THE GEAR

In the 60's a gentleman called Dick Swettenham worked as a Service/Design Engineer for Abbey Road Studios. In the early 70's he moved to work for the legendary Olympic Studios, where he was in charge of Design and Maintenance. He approached the owners of Olympic, with the idea that if they allowed him to order the parts, he could build a desk that was far more musically advanced than anything built at that time. He got his green light.

When the desk was completed it was used by many legendary musicians including the famous "Jimi Hendrix Masters" who started to book time at Olympic. Most top British and even some American recording artists were now also using Olympic Studios because of the console, including Chris Blackwell of Island Records. Blackwell decided that, instead of using the console at Olympic, it was a way smarter business idea if he built an own studio a around a Helios. But Dick Swettenham, the man who built the one and only Helios console, worked for Olympic, and it wasn’t likely Olympic would let Swettenham built another Helios for a competitor. However, where there’s a will, there’s a way. And the way was simple. Blackwell put up the funds and went into business with Swettenham to build Helios consoles.

Seven Helios consoles were originally built for Island Records which included Mobile Studios. At this time Mike Oldfield's "Tubular Bells" was selling well for Virgin Records, so Richard Branson had Helios build three consoles, one for The Manor Studio, one for The Manor Mobile and one for Townhouse Studios. The "Who" built Ramport Studios around the Helios, The Rolling Stones built the legendary "Stones Mobile". 10cc built Strawberry Studios and so the sound spread; even the Beatles built "Apple Studios" around a green Helios Console.