According to a journal I kept it was "a
rough couple of weeks after the first session".
I'm not sure what I meant, but assume it had
something to do with the scheduling problems created when I
closed the studio down again to allow Milan to finish things
to his exacting standards.
But finally it was official. Studio B was
open for business. And it appeared that business was ready
for Studio B.
They all came. Harry Balk, Ollie McLaughlin,
Ed Wingate, Clay McMurray, Theo-Coff, Don Juan Mancha,
Popcorn Wylie, John Rhys Eddins, Mike Terry, Jack Ashford,
George McGregor, Holland/ Dozier/Holland, Mike Valvano,
Armen
Boladian, Bob Babbit, Columbia Records, Elektra Records,
Stax Records, Capitol Records and many I can't think
of.
It was crazy. All this and we were still
officially building the place.
Offices needed completing. I see by my notes
that the drum room wasn't built until early March, which
confirmed
my suspicions that the room was an additional
afterthought. Neica Lee's front office was yet to be built.
She was operating out of the upstairs lobby area by the
offices. This became very inconvenient monitoring who
was coming in the front door.
The main studio doors would be locked and
whoever came in the front door would have to identify
themselves on an
intercom to get buzzed in. What a nightmare! I finally hired
a receptionist to sit in front and handle the walk-ins. Her
name was Beverly. I don't remember her last name. I only had
her there for about two months. I knew I had to get Neica
Lee in front, so building her office became top priority.
Once Neica's office was completed things settled down to a
nice day to day hum. There were times we would be totally
slammed with sessions and other times it was entirely
capable of becoming extremely slow. After all...this was the
record business. But things were steadily growing and
Studio B was an obvious winner.
Notes thanks to
Ralph Terrana
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