In 1898, a group of pioneering music enthusiasts working for The Gramophone Company opened Britain's first gramophone recording studio in the basement smoking-room of an old hotel at 31 Maiden Lane, Covent Garden. On rudimentary equipment in this improvised studio, the men captured sound and pressed some of the earliest records. 31 Maiden Lane now houses a pizza parlour called Fire & Stone, and nowhere on the building is there mention of its rich heritage. It seems perverse that the only round things celebrated in this building are the pizzas (delicious though they may be). I want to raise the £3,500 +VAT and fees needed to fund a Westminster Council green plaque to mark the building's crucial and someone secret role in launching what is now a £4.4bn industry. The Gramophone Company went on to to merge with Columbia to become EMI, and within decades it had moved to far more illustrious premises on Abbey Road.... The early days of the recorded music industry have always fascinated me and are the subject of my novel, The Industry of Human Happiness.