The demise of EMI

EMI: Another One Bites the Dust

14 December, 2011 by Mike Paterson

Last month saw the demise of yet another of Britain’s former industrial giants. Sony Corporation and Universal Music Group bought the only remaining shiny jewels off the corpse of what was once the mighty EMI Group, for almost 80 years a world leader the fields of music recording and publishing as well as electronic research, development and manufacturing. At its height in the 1960s, EMI employed 14,000 people at its 150 acre Blyth Road headquarters in Hayes, Middlesex.
It is sadly ironic that this year marks the centenary of the Blyth Road plant and the 80th anniversary of the founding of EMI itself, in March 1931.

"Nipper" the dog.

But re-wind to 1897 when gramophone inventor, the German Emile Berliner, founded the Gramophone Company in London. Among the firm’s early artists were Nellie Melba and Enrico Caruso. In 1899 the Gramophone Company adopted the iconic picture of His Master’s Voice by British painter Francis Barraud as a trademark logo. But first they asked him to change the image of the gramophone from a cylinder format to their own disk format. Adverse business conditions during the Depression caused the Gramophone Company to merge with its rival Colombia Phonograph Company in 1931, forming Electric and Musical Industries (EMI).
By this time the company had been operating out of its Hayes HQ for some 20 years. The next several decades saw it become a huge operation as it scooped up – and made deals with – existing successful labels. EMI acquired Parlophone and Capitol, and established licensing agreements with RCA Victor, Columbia and Tamla Motown giving it an astonishing roster which included: Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Cliff Richard, Elvis Presley, Adam Faith, The Beach Boys, the leading Tamla Motown artists and – most famously of all – the Beatles. By the time it signed Robbie Williams and the Spice Girls in the 1990s, EMI had also acquired Virgin Music and in the 1970s taken on Pink Floyd, Queen and Deep Purple.
The other arm of its music business was publishing. From its earliest days EMI Music Publishing steadily purchased music catalogues making it a world-leader with a massive revenue stream through royalties.

Sir Godfrey Hounsfield (1919 - 2004)

So far, so glam. For many, the more interesting part of the EMI business was its research and development. Effectively founded by the inventor of the gramophone, the Blyth Road laboratories were instrumental in developing early television technology and made a crucial contribution to the invention of radar during World War II. During the same period, legendary engineer Alan Blumlein invented stereophonic sound although it took several decades before the technology took off. The labs were subsequently heavily involved in the invention of electronic tape and transistor era computing. But the biggest achievement of all was probably the invention of the CT-scanner in the early 1970s. It soon became known as the EMI Scanner and its inventor, EMI engineer Sir Godfrey Hounsfield jointly won the Nobel Prize in 1979 for his work. Story goes that the EMI Scanner’s ultimate failure commercially was due to American hostility resulting from EMI Records having the Sex Pistols on its roster. EMI dropped the punks from the label, but too late. One can’t help wondering whether this story has a whiff of Concorde about it, that is to say “Not Invented Here”.

EMI apprentices, circa 1955.

So where did it all go wrong for this massively successful British company? Well, it’s complicated, and this sort of thing is not my forte. But classic things. The organisation had become too bloated globally with duplication among a huge number of business units; it was over-reliant on its music publishing assets relying on momentum from these with “Best Of…” releases while its current crop of artists were not being profitable; it didn’t understand, appreciate or quickly adopt new music distribution and monetisation offered by the Internet. In 2006/2007, EMI sustained a £260 million loss, a situation likely to get worse not better. The group was picked up by private equity firm Terra Firma for £3.2 billion (!), but despite urgent cuts, rationalisations and divestments there was no saving the group when many of its key artists turned their back on the label, among other problems. Many may celebrate a private equity company getting a bloody nose, but the upshot of all this is the final demise of a once-great British company. For a better analysis of what went wrong at EMI, read this piece in the Telegraph from January 2008, by former Virgin Music employee Robert Sandall.

(all material from  http://londonhistorians.wordpress.com/2011/12/14/emi-another-one-bites-the-dust/)

"Ginger" Evans--EMI worker 1980s

This photo is of Eric "Ginger" Evans, a larger than life character who worked at EMI when I was there, round about the mid 80s. It's difficult to see here, but the reason why he earned the nickname "Ginger" was due to his mane of ginger hair. The only info I have about him is that he lived at 43 Judge Heath Lane, Hayes and worked in the packing dept at EMI Hayes. Any more info about Ginger, or indeed, anybody else who is listed here, would be much appreciated!

