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Monumental Studios Sheffield - Home of Heaven 17 and Human League


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So I'm trying to hunt down the exact location of Monumental Pictures Studios in Sheffield which was home to the recording of the debut albums from Heaven 17 and Human League.

Amazingly so little has ever been said or known about this place or it's location (or even existance!) and I want to put that right

The studios were apparently in an old vet's building on West Bar?

Does anyone know?

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Interview from Richard Mainwaring
 

Richard Manwaring (Producer); Hiidsight is a wonderful faculty and while it helps with appreciating wrong or correct decisions, the remembering of the infectious excitement of soaking up new ideas or stumbling across a new technique feels a little out of reach.

 

I was the Chief Engineer at The Manor Studios owned by Virgin Records. I had been engineering at The Manor and worked with The Human League manager Bob Last when he produced The Mekons in 1979. We seemed to get on well and I was asked to go Sheffield to work with the band. The first Human League album (recorded at The Townhouse) had been released and having their own studio was a logical step. They found a room above a disused vet’s practice in their home town of Sheffield, put in an 8 track recorder with a Trident desk and gave it the great name of Monumental Pictures. (Liverpool’s Hambi and The Dance persuaded Virgin to support building a studio to record their first album.)  I initially met Phil, Martyn, Ian and Adrian in Sheffield during 18th and 19th March 1980. Sessions started 22nd to 30th March, 12th to 14th April and the album was mastered by Denis Blackham at Tape One on 15th April.

 

It was a new experience for me working and getting to know the Sheffield band and the self deprecating humour. One example is the name they chose for their recording set up. Monumental Pictures is a great name for a studio. There’s a nod to Hollywood with the image of an enormous and unstoppable production powerhouse. In fact it was two rooms on the first floor of an empty building which housed on the ground floor, a disused veterinary practice complete with metal trolleys where I assumed the unfortunate animals were examined or operated on. You didn’t wish to look too closely at what else had been left behind. The stairs at the back of the ground floor led up to the first floor and the studio. The ground floor electricity had been cut off so in the evenings we staggered through the dark to get to the studio.

 

Full interview here - https://www.the-black-hit-of-space.dk/travelogue_the_making_of.htm

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Screenshot 2021-01-16 at 15.28.51.jpg

So now we are on the hunt for a vets / veterinary practice that was around West Bar in the late 70's
Anyone have any info on a vets in this area?

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Screenshot 2021-01-16 at 15.30.18.jpg

Martyn Ware from Heaven 17 / Human League has told me it was in this area - I don't want to keep hassling him for details so need help from you guys
Am I in the right ballpark?

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Guest leksand
45 minutes ago, Sheffield History said:

Screenshot 2021-01-16 at 15.28.51.jpg

So now we are on the hunt for a vets / veterinary practice that was around West Bar in the late 70's
Anyone have any info on a vets in this area?

They couldn't mean the pound (still addressed as Spring Street as I understand), could they? That's just off the back of Gibraltar Street / West Bar.

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1 minute ago, leksand said:

They couldn't mean the pound (still addressed as Spring Street as I understand), could they? That's just off the back of Gibraltar Street / West Bar.


Not sure - literally have nothing to go on so far other than the description of a vets with the studios above it in the West Bar area

The map Martyn sent me just now was that row of shops on West Bar

 

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