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Post by Deleted on Sept 15, 2007 18:48:26 GMT -5
Been busy with personal matters but it's not everyday "Cat Stevens" is mentionned twice in a daily newspaper, so I thought: let's share this. Today in "La Presse", one of Montreal's French daily newspaper, a two-page spread on the career of André Perry, co-founder (with Nick Blagona who worked for Decca in the 60s) and ex-owner of "Le Studio" in Morin Heights, Quebec, where our Cat recorded his last three albums of the 70s. André Perry made a name for himself when he recorded Lennon's "Give Peace A Chance" during the 1969 bed-in at the Queen Elizabeth Hotel in Montreal. Perry worked on the tape (sweetening the rough recording made in the hotel room) at his suburban basement studio, which incidentally was located a couple of streets away from where I was raised! Perry, his wife Yael Brandeis, and Nick Blagona went on to create "Le Studio", an in-living recording studio in the beautiful Laurentians mountains north of Montreal. With its international reputation, "Le Studio" will host many rock stars over the years: Bee Gees, David Bowie, Rush, Corey Hart, Bryan Adams, Wilson Picket, Asia, Chicago, Keith Richards, The Police, etc. Concerning Cat Stevens, Perry says: he was the first international artist to record a "Le Studio" where he made three albums. He performed the first one in my living room, "Numbers", in its entirety, using just a guitar! It was beautiful, played with a lot of feelings (sic). Two months later he was still in studio recording "phrase by phrase". One night we went to see Stevie Wonder at the Montreal Forum and he wanted to be incognito. We used the backdoor (entrée des artistes) and we sat sidestage. And then in the middle of the show, he got up on stage and started to sing with Wonder! See: majicat.proboards6.com/index.cgi?board=Yusuf&action=display&n=1&thread=748&page=6How cool if this guy could write his memoirs. Perry is in real estate now and lives most of the year in the Bahamas. The other Cat mention is from an article on James Blunt who refers to him as a major musical influence. |
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Post by suncatcher on Sept 19, 2007 4:57:44 GMT -5
 Hi, Glaucus! It's so good to hear from you again! Thank you for sharing this. As Lucy might say, "Yet another thread in the larger tapestry." And it must soften some people's opinions of James Blunt to know that he considers Cat to be a major musical influence . . . Hope to hear from you again soon, ~Sun~
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Post by harmonie on Sept 24, 2007 18:35:14 GMT -5
James Blunt reminds me of Cat so I see the musical influence.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 23, 2007 18:06:26 GMT -5
A follow-up on this article, just found Perry's new website including this very nice picture:  André Perry and Cat Stevens Check out André Perry's website with great pictures and background information on LE STUDIO in Morin Heights: andreperrystudio.com/ |
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Post by suncatcher on Oct 24, 2007 9:47:36 GMT -5
Check out André Perry's website with great pictures and background information on LE STUDIO in Morin Heights: andreperrystudio.com/Thanks for this great follow-up, Glaucus. Terrrific picture! I checked out the website and found that Cat Stevens recorded Numbers, Izitso, and Back to Earth at Le Studio in Morin Heights. Were those his last 3 albums as Cat Stevens? BTW, the Bee Gees recorded Saturday Night Fever there. The soundtrack from the film Saturday Night Fever was just ranked number eight among the "50 greatest soundtracks" chosen by the editors of Vanity Fair magazine. Here is the article: Vanity Fair Ranks Film Soundtracks. Le Studio was a top-notch studio. Really impressive. And it's really nice to know about this part of Cat's history. ~Sun~ Edited to change "is a top-notch studio" to "was." |
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Post by Deleted on Oct 24, 2007 19:24:48 GMT -5
Thanks for this great follow-up, Glaucus. Terrrific picture! I checked out the website and found that Cat Stevens recorded Numbers, Izitso, and Back to Earth at Le Studio in Morin Heights. Were those his last 3 albums as Cat Stevens? Yes they were. "Numbers" was entirely done at Morin Heights. Some recording and mixing were made there on "Izitso" and "Back To Earth" but especially on BTE. |
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Post by Deleted on Oct 24, 2007 19:32:29 GMT -5
