Why Cantopop stars from Leslie Cheung to Faye Wong loved Avon Recording Studios

We join a tour of the legendary Hong Kong recording studio in which the biggest Cantopop stars recorded their greatest hits

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Visitors to Avon Recording Studios have the chance to make a recording of themselves singing, in the place where Cantopop’s greatest, from Leslie Cheung to Faye Wong and Leon Lai, put down tracks. Photo: Jonathan Wong

Published: 1:15pm, 11 Aug 2024

What connects Eason Chan Yik-shun, Faye Wong and Leon Lai Ming apart from all three being Cantopop superstars? They all recorded some of their biggest hits at the Avon Recording Studios.

Tucked away on the second floor of a building in Nanking Street, in a quiet part of bustling Jordan in Kowloon, Avon has been a must-visit destination for Hong Kong’s musicians since its founding in 1983.

In the past four decades, it has been used by, among others, Roman Tam Pak-sin, Danny Chan Pak-keung, Sally Yeh Chien-wen, Samuel Hui Koon-kit, Sandy Lam Yik-lin and even Leslie Cheung Kwok-wing. It has been said that the late Anita Mui Yim-fong did most of her recordings there after 1988, while Leon Lai’s first five studio albums were also made there.

Like no other recording studio in the region, Avon bore witness to the rise and fall of Cantopop; needless to say, it has seen better days. In 2011, a good few years after the golden era of Hong Kong pop music, the studio had to downsize from its two-floor operation to just one.

Vintage meets modern in the control room in Avon Recording Studios, in Jordan, Hong Kong. Photo: Jonathan Wong

When it faced closure again in 2015, it was taken over by Hong Kong singer-songwriter Hins Cheung King-hin, who reportedly spent HK$20 million to buy and renovate the space. In a 2018 interview, he referred to Avon as a Cantopop “Music Hall of Fame”, and this was what drove his efforts to salvage it.

Built by a Japanese radio company, Avon Recording Studios is one of the oldest and most esteemed professional recording facilities in Hong Kong. Designed by an American recording studio designer and audio engineer, Tom Hidley, both its studios were built with no symmetrical corners or walls to avoid the diffuse reflection of sounds.