UNITED KINGDOM: RECORD PRODUCER GEORGE MARTIN UNVEILS PLAQUE AT HMV RECORD STORE WHERE THE ORIGINAL BEATLES DEMO DISCS WERE MADE

Record ID: 389180

  • Title: UNITED KINGDOM: RECORD PRODUCER GEORGE MARTIN UNVEILS PLAQUE AT HMV RECORD STORE WHERE THE ORIGINAL BEATLES DEMO DISCS WERE MADE
  • Date: 26th April 2000
  • Summary: LONDON, UK (APRIL 26, 2000) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) SCU (SOUNDBITE) (English) SIR GEORGE MARTIN SAYING "Probably because Brian was at his wits' end, he's been to everybody he could think of, every record company in the country, and if he hadn't come in here to make that record, I wouldn't have heard about them, so who know what might have happened"
  • Embargoed: 11th May 2000 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: LONDON, UK
  • Country: United Kingdom
  • Topics: Entertainment
  • Reuters ID: LVACR4P3MLABXUH7TQWHOZLXKOVD
  • Story Text: Music retailer HMV is closing the doors of its landmark store in London's Oxford Street at the end of this week.The legendary Beatles' producer Sir George Martin unveiled a plaque to mark the site of the store where The Beatles' original demo discs were cut.
    The original HMV store was opened in July 1921 by Sir Edward Elgar, and has shaped the way people have bought music for nearly a century.
    The music sold in what was, until the eighties, the biggest music store in the UK, has always been considered a barometer of public listening taste.
    It's place in music history was assured when, in 1962, the Brian Epstein recorded a demo disc for an unknown, unsigned band called The Beatles.It was through this recording session that Sir George Martin got to hear about the band, and the rest, as they say, is history.
    "I am very honoured to be here to unveil this plaque of a building which I have been associated with all my recording life, since I started at EMI in 1950, and it's a very historic place, this is where everyone bought their records, and it's a very sad day to see it closing, but I am very honoured to be unveiling this plaque now" he said.
    "This store has always been part of my life, I joined the record business in 1950, and the store was a barometer of knowing what people were buying, and what went and what didn't go, and the very first comedy record I ever made took off here, they sold 25 in the first half an hour, even though my bosses thought it would never sell, and that was great for me, I had a rapport with the manager, but then later on in 1962, Brian Epstein came here to cut a record, and I got to hear about it, and he'd been turned down by everybody else, and I was lucky enough to pick up the Beatles as a result of it"
    It is not lack of customers that is forcing the store to close, in fact, there will be a new branch, double the size of the original store, opening just across the road in May.
    Sir George said "It's a sign of our times, we're in a changing world, the retail business has problems, because you have people downloading music from the Internet and in fact major companies are now going to do that officially, so there's a balance between retail trading and on-line trading, and of course there are so many different media now, it isn't just records, it's DVDs and tapes and videos and all sorts of things."
    As always, HMV will be purveyors of the latest technology - the new store will be the first in the UK to let customers 'pick and mix' tracks to make their own compilation CDs, with a new digital downloading system called the Virtual Music Store.
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