One last thing about the original article. Perry says that he visited "Le Studio" one last time recently. The place is abandonned now and is about to be torn down to make way for condos.... A sacrilege if you ask me. The two security guards watching the place joked (?) to Perry that ghosts of music past can be heard there at night!!! Imagine, you're in the woods, the wind is blowing, and you can hear Whistlestar coming from the haunted studio!!  For those of you who can read French, the article is now on-line here: www.cyberpresse.ca/article/20070916/CPARTS/709150682/-1/CPARTS |
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Post by suncatcher on Oct 25, 2007 10:36:14 GMT -5
One last thing about the original article. Perry says that he visited "Le Studio" one last time recently. The place is abandonned now and is about to be torn down to make way for condos.... A sacrilege if you ask me. The two security guards watching the place joked (?) to Perry that ghosts of music past can be heard there at night!!! Imagine, you're in the woods, the wind is blowing, and you can hear Whistlestar coming from the haunted studio!! Hi, Glaucus! Your comment brought me tears, goosebumps, and a smile, all at the same time! There are places I remember
All my life though some have changed
Some forever, not for better
Some have gone . . . The Beatles~Sun~ |
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Post by Deleted on Apr 15, 2010 23:27:43 GMT -5
Bringing this back up as I've just finished typing the following article about Le Studio. Hope you like it.
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Multi-million-dollar facility on lake: Morin Heights: Grade 6 dropout built one of the world's top studio.
by Lucinda Chodan
Montreal Gazette
November 17, 1984
At first glance, there isn't much to alert a visitor to Le Studio in Morin Heights that this is one of the best-known recording studios in the world. Just outside the unadorned cedar walls of the facility, bucolic Lake Katarie laps against the shore, and the atmosphere is filled with the crisp silence of the Laurentians and the smell of tamaracks.
It's just the albums on the inside surface of those plain cedar walls that give the game away: 54 gold and platinum records, the ultimate symbols of success in the recording industry, gleaming quietly in their stark frames.
A gold record indicates sales of 500,000 units throughout the world. Platinum denotes sales of 1 million. There are 54 of them on the walls because those 54 albums were recorded here, on the outskirts of a village of 1,600.
A partial list of the artists who have driven down the winding main street of this little town reads like a who's who of the rock world. David Bowie. The Police. Chicago. Rush. Bryan Adams. Nazareth. Asia.
Luxurious guesthouse - Since Le Studio was established in 1974, they've all driven past Mickey's Coffee Shop, Shirley's Super-Snack and the Trinity Church Hall to get to this multi-million dollar facility and fork over as much as $2,500 per day to be guests of a Verdun-born Grade 6 dropout named André Perry.
For that $2,500, the performer is cossetted in a luxiourious guesthouse with such amenities as a Jacuzzi, a wet bar, VCR equipement and a cappucino-maker. He or she also has access to some of the best equipment and technicians in the recording world.
How much has the presence of Le Studio meant to Morin Heights? Well, Le Studio is on a street named Perry. There are two industries here - skiing and Le Studio, and Le Studio generates more money.
It is a 48-track studio. Sound is recorded on a state-of-the-art Studer solid-state logic console. André Perry was only the second man in the world to own one.
There is also the latest in audio technology, a digital recorded and editor, and a rapidly expanding video centre Perry started working on about 1 and a half years ago. And if there's anything missing, the highly trained staff can probably remedy it: when the band Nazareth decided it wanted a natural echo, a creative Le Studio technician bounced the sound off the mountain that looms over Lake Katarie.
Started as drummer - André Perry started his career as a drummer in a jazz band, but he says he was always interested in what went on behind the glass of the studio control room. He built his first studio in 1962 in the basement of his house in Brossard, and it quickly became the focus of the Un-quiet Revolution in Quebec music - Robert Charlebois recorded his first hit, Lindbergh, there.
