Abbey Road For Sale

Back in 2007, a hideous dickhead by the name of Guy Hands, set the sights of his private equity firm Terra Firma on one of the most famous record labels in history. Sure, EMI was up the creek, but what major label isn’t? £2.4 Billion later, Guy Hands, a man with no experience of running a record label, was at the wheel of a label that Frank Sinatra, The Beatles, The Beach Boys and Pink Floyd once called home. Additionally, Hands also acquired the legendary Abbey Road Studios, which EMI had built and launched in 1931.

With an intention to reduce the labels overheads by £200 Million per year, it’s no wonder that EMI’s key artists started to desert the ship. How key? How about Radiohead, Paul McCartney and The Rolling Stones for a start!

Well 3 years later and Hands is in the shitbooks of his backers, Citigroup. They want their cash back, after fronting over £3.3 billion in loans to Terra Firma. So as well as asking investors to cough up £120 Million by June, Guy Hands is scratching around for stuff to pawn.

Abbey Road may possibly be the most famous recording studio in history (sorry Sun & Hitsville USA), but in the age of Macbook Pro Tools, a Georgian townhouse full of expensive kit would seem a little excessive to any label taking a punt on a new band of skinny-jeaned, gobshite teenagers.

So Terra Firma will be putting the legendary studios up for sale. Yeah, there are a few interested parties, groups of musicians putting a kitty together and even the National Trust preparing a bid, but it’ll most likely see 2010 out as some sort of museum or hotel. By this time next year, you’ll probably be able to get married on the spot where the Fab Four sang “one thing I can tell you is you gotta be free...”

Screw you Guy Hands. RIP Abbey Road.