petergabriel.com

Was the entire album recorded at Air Studios and not Real World?

Yeah, I think all of it was recorded at Ait Studios, but it was mixed at Real World. I don't think RW has a studio room large enough for an orchestra.

From the description of Lyndhurst Hall (which is where I gather they recorded?) I guess it is ideal for orchestral recordings. http://www.airstudios.com/studios/lyndhurst-hall.aspx But from the name alone, I would have assumed they surely could have fit an orchestra in the Big Room at Real World.

I may be wrong, but I would assume it was easier to record in London, where I imagine that most of the players lives...

Yeah, logistics of getting so many musicians could be one reason they recorded at Air. My next question would also be how PG could manage to profit from such a seemingly expensive tour with so many musicians to have to pay. I recall Zappa talking about the Union related headaches of hiring orchestras. However I would suspect that the reason they choose to record at Air must have been fundamentally due to the acoustics of the place being perhaps somehow better suited to orchestral recording. Although I always personally thought Real World must be the best studio in the world. I still even have a Mix magazine issue from 89' ? detailing the vocal room with the glass floor and river water running underneath from the old mill of which Real World as I understand it originally was. Also aside from all the great technology they must have at Real World, I remember the article even mentioned details like something about how PG had material wrapped around conduit piping in the control room of the Big Room installed to reduce fatigue among the engineers etc. So it sounds like quite a place to say the least.

Here is a great interview I found with the New Blood recording engineer Dickie Chappell : http://blog.bowers-wilkins.com/music/new-blood-interview-with-peter-gabriel-engineer-dickie-chappell/ I guess the Big Room isn't so big after all anymore

Thanks for that link, mutant! Interesting, how Dickie looks at the things from his engineering side. I wished, Peter would make a concert in a church like he did in the sample time. Dickie seems to be shure, that it suited in any way. It seems to be something new, that more socialist rock musicians discover the quality of church-sound and surrounding.

Yaa, it definitely must have been some very unique recording sessions. Scratch My Back (if I understand correctly) was partially recorded at Real World and Air Studios. But with New Blood being entirely recorded there, again I am just curious to wonder if it was the acoustics of Lyndhurst Hall being perhaps more ideally suited to orchestral recordings than Real World which ultimately led to the decision to record the whole thing there. For the next album, I think PG should go back to recording using late 70's technology with a mobile truck like they did to whatever extent I believe on PG3 and also even get Larry Fast and Jerry Marotta to play on it! Maybe even use the old $10 Radio Shack transistor amplifier mic Larry Fast has the great picture of! http://synergy-emusic.com/petergabrielpix/pg3/pg3pix.htm Because to me PG3 still sounds groundbreaking today. That album was way, way ahead of any time.

Those are some excellent photographs, thank you for sharing with us Mutant. I am a huge fan of both Tony Levin and David Rhodes music (both within the PG area and their Solo careers now). btw, love the bad ass, drum stick wielding cricket. It is a cricket, yes? Or maybe a locust? Either way it's right on.

Thanks Soul Reader, Yaa... that's like my favorite web page on the internet, the great Larry Fast's page with all those fantastic PG3 session photos. I actually emailed Larry some years ago to ask a fan type question about the making of PG3 and specifically that Radio Shack transistor amplifier seen in the photo and he was super nice enough to email me back. As he explained, when they recorded PG3 , this was long before any DSP Nowadays however everyone it seems can easily throw on any plugin with the click of a mouse. My avatar is a cute picture of a mutant fish I found on some genetics lab type website several years ago as I recall.