Advision Studios was a recording studio in Fitzrovia, Central London. Founded in the 1960s by Guy Whetstone and Stephen Appleby, Advision originally provided voiceovers and jingles for television advertisements. The studio was initially located at 83 New Bond Street, but moved to 23 Gosfield Street in 1969. The studio complex was built to be able to house a 60-piece studio orchestra and had 35mm film projector screen for synchronizing with motion picture images. Producer Martin Rushent began his career as a projectionist at Advision.
By the mid-1960s Advision had become one of the top London studios for Rock and Pop music. The Yardbirds recorded their 1966 album ‘Roger the Engineer’ at Advision on a 4-track machine. The Move recorded some of their early hits at Advision, including ‘Flowers in the Rain’ in July 1967. In 1968 Advision became the first studio in the UK to obtain a professional 8-track recorder, which was built by Scully Recording Instruments. Among the first artists to use the 8-track machine were T. Rex, The Who, and Caravan. In 1970 the studio used a custom 24-channel desk with an 8-track recorder. Advision was also first in the UK to install 16 and 24 track recorders in the early 1970s.
In 1971 a 20-channel Neve console was added to the mixdown suite. In the 1970s, the studios’ focus moved toward Progressive rock music, and the company began producing music for bands such as Yes, Gentle Giant, and Emerson, Lake & Palmer, as well as Jeff Wayne’s Musical Version of The War of the Worlds. Some recording and all mixing of Kate Bush’s album The Dreaming took place here, under the supervision of engineer Paul Hardiman.
Since 1993, the Gosfield Street location has been occupied by a studio called The Sound Company.