Artist News Releases

John Otway launching Kickstarter campaign to rebuild Air Studios in Montserrat

By | Published on Tuesday 26 April 2016

John Otway

John Otway has announced that he is launching a Kickstarter campaign next week to fund the recording of his next album. Though it’s slightly more ambitious than that first sounds. Plan A is to raise enough money to rebuild the old Air Studios outpost on the Caribbean Island of Montserrat.

The studio was opened by George Martin in 1979, but was put out of action by a hurricane in 1989. In the ten years it was operational, artists including Paul McCartney, Elton John, Michael Jackson, Stevie Wonder, Lou Reed, Black Sabbath and Eric Clapton recorded there, the last to use it being The Rolling Stones.

If his campaign is successful, Otway will travel to Montserrat and restore the studio to active use. If not, he’ll record the album in his garage in Essex.

“Obviously I would prefer it to be Montserrat”, says Otway. “I wondered why, after all those great albums were recorded there, no one had been back for years. Then I discovered that the island had been hit first by a hurricane and then by a volcano. Having written some songs, though, I went out to the Island earlier this year to find out if it was still possible to record there. Although the old Air Studios are now derelict the studio in the basement of Sir George Martin’s house is sound – it just needs rebuilding”.

The campaign is set to launch on 1 May.



READ MORE ABOUT: