Pathway Studios

Pathway Studios was a North London studio in Islington run by producer Mike Finesilver for many years. Among the well-known artists who made their early recordings at Pathway Studios are The Damned, Madness, Elvis Costello, The Police, Squeeze, Haircut One Hundred and John Foxx. At the studio, Dire Straits recorded the demo and single versions of "Sultans of Swing", and the folk singer Ewan MacColl recorded his last album. The 8-track studio, a former garage, was famous for its great atmosphere, cold temperatures, distinctive smell and excellent recordings.

Mike Finesilver had been a member of the Crazy World of Arthur Brown and played on its major UK #1 hit "Fire" released on Track Records in 1968.

Pathway can be regarded as the 'delivery room' at the birth of British punk - it was here that The Damned recorded their debut single 'New Rose' in September 1976, produced by Nick Lowe

Tim Crowther described it thus:

"The studio was very small, about 8 x 8 metres with a 2 x 2m control booth in the corner and an upright piano next to it. You could just squeeze three people into the control booth! The tape deck was a Brenell 1 inch 8 track. The monitors and desk were custom made, and they had a pair of Auratones as well, fed from Quad power amps. The desk was quite small, pushed hard against the front wall with the custom monitors hung above and the Auratones on the meter bridge. Outboard was very basic: a Bel delay line, an Alesis digital reverb and Drawmer gates, but they had a nice plate reverb in a cupboard in the office upstairs. I can't recall all the mics but they were the industry standard stuff. We got big warm sounding mixes and despite the cramped conditions the mixing process seemed effortless compared to the difficult digital learning curve I have been on in the last two years."