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The Recording Studio Where David Bowie Recorded His Final Album Has Shut Down

The New York recording studio where David Bowie recorded Blackstar and 2013’s The Next Day has shut down.

The Magic Shop Recording Studio which was set up by Steve Rosenthal in 1988 closed down because it could no longer afford to compete with the rising rents due to gentrification.

As well as Bowie, the studio has hosted guests like Arcade Fire, The Ramons, Loud Reed and Dave Grohl. It featured in the final episode of Foo Fighters‘ HBO series Sonic Highways which followed the recording of their album of the same name.

As FactMag reports, last year there were reports of Grohl buying the studio, however, it was never confirmed.

In a goodbye letter posted on the studio’s Facebook last month, Rosenthal thanked Grohl, the band and their manager Lee Johnson “for stepping up big time last year to try and save the studio from this fate.”

“I would also like to thank the late, great David Bowie for recording Blackstar and the Next Day at the studio. It was an honor to have him and Tony Visconti working here for the last few years,” he wrote.

He parted with some closing words about New York City saying, “Maybe what I believe in is no longer of value, but it was for us and we lived it.”

“As the city becomes more of a corporate and condo island, some of us wish for a better balance between money and art, between progress and preservation, and we hope that one day we will see a reversal of the destruction of conscience and community we are witnessing.”

Bowie’s Blackstar was one of the final albums to be recorded there and was released in January days before his death on 10th January in New York.



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Posted by The Magic Shop Recording Studio on Monday, 22 February 2016

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