Shed Studios

Shed Studios was responsible for the production of hundreds of band recordings and a large body of music used for various advertisements and films in Rhodesia, and later in Zimbabwe, from 1975 until 2000 . The company "Shed Recording Studios (Pvt) Ltd" (now defunct) began as a collaboration between Steve Roskilly, Martin Norris and Neil Thain, all employees of Rhodesia Television, in 1975 in Salisbury, Rhodesia.

Initially housed in a converted caravan, the first studio was based on a half inch 8 track Itam 805 tape recorder and series 2 Soundcraft 12:4:2 mixer. Mastering onto a Revox A77. This outfit learned its trade by making a series of live recordings at various music venues, but soon found that the caravan was a restriction and a proper studio essential for progress.

The equipment was set up in one of Blackberry Productions' radio studios, and the company started making advertising jingles, children's story records, and a few private band recordings. As the advertising work increased, the partners lost Neil Thain, who moved to Johannesburg, and in 1979 the business moved into a purpose built professional studio premises on the 4th floor of Park House, Park Street. With 4,000 sq ft (370 m²) available, these were comparatively large studios, comprising 20 x 20 ft (6.1 m) control rooms and 40 x 25-foot (7.6 m) live rooms. Its first recordings were for the folk singer and advertising Creative Director Clem Tholet. Clem's album Songs of Love and War was a chronicle of his early life. Clem Tholet became a good friend of the studios and brought a significant body of advertising work to it in the following years, as well as numerous privately produced singles, albums and film tracks.

The studios by now were called simply Shed Studios. Martin Norris and Steve Roskilly then set about offering free studio production time to deserving artists in return for a percentage of any resultant incomes. A publishing company Shed Music (Pvt) Ltd was created to deal with the music rights. In 1980, as the country became Zimbabwe, success was had with predominantly two artists : David Scobie and The Bhundu Boys, though many others including The Rusike Brothers, The Great Witch, The Real Sounds, became household names.

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