It wasn't until 1967, though, that Perry won international attention when he recorded Give Peace A Chance for John Lennon and Yoko Ono in Montreal.
Seven years and another Montreal studio later, Perry decided he'd had enough of the city. He retreated to the 100 acres he'd bought years earlier and put up Le Studio.
It didn't take long for word to get around about a creative centre nestled in the Laurentians. Montreal musician Lewis Furrey, a friend and colleague of Perry's, played some music recorded at Le Studio for Cat Stevens, and Stevens booked the facility for five days. He stayed 3 and a half months.
Different approaches
Then the Bee Gees recorded Saturday Night Fever there, and part way into that album's 30 million sales, Le Studio became one of the places for rock musicians to record.
Perry says performers have two different approaches to recording. Some, like David Bowie, use Le Studio for periods of six to eight weeks. The others, such as Rush and Asia, book the studio for five or six months. For an international recording act, the average cost of making an album in Morin Heights ranges from $175,000 to $800,000.
Each year, three or four internationally known stars come to Le Studio to record. Perry says the rest of the year is usually taken up with four English-Canadian projects and six French-Canadian projects, groups who get a special, reduced rate of about $1,500 per day.
Some of that money finds it way back into Morin Heights. Most of Le Studio's 20 staff members rent houses in town, and if groups are to large to star in the five-bedroom guest house, they're billeted in a pool of houses that Perry rents in town.
In return, the villagers are fiercely protective of the privacy that draws the rock stars to Morin Heights. Locals often deliberately confuse star-seekers asking for directions. The town constabe "will ask you what the hell you're doing" if he notices a stranger, Perry says.
As for the celebrities in their midst, Moring Heights natives have adapted with admirable aplomb. Slightly to the group's chagrin, according to one reliable observer, no one swooned or flocked around for autographs when the Police recorded at Le Studio last winter.
Sat in with band - Sting went cross-country skiing unmolested by fans, and the group's drummer, Andy Summers, sat in with the band at the local bar. When the group finished recording Synchonicity, Summers donated all his old cymbals to the bar band's regular drummer.
As for Cat Stevens, he and his car were rescued from a snowdrift by two Morin Heights women, and by the end of his stay, he was affectionately known as "Steve" in the village.
The townspeople aren't likely to lose their celebrity neighbors in the foreseeable future. Never content to rest on his laurels, the 47-year-old Perry has begun construction of a "2-million video centre, complete with such new technologies as computer graphics, that will be as advanced in its field as his audio studio.
"I don't just look at this as a businessman," says Perry. "If I were going to do that, I would do it where it makes sense - in Montreal of Toronto or New York or L.A.
"Basically, we're a service business, and we participate in the mix, in the energy".
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Post by downunder72 on Apr 16, 2010 8:32:35 GMT -5
Glaucus this is just wonderful. It's strange all these articles, and videos are showing up at this point of time. I think it's another wake up call for Yusuf that he must make a trip to Canada and the States and begin touring, and make it soon  I think all these people involved in the music industry back then , are more comfortable now with the idea of sharing their memoires with the public. Maybe it's their age, maturity, being wiser. It won't be a surprise if autobiographies and memoires start popping up on the book shelves. We must not forget there is a world economic crisis, and no one is going to say no to a few extra bucks in the pocket. Love the picture. Checked the site Morin Heights on Google Earth. What an incredible setting!!!!How could you not produce beautiful music in such awsome surroundings. I think I would have no problem walking through the forest. I'm sure the ghosts will be very friendly ghosts. |
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Post by Sir Lorry Load on Apr 16, 2010 11:05:44 GMT -5
Yet another interesting and informative article, Glaucus, thank you. And for the fact that you took the time and care to type-out the entire story? An appreciative 'double-thank you', my friend! I'm so glad, too, that you boosted this thread back to the top: it's the first time I have read it, and it is truly fascinating. The sad part for me was learning that Le Studio was to be torn down to make way for condos.... a sacrilege, indeed!  I suppose that this did eventually happen? Such a pity if it did. -Bud |
