Abbey Road StudiosAnyway... here we go! A nice trip on the Eurostar takes us under the waters of the English Channel and into London. (I am amazed at how little time it takes to get from Brussels to the Chunnel, whereas it takes forever to get from the Chunnel to London, which is a much greater distance. This is because, like the Thalys train to Paris, the train only goes fast whilst in France. If only it could go really fast everywhere.... dreamy sigh... I would never have to fly again.) Our home away from home in London was The Gate Hotel at number 6 Portobello Road (45 pounds for a single room- 75 pounds for a double, including breakfast).  This is Sgt Bilko, a fellow resident of The Gate Hotel. A very vocal (and sexist) bird - wolf-whistling at passing girls. After leaving our stuff at the hotel is was off for the evening. A large amount of Sbarro Pizza in Brussels has left us all feeling not very hungry yet so en route to my favourite restaurant (TGIFriday's) I decided to take the drummer (Koos) off to see an historical Beatles site that he was interested in seeing.  This isn't the Beatles site yet, but on the way we pass by this house where (according to the plaque) Simon Bolivar once stayed in the year 1810. (I love that about London, how they have the plaques on houses where famous people once lived....)  This is number 20 Manchester Square. Until just a few years ago this was the home of the main offices of EMI Records in London. It was also the location of two of the most famous pictures ever taken of The Beatles (although, not the MOST famous picture... which we'll get to later on).  When the offices were still being used by EMI Records you simply had to walk two steps in the front doors, stop, and look straight up to see this exact view (minus John, Paul, George and Ringo, of course). But unfortunately when EMI Records moved elsewhere a few years ago they tore this building down and replaced it with a more modern one. Very very sad, isn't it?  This is the front door of the new building... same location as the old door... but as you can see from the floor above the door (the tables and chairs by the window), the view just isn't the same as it used to be.  Our journey to TGIFriday's continues on The Tube. I think this pigeon wants to go to TGIFriday's too.  TGIFriday's is located near Charing Cross, so our journey now brings us to Trafalgar Square. I managed to take quite a nice photo of the fountain, as you can see.  On Koos' (the drummer) first trip to London in 1979 he climbed onto the lions of the Nelson Memorial at Trafalgar Square and had a picture taken. Twenty years later he tried to do the same but discovered he wasn't as lion-hearted as he used to be (pun intended) and had to settle for a picture of himself leaning on the lion's butt.  I won't bore you with the details of TGIFridays, except to say that it was awesome. And so we skip ahead to the next morning and the arrival at the famous Abbey Road Crosswalk. Here's a picture of a couple of tourist types trying to recreate the famous Beatles photograph. Trying repeatedly, I might add. They took about a zillion photos, from the wrong spot I might add.  Compare that to the original Beatles Abbey Road photograph which was taken from the middle of the street from atop a stepladder. Abbey Road Studios itself is up the street on the left - the area with the white wall - and the main entrance is marked by the small group of people standing on the sidewalk.  An infamous and much-graffittied road sign marking the start of Abbey Road itself (on which the recording studio is located at number 3).  The front steps leading into the inner sanctum - the holiest of holies in the world of rock music.  Abbey Road Studios consists of three main recording studios and one smaller studio. Each of these studios has its own kind of history, Number Two is known for The Beatles. It is here that The Beatles recorded virtually everything from their first songs (Please Please Me) to their final album, Abbey Road. In this picture you can see the view from the control room overlooking the main room and the studio starting to take shape for my recording session.  The studio as it looked when all set up. Isolated room for me and guitars in the middle, drums at the back, and a semi-enclosed vocal area at the right-hand side.  Here's a shot of the recording machines themselves. At the left are some analogue, 24-track machines, which I didn't use. And sort of right of the centre of the picture (with the green light on it) are the two digital Tascam 8-track machines that were used to record my stuff.  Me hovering over the mixing console, listening to the play-back.  A bit of mood lighting for the recording session. You can see me talking to Koos in this shot.  Koos and myself at the drumkit.  Koos drumming away.  The view from the drumset up to the control room.  A shot of one of the halls at Abbey Road - a collection of just some of the albums recorded there.  In addition to great recording facilities and history, Abbey Road is also one of the cheapest places to eat in London. Of course, you have to be a client to get inside the place, which isn't cheap. Anyway, here's a shot of the restaurant and bar, late at night when everyone left already.  Adjacent to the restaurant is a little private garden. This is a clock that was gifted to Abbey Road Studios. The head of EMI used to live in the house next door and placed it in the garden so he could see what time it was when he was out on his balcony.  On my last CD I was fortunate enough to have recorded some of the songs at Abbey Road Studio Three. For the coming months the other studios at Abbey Road are being used in mixing down the music and voices for an upcoming movie release. Thanks to that we were able to take a look in all the studios at the end of the day when everyone else had already knocked off. This is a shot of the Studio Three lounge which lies above the control room. Through the glass and from the walkway from where this picture was taken you can look down into the main recording room itself (to the bottom-left of the picture). Studio Three has been re-done since the old days, but is best known for having been home to Pink Floyd's recording sessions.  And this is Studio One where you can see the various instruments being recorded for the movie release I spoke of. This room is well known from The Beatles' days because it was from here that they broadcast All You Need is Love via satellite around the world.  This is the roof of Abbey Road. The story goes that one day John Lennon took some LSD and was tripping out so George Martin (the producer of The Beatles) took him up to the roof to get some air. Whilst up on the roof John saw how pretty the stars looked through his LSD induced haze and from that he later wrote Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds. That's the story anyway.  Back to Studio Two. Koos working with his drumkit.  Here's a shot of me with Paul Hicks, one of the engineers. Chris Bolster was the other engineer but he was extremely camera-shy.  A view of what it MIGHT look like if I were doing some vocal overdubs.  Me playing at the piano. I was happy to learn that the big classic Steinway grand piano that used to be in Studio One had now been moved permanently to Studio Two. Otherwise I would just have used the Steinway BABY grand piano that used to be here... but a full sized grand piano is much nicer sounding, of course.  This is the closet under the stairs of Studio Two. In here The Beatles used to sneak to smoke pot and get stoned. It was also where Keith Richards was once (only once? says David Bruff) found passed out. Just imagine John, Paul, George and Ringo crammed in there smoking grass.  At the end of the day there was time to fool around a little bit. Here is Koos doing his Elvis impersonation. Put a microphone in front of Koos and he'll never stop. behind him is camera-shy Chris and the door to the closet under the stairs.  Part of fooling around involved Koos and myself playing Let It Be and other songs. Thus joining the long list of people (some of whom, very famous who have got drunk) who have fooled around and played Beatles songs in this room.  Whilst we are fooling around, Paul is still hard at work mixing down (roughly) the songs we recorded during the course of the day. And that basically brings us to the end of the first session of my next album.  And now that you're a little more familiar with Studio Two here is a picture of The Beatles at work in the very same room.  The last picture of the day. Koos and myself on the front steps as we leave... mimicking a similar picture once taken of The Beatles, a picture, with which, I bid you farewell.   |