On this day 25 years ago… 15th May 1986, EMI opened its first UK CD pressing plant in Swindon, in Penny Lane Greenbridge Industrial Estate. Interesting of itself? Well, perhaps if you live in Swindon, or the UK. But there’s more, a DS connection…
The first CD made at the Swindon plant was The Dark Side Of The Moon, using the (first and) new EMI (version 0) mastering – see Vernon’s great information on this.
And when the plant closed 16 years later in 2002, the last CD pressed was TDSOTM ‘The First And Last’, commemorated as such.
Prior to this EMI had other companies manufacture CDs on its behalf, with the EMI name only added to labels, with the ensuing interest around other companies and masterings.
The Swindon plant was not the first in the UK. This distinction goes to the Nimbus CD plant in Monmouth, opened in August 1984.
