A BRAND new music studio has opened in Test Valley and has become the hub of a vintage group who tour around Europe.

Vintage Keys Studio, in Lockerley, is a music production company and recording studio opened by musician and sound engineer Steve Christie and is the home of The Spitfire Sisters.

Steve was trained at Air Studios in London in the mid 1990s, learning the trade from the likes of George Martin and Tony Visconti, and working for artists including Elton John, Hans Zimmer and Mark Knopfler.

Steve said: "We have been running privately for about 25 years, since I left Air Studios to pursue a musical career, the studio and its collection of keyboards has grown ever since.

"We are offering a high quality sound production and recording facility, with a 500 square foot floor space, and beautiful acoustics for live performers, bands and ensembles, and wanted to provide a real experience for people to come and record in a creative place, with amazing instruments and equipment you can actually touch, as opposed to sitting in front of a computer using plug ins."

The studio was opened to allow creative members of the public to record their music, as well as getting help from a team of session musicians.

He added: "We have acoustic treatments that can be moved to suit the recordings we are providing, rather than having to rely solely upon artificial reverbs and effects.

"We can make an ambient recording of an opera singer or small chamber orchestra, or a live recording of a band, a huge echoey drum sound like John Bonham of Led Zeppelin, right down to an acoustically dead sound for voiceovers."

Vintage Keys Studio is located at Unit 25, Home Farm Business Centre, East Tytherley Road, Lockerley.

To book the studio, and find out more, visit: https://vintagekeysstudio.com/