Probably the most popular album of the Dire Straits, coinciding with the arrival of the CD. As a result it was part of the worldwide promotion of the new medium. It was also one of the first pop albums to be digitally recorded, on AIR Studio’s 24 track digital tape machine from Sony. Associated Independent Recording (AIR) is the recording company founded by producer George Martin, the so called fifth Beatle.
AIR built the studio where Dire Straits fifth album was recorded in 1979 on the Caribbean Island of Montserrat. Martin had a house there, so it was convenient. Ten years later it would close, partly because of a hurricane, but mostly because the recording industry had changed by that time. Record executives wanted more control over the recording process, so they didn’t want it to happen in far away tropical locations.
Some of the known names that recorded there were: the Police, Earth, Wind & Fire, Ultravox, Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark, Paul McCartney, Gerry Rafferty, Rush, the Rolling Stones, Black Sabbath, Midge Ure, Little River Band, Duran Duran, Sheena Easton and Luther Vandross. After 1989 the site has been abandoned, and is slowly deteriorating.