Not bragging…well, okay, just a little…but I’ve had the incredible luck to be able to actually be inside the hallowed halls of Abbey Road Studios four times.
The first time was in 1983 when the studios were planning some renovations and thought it would be a good idea to hold a sort of open house before they did the construction. So, they sold tickets, and I read about it and decided that I HAD to go. My cousin was living in West Sussex at the time, so I had a place to stay and it was a pretty short train ride into London from there. They had the actual old tape recorders that were used in The Beatles recording sessions on display, as well as a set of Ringo’s drums, John Lennon’s piano, Paul’s bass, and George’s guitar. They let us actually touch the items and pose for pictures. It was intoxicating. Then they sat us at little round tables with cups of tea served and a basket of biscuits (how very civilized), and showed us a film, of the “lads” recording in Studio Two. I swear I wept…silently.
The next three times were in 1999. In celebration of the 30th anniversary of the release of The Beatles album “Abbey Road,” KGON was asked to join a bevy of broadcasters in London and do a live show from the studios. I jumped at the chance to go back. Three days inside Abbey Road! Are you kidding? Heaven on earth for this girl. If you go to the Podcast section of our site, you will find a lot of those interviews. Alas, I must admit that some of the conversations were lost over the years (I know…I should have a better filing system, or any system at all), but there are enough of them on the site for you to get a taste of what I was going through. It was one rock star after another, all day long, for three whole days. We broadcasted from Studio One, and had all access passes to the whole place. The lunch room, the other studios, the bathrooms, everything. Plus we had a personal tour that took us everywhere in the building while our guide told little stories about Pink Floyd recording “Dark Side of the Moon” in Studio 3, and Rod Argent and Colin Blunstone told stories about what busses they rode to the studios when they were recording “Odessey and Oracle.” The woman working in the cafeteria told us how Paul McCartney liked his tea, and how kind he always was when he was working at Abbey Road. It was one of the most intense and enjoyable times of my life! Intense because I was constantly worried I was sounding like a complete idiot while interviewing these amazing people. I’m sometimes too much of a fan to be a good interviewer, but all I can do is be me.
One little side note about the second trip there, is that in the off hours we got to take cool tours of London, and explore on our own. We ate at Bill Wyman’s Sticky Fingers restaurant, which had the best ribs and burgers in London, and looked at all his personal Rolling Stones memorabelia lining the walls. I also got to hang out with Greg Kihn, who had the hit “The Breakup Song.” He’s a radio guy in the Bay Area now, and we found Lee Ho Fook’s in the Soho area of London. You know…the reference in Warren Zevon’s “Warewolves of London.” His hair was perfect…but mine wasn’t.
Check out the show “Live From Abbey Road” to see some amazing artists performing in those historic studios. Oh, and on their website, they have a live web cam that is pointed at the crosswalk where The Beatles shot the cover of the album. You can watch the rain, double decker busses drive by, and fans walk across the street while people take pictures of them.
Classic Rock
