11 June 2024
Sensible Music Ltd was formed in 1977 by Jeff Allen originally as a music equipment and backline hire company before branching out into music event planning and organisation. Through the 90s the company then continued to branch out into new ventures with on-location recording services thus being one of the first to offer digital recording and playback services for live concerts via portable ProTools rigs.
To create a further extension to the production pipeline, Sensible invested heavily in a bricks and mortar recording, post-production and mixing facility in the mid-90s.
Sensible Music Studios was established as a state-of-the-art facility with PMC monitoring and a high-spec fully automatic, recallable Euphonix CS3000 console as well as an extensive array of backline as part of the then Sensible Backline Hire department. Live concerts recorded and mixed by Sensible include the likes of Michael Jackson, Stevie Wonder, Seal, Duran Duran and Whitney Houston.
As the studio began to pick up pace in it’s own right, the facility expanded into building a series of on-site high-spec production suites complete with independent isolated live rooms. Through the years, residents of the production suites ranged from East Seventeen through to NDubz to Amy Winehouse.
Through the late 2010s as the event planning and on-location concert recording business slowed down, focus was concentrated on maximising the studio’s facilities as acts continued to pour through to doors to record and produce their next output at Sensible, working with esteemed chief studio engineer Jon Moon. The decade of the 2010s saw Sensible be involved with albums such as Amy Winehouse’s ‘Back to Black’, Jessie J’s ‘Who You Are’, The Buzzcocks ‘30’ and Faithless’ ‘The Dance’ to name a few. To this day the business continues to focus heavily on the studio with further expansion into offering rehearsals in the 1000sqft ‘Studio 4’ – large enough for full production rehearsals!
Fast forward to 2024 and Jeff Allen has decided to take a step back for a well-deserved retirement and rest. At this point Shelby Logan Warne and Grace Hayhurst enter into the picture to buy out the shares of the business and begin the process of bringing Sensible into a new chapter, building on a legacy of nearly 50 years since the formation of the company and 35 years of recording heritage at Sensible Music Studios.
Bringing together a combined 26 years of experience in audio engineering, producing, session work, studio and business management, technical skills, and bucketloads of tenacity – Shelby and Grace look forward to putting to practice their combined entrepreneurial determination and love of music into keeping the spirit of Sensible alive for many years to come.
