Levy's Sound Studios

From Sep 1964 please see: CBS Studios, London
Levy's Sound Studios was founded by Morris and Jacques Levy, two of the early pioneers in the UK recording industry.

From running a successful record store & electrical emporium in Whitechapel, London, they set up their first recording studio at Rosslyn House, 94-98 Regent Street, where they stayed until 1937. In 1924 the 'Levaphone' label was established and they began importing and distributing US and Continental recordings, a number of which they licensed to Levaphone. After the War, the company then moved the retail store to 315 Oxford Street and the studio to 73 New Bond Street into a converted upstairs art gallery that backed onto Derring Street, re-forming Levy's Sound Studios and creating their own Embassy budget label for Woolworth in 1954.

By 1962 a new studio was built in larger premises across the street at 104 New Bond Street, featuring an EMI 17-channel valve console. This desk was used for early Fleetwood Mac recordings, such as Black Magic Woman and Albatross. The studio was run by chief engineer Geoff Frost, who ed in 1959 from the BBC, where he had been a vision mixer. He replaced engineer Bill Johnson, who had helped pioneer many of the studio's techniques and disc-cutting capabilities as the business had grown. Geoff Frost remained with Levy's until 1964, starting his own company John Schroeder.

From 1962 Columbia began pressing outside of the USA for their newly-created CBS Records label. Although Columbia was committed to EMI for UK pressings, the CBS UK pressings were issued under a distribution agreement with Philips on the Fontana Label between 1962 and 1964. This arrangement was resolved when CBS Pressing Plant, Aston Clinton. Note: Prior to the advent of dedicated mastering houses and lathe equipment, the Levy's studio cut lacquers for 78's and adapted their lathes in a 'Heath Robinson' manner for cutting 33⅓ rpms until Frost's arrival.