Compass Point Studios
Compass Point Studios was a music recording studio in the Bahamas, founded in 1977 by Chris Blackwell, the owner of Island Records. The concept of the studio was of a recording facility supported by in-house sets of artists, musicians, producers and engineers, all dedicated to a specific and recognisable sound and style. The session band at the studios, as well as visiting recording artists, became known as the Compass Point All Stars. Located on the island of New Providence, ten miles west of Nassau, the studio attracted musical artists from around the world to record at its facilities during the 1970s and 1980s. AC/DC's Back In Black, the second highest selling album ever, was one of many albums recorded there. The studio closed on September 2010. History Compass Point Studios was built in 1977 in Nassau, Bahamas, by Chris Blackwell, founder of Island Records. In 1980, Blackwell assembled a recording band with Jamaican reggae foundations, based around Sly and Robbie, who had been signed to Island Records in the 1970s. The band consisted of Sly Dunbar (drums), Robbie Shakespeare (bass), Mikey Chung (guitar), Uziah "Sticky" Thompson (percussion), and British guitarist Barry Reynolds, formerly a session for Marianne Faithfull, another Island Records artist, along with synth-keyboards from French-African Wally Badarou (later of Level 42), and then Tyrone Downie (formerly of The Wailers). Under Blackwell's direction, and with co-producer, engineer and mixer Alex Sadkin, the group created the "Compass Point Sound", providing backing for albums including Warm Leatherette, Nightclubbing and Living My Life by Grace Jones and Sheffield Steel by Joe Cocker. This backing band later became known as the "Compass Point All Stars" (CPAS). Blackwell said that he "wanted a new, progressive-sounding band, a Jamaican rhythm section with an edgy mid-range and a brilliant synth player. And I got what I wanted, fortunately". One resident musician in the early period of the studios was Robert Palmer, who provided backing vocals on Joe Cocker's "Sweet Little Woman", along with Jimmy Cliff. Sly and Robbie used some of the CPAS for Black Uhuru and Gwen Guthrie projects, eventually adding Darryl Thompson, Spaceman Patterson, and Monte Brown (guitars) to the core of the band. An attempt to record a CPAS album ended up as Sly and Robbie's Language Barrier. Compass Point residents later included Chris Frantz (drums) and Tina Weymouth (bass) of Talking Heads, who went on to start Tom Tom Club with co-producer Steven Stanley engineering and mixing. British engineer Andy Lyden came to the studios to work on a Wally Badarou solo project, and became a resident engineer. The core musicians of CPAS lived in a condominium called "Tip-Top", at the top of a hill behind the studio. James Brown came to record with the CPAS, but the project did not work out due to publishing disputes. The studios developed into a musical community, and through the 1980s, the label of "Compass Point All Stars" was given to many creative projects recorded at or simply connected to the studio, including productions by