No, its not Peter Sellers….it’s the man who recorded Rolling Stones, The Who & The Eagles

This is Dick Swettenham and, unlikely as it perhaps appears, he contributed to the sound of many of the greatest rock and pop recordings ever made. He also helped invent the recording equipment industry. Until the late 1960’s studios largely made their own core equipment; it was only in that decade that the number ofContinue reading “No, its not Peter Sellers….it’s the man who recorded Rolling Stones, The Who & The Eagles”

Art Deco loveliness: The Marconiphone

The Marconiphone was a brand of radios that were originally developed by the Marconi Company in the UK from 1923. The brand was sold to the Gramophone Company in 1929 as that company diversified into wireless technology. The Gramophone Company became EMI in 1931 and continued to make Marconiphone Radios until 1956. This blog entryContinue reading “Art Deco loveliness: The Marconiphone”

(Another) Welshman invents electromechanical device that converts sound into an electrical signal & calls it mic not dave.

He doesn’t look very happy in this picture, but this is David E. Hughes, former child prodigy harpist turned inventor who was a very successful and significant man. He was born 180 years ago yesterday. Hughes was a contemporary of Thomas Edison and Alexander Graham Bell and paddled in the same new technology waters asContinue reading “(Another) Welshman invents electromechanical device that converts sound into an electrical signal & calls it mic not dave.”

More royal microphones

Following on from our first blog item below about the microphone used in the new film The Kings Speech and in response to the huge correspondence that the blog item stirred up (well I had one email about it), here are some more of the royal microphones held by the EMI Group Archive Trust. TwoContinue reading “More royal microphones”