Some more Staff member news at Thorn-EMI Radar

hi, again chaps!

just thought i'd post a few more tidbits about ex-EMI Staff who worked at Hayes, Dawley Road site way back in the 80s!

i met another engineer recently who used to work on the Nimrod radar system...his name is Mike Warner. Together with Malcolm Oxley, this dynamic-duo worked on PDSC (pre delivery stress conditioning) testing of the system.

apparently, when EMI closed down, both Malcol Oxley and Mike teamed up together in their own business cleaning carpets! they split up after quite a few years and Mike now works as the manager at the Beck Theatre in Hayes, next to the Court.

i had the privilege to talk briefly to my then manager at EMI, Ron Sparks, after i found his home telephone number on a piece of scrap paper from all those years ago! we atlked about getting together sometime for a drink and chat but unfortunately time hasn't allowed so far.

another bit of sad news that i picked up from Phil Armstrong who also worked with us at Hayes.
our friend John Gillbert, who was an ex-Army man working on radars, passed away in 2000, after living in a hospice for several years.
i knew John very well, and he was one of the men who was responsible for teaching me a hell of a lot about radar transmitters etc.
John was well known for his trademark blue army sweater he always wore, and the shoulders of which were always covered in huge amounts of dandruff!
John was an extremely hard-working chap, and was forever at work, whether it be saturdays, sundays or public holidays. i once asked him why he put in so much time, to which he said it was the only way he could afford to send his children to private school.
inevitably i suppose, his marriage ended in a divorce, long after i had left EMI in 1986.
after EMI closed down, John went to work at Hammersmith Hospital apparently and shortly after had a massive heart attack, from which he never recovered.
anyway, Phil Armstrong told me this news and also which hospice John was staying, but when i contacted them, they told me he had died in 2000 sadly.
if John's children are reading this, guys....you should be proud of your dad...he went through hell working all those hours to get you guys educated!

Phil Armstrong is still to be seen sometimes walking his dogs in Hayes Park, Hayes, Middx. he works at TMD microwave devices at Springfield Road, hayes.

Cyril Heard now lives somewhere down in Devon or Cornwall, probably still playing around with his radio controlled aerplanes! Cyril was another guy who was always ready to help teach us newcomers about radars...a thoroughly down-to-earth guy indeed!

Dave Bhatnagara apparently works at Page Aerospace in Surrey.
B Singh emigrated to Australia in 1984 to work as.....a bus driver!

other engineers i have never seen again are Steve Read (mentioned elsewhere here in this blog) and Phil Seastrom (Phil worked on the receiver section of the radar), John Rampton, Chagan Patel (he worked on the ADEPT ATE setup), Bertie Joseph.....more will be added on if i remember them....!

more EMI engineers...

hi, folks! after a long absence due to worldy pressures, im back at the the helm again!

continuing with our talk about ex-EMI engineers, here are some more chaps i recall during my time there:
Roger Warnet
Cyril Heard
Ron Sparks
Alan Swallow
Ted Boucher
Jag (Singh)
John Gilbert
Phil Armstrong
Dave Bhatnagra
Mike Warner
Hugo Pow
Steve Read
 all these guys worked on the Searchwater radar system; alan swallow was the much-feared, much-maligned (rightly or wrongly!) manager; ted boucher was another much-maligned director; hugo pow was a relative newcomer, but due to his fast-talking expertise, soon became our senior and tried telling us how radar worked (before EMI, he was a rock singer!!); steve read was a great chap initially, very talkative, but somehow suddenly flipped a few months later and always kept very quiet for the rest of the time he was at EMI (he eventually left EMI and moved up north to work on the scottish oil rigs).

if any of these guys are reading this, please get in touch by leaving a message or comment here...none of the above comments should be taken personally!

 ok, folks, so here we go...

so far, the first 2 radio bods who come to my mind straight away are chap called John (or Big John, to give him his very appropriate monicker!), and one Dave Page.

these two guys both worked at EMI (which later became Thorn-EMI, but more of that later), at the Radar building that was known as Dawley 1. Basically, there were 2 buildings on Dawley Road, Hayes, Middx, building 1 being the QA, test and production facility and building 2 being the R&D facility.

Dave Page, as far as i can recall, started off as an apprentice in the old days, as that usually was the way employment was in those days, gradually moving up into his final position of senior test engineer, working on the famous Searchwater (search-puddle, as we called it!) airborne radar, which apparently is still in use by the RAF in its Nimrod aircraft.

the other guy called Big John started with EMI much later, i would say just a few years before Thorn-EMI closed down, somtime around 1989 or thereabouts.
this guy was nicknamed Big John, because thats what he was...over 6.5 feet tall and as wide as 2 barn doors!

in fact, EMI legend has it that he lifted a young junior engineer up by his ankles and held him upside down for a while, when the young guy immediately shut up!
this john guy (i cant recall his surname) used to drive an oldish Ford Transit van, which he had converted inside to house all his radio gear, and he used to go out at lunch time to fiddle about in there.

i lost touch unfortumately with all the engineers at EMI when i left in 1986, hence the reason why ive set up this blog, in the hope that either or all of them may come across it on the web and leave a message here.....

ok, enough for today...more to follow...

This is an initial feeble attempt at getting together with the few radio hams who were at Thorn-EMI between the years of 1970 to 1986.

This doesnt mean however that this group is limited to radio hams who worked during that period within Thorn-EMI, or any other company.

In fact, all experienced, not-so-experienced and complete newcomers are quite welcome here -- dont be shy!
Truth be told, this is an opportunity to boost this fantastic hobby, which is beginning to show a decline nowadays. So come on in...and welcome!