Astoria is a boat, a houseboat, a houseboat & studio owned by David Gilmore.
Shows what you can have when you get money for nothing and chicks for free.
It was built in 1911 for 20,000 ($2,649,863 in 2017 US dollars) for Fred Karno, a vaudeville comedian who is credited with the
pie in the face gag. A 90 foot long steel hull (which was just replaced), Mahogany framed, Crittall windows, and a deck large enough
for a 90 piece orchestra.
Of course being on even protected water during exceptional storms extra measures (read tying off to big trees) must be taken.
Gilmore bought it in 1986.
He added the recording studio’s 20x30 foot control room to the three bedrooms, kitchen, bathroom, a big lounge.
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Parts of each of the last three Pink Floyd studio albums, A Momentary Lapse of Reason (1987), The Division Bell (1994), and The Endless River (2014), were recorded on the boat, as were parts of Gilmour’s solo album, On an Island (2006). His most recent solo album, Rattle That Lock (2015) was mixed and had partially been recorded there. It was also used for mixing the Pink Floyd live albums Delicate Sound of Thunder (1988) and Pulse (1995) as well as the Pulse film (1995), Gilmour’s Remember That Night DVD/Blu-ray (2007) and his Live in Gdańsk (2008) live album/DVD.
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I guess that qualifies it as a tax write off.
For you music tech nerds…
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According to an interview with Phil Taylor (Gilmour’s guitar technician), the Astoria was originally equipped with a DDA AMR 24 mixer console and UREI 813 studio main monitors with Phase Linear amps. The UREI 813s were replaced around 1990 by ATC main monitors. Customized ATC SCM150ASL active speakers are used for the main left and right channels with a standard ATC SCM150ASL active speaker used as the centre channel. The centre channel sits above an ATC SCM0.1-15 subwoofer. The surround monitors are two ATC SCM50ASLs. A variety of near-field monitor speakers are used including Yamaha NS-10s and Auratones depending on who happens to be working at the studio. The acoustic design was done with the assistance of Nick Whitaker, an independent acoustician, and much of the equipment was recommended by James Guthrie and Andrew Jackson. Nowadays the Astoria includes a Neve 88R mixing console, as well as three Studer A827 multi-tracks and Ampex ATR-100 tape recorders, which were modified by Tim de Paravicini, Esoteric Audio Research’s (EAR) founder. The conversion to a studio also required 23 kilometres of cables, which were sourced from Van den Hul cables of Holland. There are various compressors from Pye and EAR 660 tube designs, as well as EAR 825s for EQ.
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… you know, for when you build your studio.
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