Pathway Studios

Pathway was a North London studio located at 2a Grosvenor Avenue, Newington Green, founded by producers Peter Ker and Mike Finesilver and later run by Mike until the mid 1990s. Among the well-known artists who made their early recordings with producer Nick Lowe at Pathway Studios are The Damned, Madness, Elvis Costello, The Police, Squeeze, Haircut One Hundred, The Count Bishops with Mike Spenser, The Cannibals and John Foxx. At the studio, Dire Straits recorded the demo and single versions of "Sultans of Swing", and the folk singer Ewan MacColl recorded his last album. The 8-track studio, a former garage, was famous for its great atmosphere, cold temperatures, distinctive smell and excellent recordings.

Peter Ker and Mike Finesilver won a court case for a co songwriting credit on Arthur Brown's Fire.

Pathway can be regarded as the 'delivery room' at the birth of British punk - it was here that The Damned recorded their debut single 'New Rose' in September 1976, again produced by Lowe. Sham 69 also recorded their first single 'I Don't Wanna' in 1977, produced by John Cale. In addition, it also featured extensively in the Madness drama-documentary Take It or Leave It.

Tim Crowther described it thus:

"The studio was very small, about 8 x 8 metres with a 2 x 2m control booth in the corner and an upright piano next to it. You could just squeeze three people into the control booth! The tape deck was a Brenell 1 inch 8 track. The monitors and desk were custom made, and they had a pair of Auratones as well, fed from Quad power amps. The desk was quite small, pushed hard against the front wall with the custom monitors hung above and the Auratones on the meter bridge. Outboard was very basic: a Bel delay line, an Alesis digital reverb and Drawmer gates, but they had a nice plate reverb in a cupboard in the office upstairs. I can't recall all the mics but they were the industry standard stuff. We got big warm sounding mixes and despite the cramped conditions the mixing process seemed effortless compared to the difficult digital learning curve I have been on in the last two years."

Notable recordings

Individual Tracks

• Sham 69: I Don't Wanna (produced by John Cale) (1977)
• Dire Straits: Sultans of Swing (demo) (1977)
• The Police: Fall Out (1977)
• The Flys: Love and a Molotov Cocktail (1977)
• Siouxsie and the Banshees: Nicotine Stain (demo) (1977?)
• Lene Lovich: Lucky Number (1978)
• Madness: The Prince (1979)
• Ewan MacColl: Dirty Old Town (1983)

Albums

• Elvis Costello: My Aim Is True (1976)
• The Damned: Damned Damned Damned (1977)
• Dave Edmunds: Get It (1977)
• Nick Lowe: Jesus of Cool (1978)
• The Motors: Approved by the Motors (1978)
• Squeeze: Squeeze (1978)
• John Foxx: Metamatic (1980)
• Link Wray: Apache (1990)

Film

• Madness: Take It or Leave It

External links

• Early recordings by Madness
• More information and photos
• Photographs of Squeeze recording there in 1976
• List of some recordings at Pathway