On Saturday I zoomed across London town to distant St John's Wood, for an appointment at Abbey Road Studios!
It will surprise you to know that I was NOT there for a recording session, ENTIRELY LIKELY though that may be, but rather for the Stories In Sound tour/EXPERIENCE, what The Follicles in My Mop Top had got me for my BIRTHDAY. It was advertised as an "immersive experience" where you got to go inside ACTUAL ABBEY ROAD STUDIO and I have to say I got very immersed, and also EXCITED.
I mean, OBVIOUSLY as an International Rock Star I have been inside Abbey Road before - waaay back in 1998 the Fabians split-single got mastered there, when about 15 of us went down with Sorted Supremo Dave Dixey to be present at the "session". The engineer then seemed used to this sort of thing, and was quite calm about us all nipping out to go to the loo one after the other so we could sneak a peak into Studio 2.
THIS time however I was actually IN Studio 2, and it was AMAZING! They'd set the studio up for a LECTURE, with rows of chairs, a stage and a big screen, but before that started we were able to wander around and even go UP THE STAIRS and into the control room. My BRANE was going "ZANG! COR! OOH!" the entire time because I couldn't believe that I was actually THERE, in a place that I'd seen thousands of pictures of and had LISTENED to millions of times. Looking out of the window from THE ACTUAL CONTROL ROOM down to the studio floor I was picturing all of the photographs of The Beatles working there and it BLEW MY MIND. I also walked around and dutifully TOUCHED all of the many Famous Instruments they had in there, notably The Actual Mrs Mills Piano!!
After a little while I had to have a bit of an old sit down just so I could try and ABSORB the fact that I was really there, as it was all getting rather overwhelming. I sat for about twenty minutes thinking "I'M HERE!", after which the TALK started. It was FAB. The speakers were Brian Kehew and Kevin Ryan, authors of Recording The Beatles, a book which I am DELIGHTED to find makes mine look CHEAP! They did a 90 minute presentation on the history of Abbey Road Studios, with JOKES and FILMS and a hefty chunk in the middle all about The Beatles. Again, it was pretty mind-blowing to see an image on screen of a Famous Recording Session and then look over into the corner and think "But that's just over there!"
The whole thing was augmented by some live performances by a string quartet, pianist and guitarist, which was Quite Nice, but the BEST bit - the VERY best bit - was right at the end where they said "Usually we'd finish now, but we've got someone here who's IN some of these images" and GOODNESS ME but then KEN SCOTT came on stage!
KEN SCOTT! All right, I realise that that MAY not be a name which is overly familiar to people who DON'T have an entire bookshelf full of Beatles books, but for those of us who DO it was pretty flipping exciting, as he was not only the ENGINEER for the White Album sessions but worked on LOADS of Beatles sessions and a METRIC TONNE of others with all manner of famous artistes. However, he wandered on stage with the air of One Of Your Dad's Mates and then talked very modestly and lightly about working with THE BEATLES FOR HEAVEN'S SAKE and was all round lovely.
The whole event was pretty ruddy incredible, and all the way home my BRANE was going "That really happened! WOW!" When I got back I pulled out my beaten up old copy of The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions and looked at the photographs, thinking "But I was THERE!" Best birthday present EVER!!
