Scott Walker — London Solo Career and Kingsway Studios

Scott Walker — born Noel Scott Engel in Hamilton, Ohio — became one of Britain's biggest pop stars in the late 1960s after arriving in London with The Walker Brothers in 1965. His four consecutive UK solo number-one albums between 1967 and 1969 (Scott, Scott 2, Scott 3, Scott 4) showcased orchestral pop of extraordinary sophistication, recorded largely at London studios including Kingsway. The Scott albums featured interpretations of Jacques Brel alongside Walker's own darkly romantic originals, making him simultaneously a teen idol and a serious artistic presence.

Walker's subsequent trajectory was one of pop music's most extraordinary transformations. After a commercial retreat through the 1970s and 80s, he re-emerged with Tilt (1995), The Drift (2006), and Bish Bosch (2012) — albums of such uncompromising avant-garde intensity that they earned the admiration of David Bowie, Brian Eno, Marc Almond, and Radiohead's Thom Yorke. The Drift in particular — which reportedly features the sound of a fist striking a side of pork — is considered one of the most unsettling records in Western music. He also collaborated with Sunn O))) on Soused (2014).

London was the city where Walker became a star and where he continued to live and work for most of his adult life. He was awarded a BAFTA Special Award in 2013 and passed away on March 22, 2019. His influence on sophisticated, orchestral, and avant-garde pop is immeasurable, and artists as diverse as Jarvis Cocker and Nick Cave have cited him as essential to their development.