Update: March 28: The recording console sold for nearly triple the pre-sale estimate! From Pink Floyd’s Facebook page:
“Yesterday, an Abbey Road recording console used by Pink Floyd during some of the recording of The Dark Side of the Moon, sold at auction at Bonhams New York. The pre sale estimate of £550,000 for the 40–channel EMI TG12345 MK IV console was easily eclipsed by the final selling price of $1,807,500 (£1,441,842). This is a new world record for an item of technology, the previous record being £718,000 paid for an Apple 1 computer in 2014. It is also easily the most expensive piece of Pink Floyd memorabilia to date.”
The console, made in 1971, was housed in Studio 2 at Abbey Road Studios, and used by a variety of artists. Other than Pink Floyd, these included the likes of Paul McCartney, George Harrison, Ringo Starr and Kate Bush.
Our original item from March 7…
If you’ve ever wondered what it would be like to actually own the recording console used by Pink Floyd to create The Dark Side of the Moon (and also used by many other artists including: Paul McCartney and Wings, George Harrison, Ringo Starr and Kate Bush), now you can make that dream come true. But you’d better have some deep pockets.
Described as “an Abbey Road Studios EMI TG12345 MK IV recording console used between 1971-1983, housed in Studio 2,” the recording setup is one of many rock, pop and R&B-related items being auctioned off by Bonhams March 27 at 1 p.m. in New York, and you can be sure you won’t be the only one who want s to put this baby in your spare room.
Related: The Dark Side of the Moon is released, 1973
Titled “TCM Presents…Rock and Roll Through the Lens,” the auction includes dozens of items ranging from a Gretsch guitar owned by Bono and signed by all the members of U2 to tour jackets from Elvis Presley and Bruce Springsteen, a Beatles gold record for Let It Be presented to engineer Glyn Johns, a Bob Dylan poetry manuscript, platform shoes worn by Cher, original posters for concerts by James Brown, Little Richard and others, a signed Michael Jackson songwriting contract, a Rolling Stone magazine signed by the Rolling Stones, David Bowie and Queen portraits by famed photographer Mick Rock and even Simpsons print signed by Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Lenny Kravitz and others.
Other artists featured in the auction range from Jimi Hendrix and Eric Clapton, country legend Patsy Cline and the recently deceased funk musician Bernie Worrell.
The Bonhams site for the auction pictures all of the items that will be up for grabs, and you can start your window shopping tour here. There are, of course, rules galore guiding the bidding process, and you must register first to prove that you’re serious.
Oh, and in case you’re outbid on that console, there’s another place you can go to spend your money on Floyd artifacts. San Francisco Art Exchange LLC (SFAE) has been selected to exclusively represent what’s described as “the most valuable collection of rock and roll artwork ever to be offered for sale”: 11 original paintings created and hand-selected by famed English artist Gerald Scarfe, from Pink Floyd’s 1979 album The Wall.
A major exhibition will be held in July with Scarfe in attendance at the invitation-only premiere to be held at SFAE’s gallery (458 Geary St, San Francisco, CA). Among the paintings are artworks such as The Scream, Wife With Flaming Hair, Giant Judge and Hammers, The Mother, Education For What? No Jobs!, The Wife’s Shadow, One of The Frightened Ones, The Gross Inflatable Pig, Comfortably Numb, and The Teacher, as well as the original storyboard created for the film which incorporates 50 original renderings.Details to be announced, but you can go here for further information.
Watch a documentary on The Dark Side of the Moon
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