In Sound On Sound’s recent interview with producer Catherine Marks, it was revealed that the owners of Assault & Battery Studios had recently purchased Radiohead’s Cadac G-series console. The console is now at the center of the renovated Assault & Battery Studio 2.
“Flood and his business/production partner Alan Moulder bought the console from Radiohead, who first used it to record their 1997 landmark album OK Computer; prior to that, it had lived at Wessex Studios in North London, where it was employed on classic recordings by the likes of the Sex Pistols, Queen and the Clash” (Sound On Sound).
Nigel likely purchased the console from Wessex Studios when building a studio for Radiohead to use for the recording of OK Computer.
In the photo of the desk provided with the interview, two pedalboards can be seen. One is clearly the Ed’s 2017 TheGigRig “Portable” pedalboard, totally unchanged from when we last saw it. The second appears to be Ed’s 2014 TheGigRig “Portable” pedalboard, but with the Strymon DIG which Ed used in 2017 replaced by a Line 6 DL4. The bit of masking tape under the DL4′s footswitch suggests that it’s his primary DL4, the same one as used on the A Moon Shaped Pool tour.
Ed already revealed in 2017 that he’s working on the solo album with FLOOD and Catharine Marks (both based at Assault & Battery studios). The Cadac console was installed at the studio in 2018, and the interview with Catherine Marks was published in January 2019, so (depending on how recently the photos were taken) it’s possible Ed was working on the solo album as recently as the last months of 2018!
A second photo published with the photo shows that the live room is fairly empty. The drum kit isn’t even mic’d up. But we can see one of Ed’s Audio Kitchen 1x12” speaker cabs. It is mic’d up, and the speaker cable stretches back towards the control room. Given that there aren’t any setups from other musicians, it’s possible that Ed was just competing overdubs by the time this photo was taken.
The following photo of Ed, from a Guitar.com interview published in December 2017, was taken in the same room at Studio 2 (note the curtains, mirror, wood floor, and carpet).
