Sarm East Studios

Sarm East Studios sits in a converted 1960s radio-building on Osborn Street in Aldgate, east London. The site once recorded newsreels before Gary Lyons and Barry Ainsworth turned it into SARM in 1973. Mike Stone joined as engineer in 1975, and David Sinclair’s children John and Jill later became co-directors. Queen recorded parts of “Bohemian Rhapsody” and “The Prophet’s Song” here in 1975. The studio filmed the “Somebody to Love” video the next year and returned in 1977 to cut “We Are the Champions.” The studio pioneered 24-track then 48-track recording in England. Its outboard rack held an Eventide H910 Harmonizer, Lexicon 224 reverb and UREI 1176 compressors. After water damage in 1978 the control room was rebuilt around the largest Trident TSM console then made. New Studer A80 tape machines replaced older models, and in 1982 it installed one of London’s first Solid State Logic 4000E desks. Visitors today find the original control room layout preserved behind glass in the Sarm Music Village complex. The Eventide Harmonizer still stands on its shelf, and the 1978 Trident console frame remains visible. Photographs of Queen’s 1970s sessions line the corridor walls. The room’s warm acoustic, shaped by the building’s former use, can still be heard on the finished tracks.