Say in ’90.
During ’91 Big Sun released a promo 7″ single [BS 1] on Headfull Records called “Welcome to The Realm of Doctor POP (Pt. 1)” carrying “Toys and Television“, and “Elizabeth“ on the B-side; recorded at Jacob’s Studio, Farnham with Ken Thomas producing and engineering and The Music Room with Travers producing and engineering, respectively.
To the best of our knowledge the studio called it a day sometime in ’91.
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