Abbey Road is without parallel in the history of recorded music. A studio so steeped in legacy that The Beatles named an album in honour of it after recording a majority of their catalogue there, with the iconic zebra crossing from the cover of ‘Abbey Road’ becoming one of London’s biggest tourist landmarks. And yet until 2026, they’d never held a rave at England’s most hallowed grounds.
View this post on Instagram
Opening its doors in 1931, it was a Georgian townhouse repurposed to fit three massive studios. A merger between The Gramophone Company and the Columbia Gramophone Company formed the Electrical and Musical Industries (EMI), giving the venue its former name of EMI Recording Studios. The first recording was made by Sir Edward Elgar, who led the London Symphony Orchestra to track his legendary piece ‘Land of Hope and Glory’.
Over the last 95 years, it’s been home to the biggest artists in world music. Studio Three has given rise to timeless records like Pink Floyd’s ‘Dark Side Of The Moon’, in addition to modern staples like Florence + The Machine’s ‘Ceremonials’ and Frank Ocean’s ‘Blond’. Studio One saw use for the biggest movie scores of all time, including John Williams’ Star Wars and Harry Potter soundtracks. Lastly, Studio Two became the most famous due to its contributions to records by The Beatles, Kate Bush, Oasis and Massive Attack.
EMI became a hub for innovation, pioneering echo-chamber systems and novel recording methods with an expert team of engineers. The past century has yielded defining sonic art across popular music, film scores, and game soundtracks, as well as mastering systems designed to give their signature mixing style to music recorded elsewhere. Their website lists a fascinating account of both the past, present and prospective future of the studios.
Following a six-month refurbishment break, Studio One reopened in April last year. Today, Abbey Road Studios announced that it would be the host to a one-off event, an ‘after hours’ rave headlined by electronic act Soulwax. The Belgian duo consists of brothers David and Stephen Dewaele, who perform under various other banners and pseudonyms together.
View this post on Instagram
The event will see Soulwax enter Studio Two on Thursday the 20th of February, where they will record new music and press it to vinyl on site, before playing it for the first time at the rave from 8PM to 1AM on Friday the 21st. Abbey Road are touting a new custom-made speaker setup in honour of the event, posting on their site that “’Abbey Road After Hours’ will see the first major outing of the DEEWEE Soundsystem, a unique speaker array based on the system at New York’s legendary Paradise Garage, which the Dewaele brothers acquired for their popular DEEWEE night.”
The poster for the event advertises Soulwax, in addition to the Dewaele brothers’ other project 2manydjs, as well as “special guests to be announced soon”. Tickets can be claimed by 300 lucky people for free through a public ballot system here, with Abbey Road also offering a “Soulwax rave hotline” on 07886 072699 for a chance of securing entry. The event will also be filmed and uploaded to YouTube on the 5th of March for those who miss out.