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Post by suncatcher on Apr 24, 2010 0:00:23 GMT -5
Just catching up on some threads and came across this one. Thank you so much, Glaucus! The article is fascinating and I really enjoyed reading it. (And I remember the thread from over two years ago - can't believe it's been that long!) Not being from Quebec, I had to look up "Laurentians" and "tamaracks' to find they're mountains and trees. Morin Heights sounds magnificent. I've got to agree with Vicki: "How could you not produce beautiful music in such awsome surroundings. I think I would have no problem walking through the forest. I'm sure the ghosts will be very friendly ghosts." "54 gold and platinum records" - Wow! - it's really hard to believe that a such a successful studio can simply pass away. I guess Andre Perry's around 73 now. I liked the little bits about Cat Stevens, too. Rather funny to imagine him stuck in a snow drift and being rescued by two Morin Heights women. Glaucus, I'd especially like to join Bud in saying: "... for the fact that you took the time and care to type-out the entire story? An appreciative 'double-thank you', my friend!" (P.S. You have such a nice way with words, Bud!) All the best, ~Sun~ |
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Post by Deleted on Mar 2, 2011 14:17:14 GMT -5
Bringing this back up because much to my surprise, Le Studio in Morin Heights was apparently still standing last Spring (05/29/10). This fan made a video looking in from the outside. It's quite sad to see how the place has deteriorated over the last few years, when you think of all the great acts that recorded there and the international reputation the place had.
Steve recorded "Numbers" there in March and April 1975, and then worked partly on "Izitso" and "Back To Earth" a couple of years later. You can see a grand piano still inside! Must be in very bad shape.
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Post by Sir Lorry Load on Mar 2, 2011 14:40:24 GMT -5
Bringing this back up because much to my surprise, Le Studio in Morin Heights was apparently still standing last Spring (05/29/10). This fan made a video looking in from the outside. It's quite sad to see how the place has deteriorated over the last few years, when you think of all the great acts that recorded there and the international reputation the place had. Steve recorded "Numbers" there in March and April 1975, and then worked partly on "Izitso" and "Back To Earth" a couple of years later. You can see a grand piano still inside! Must be in very bad shape. Thank you for this fine update, Charles. I'm happy and relieved to know that Morin Heights' Le Studo is still standing, at least! Maybe there remains a glimmer of the notion that it will yet be refurbished and returned to its former glory... I sure hope so. -Bud |
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Post by suncatcher on Mar 2, 2011 15:34:48 GMT -5
Bringing this back up because much to my surprise, Le Studio in Morin Heights was apparently still standing last Spring (05/29/10). This fan made a video looking in from the outside. It's quite sad to see how the place has deteriorated over the last few years, when you think of all the great acts that recorded there and the international reputation the place had. Steve recorded "Numbers" there in March and April 1975, and then worked partly on "Izitso" and "Back To Earth" a couple of years later. You can see a grand piano still inside! Must be in very bad shape. I can’t tell you the ache this video puts in my heart – as hollow as this deserted and lonely studio. Can you feel the ghosts? They may be friendly, but they’re sad. |
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Post by ilovemycat on Mar 2, 2011 23:26:51 GMT -5
Very interesting thread. You can just imagine what a wonderful place to record an album this studio would have been. Numbers is surely a testament to the studio.
Yes, its sad they are tearing it down. I guess maybe the paparazzi would invade it nowadays anyway.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 11, 2012 3:37:39 GMT -5
Seems like the old "Studio" is still there as of October 2011. This band decided to record a video on the surroundings. Gives you an idea of what the place is like. They even show you the road to get there!
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Post by ilovemycat on Jan 12, 2012 17:11:51 GMT -5
The grounds are truly beautiful and inspiring. There must be some good energy there...I read on the youtube video that the Yamaha Grand is still there. I wonder why someone hasn't scooped that baby up.
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Hi, Glaucus!
