Abbey Road - I lived here

Abbey Road, is the one legendary music site that has special significance for me, as it was where I met my wife. We shared a flat at Neville Court, the red brick mansion block directly across Abbey Road from the studios. 

That was back in the early 1990s, when you might see the occasional tourist ‘doing the crossing’, nothing like the crowds you get today.

But it wasn’t until 2022 that I got to see inside Abbey Road Studios.

I can remember exactly when it was. It was the day the Queen died, 8 September and I was staying at my mother's place while on a visit to the UK. 

I have a friend who’s a sound engineer and does occasional sessions at Abbey Road. I'd asked him if there was an opportunity to come and see inside the studio, to let me know. He called me up one evening and just as I'm on the phone to him, my mum comes in and tells me "she's gone" asked me how soon I could make it over to the studio.

An hour later, I entered the courtyard  and made my way up the steps to the studio reception. My mate Simon came to greet me and took me first of all to Studio Three. This is the smaller recording space where most famously, Pink Floyd recorded most of their classic albums, including Dark Side Of The Moon, as seen in this clip.

After that, we went to Studio 1, the orchestral chamber, a cavernous room where Sir Edward Elgar made many of his most famous recordings. Where Studio 3 has been updated and modernised over the years, the larger recording rooms have retained many of their period features, in part because of the historical significance attached to the music that has been made there.

Studio 2, the most renowned recording space, perhaps in the world, is similarly intact from its heyday when The Beatles created many of their greatest songs. Right down to the rickety old upright piano that Paul McCartney would have used for the filming of Hey Jude, if not the recording.