Follow the yellow brick road

In October 2019, I found myself at Abbey Road Studios again. It's a fabulous place, I use it not only because it is the home of the Beatles, Zombies, Pink Floyd etc but because it's the only studio I've ever worked in which is professionally run. Even though the engineers no longer wear white coats with pockets festooned with biros, everything is done on time, no one wanders off and makes a phone call at your expense.

I first went to Abbey Road in 1975, I was playing with Robin Scott of Pop Musik fame and he'd won a recording contract with EMI. We recorded a few demos there but I never got to see inside studios, 1, 2 or 3. Even though I'd been back a few times since then, the studios were always booked.

Well, after 34 years I decided it was time to change all that and to give it my best shot and take a look. Abbey Road is a

big Georgian grade 1 listed House, which looks like a reasonably sized London townhouse, that is until you get inside. As I’d arrived 20 minutes early for my appointment I was put in the cafeteria which is downstairs. I knew there was a big studio on the left as you entered the building and assumed that was the famous studio 2 where all those Beatle songs were recorded. As I passed it, the door was firmly closed. However as I went down to the cafeteria, I saw a door open on the left at the bottom of the stairs. Classical musicians were carting celli and stuff inside so I thought I would grab a violin and join them. The room was enormous and I thought it was studio 2 but the famous stairs against the wall were on the wrong side and also they were of a different design.

Studio I or 2?

After a moment I asked someone. No, this was studio 1; studio 2 was on the other side of the corridor. Studio 1? Where I was now standing was where the Beatles had sat and recorded, All You Need is Love!  I felt an urge to bob round in a circle, unfortunately no sandwich boards were available!

Someone suggested I go and take a look for Studio 2. At that point, nerves got the better of me. I realised I was no longer a confident 17 year old, scaling the roof of Sussex University to lower myself through a skylight to see the Who, or wandering into Radio 1, clutching a sheet of paper trying to look as if I knew where I was going. Could I still do it and get away with it? It was worth a try. After all, what could they do? Chuck me out? Probably …

Well, guess what? studio 2’s door was also open so I walked in. This was the real place. Those long, soundproofing curtains are still there, only now they were shabby, thin remnants, the parquet flooring is dusty and old, but just the same. One thing I noticed was that most of the walls are not sound proofed but are painted bricks, like the outside of a very tall house. This was the place where the Beatles had sung, There’s a Place, Every Little Thing and all the rest. I was there, and I couldn’t believe it. All those emotive sounds absorbed by those very same walls.

Never meet your heroes

They say you should never meet your heroes, and I did wonder how Paul McCartney would react once he bumped into me. Shy? Nervous? Over chatty? Desperate to tell me about his Hey Grandude book? Anyway, it never happened.

The Prince of Wails

It wasn’t long before I was spotted. A tall German man approached me and I started to back off explaining I was just on my way. He told me his name was Buff or Boff or something like that, he’d worked with Prince and was recording some of his own songs. We chatted for a bit and he invited me to go up the famous stairs and to take a look at the control room. And off we went. It’s quite high and has a large glass window which looks down on the studio. It’s the one from where all those elevated long distance photos were taken of the Beatles standing, playing and singing. All the desks have been changed but it’s still the same place. It was easy to imagine Geoff Emerick and the Beatles listening to playbacks.

I’m not usually impressed by pop people anymore but this time I felt like I’d had a religious experience or one of those things that makes you feel better.

Now all I have to do is get into studio 3, the home of Revolver!

First published: Thursday, Oct 31, 2019 I wrote this not long after visiting Abbey Road and was still experiencing something like postpartum psychotic elation from which I have now fully recovered!