Abbey Road Open House: From The Beatles to Kanye and Kelly

In a small room with lush foliage and no windows, it smells of musty North LondonConsidering its legendary reputation, this former air-raid shelter looks unusually ordinary up close. Some independent cylinders emerged from the darkness, and the former sewers were later reused as temporary noise barriers. But there is no magical buzz, no ghostly alchemy, no lingering traces of musical genius.

The echo chamber is in Abbey RoadThe legendary Studio Two may have completely changed the sound of rock in the 1960s, especially in a series of groundbreaking The Beatles And Pink Floyd album, but it still feels like a charming messy locker.Like most Abbey RoadThis is a vivid testament to the originality of low-fidelity, cut and paste, and the original recording engineer of the digital age. Behind the weak tide, you can smell the history here.

The underground chamber of Abbey Road was almost never open to the public before. But this week, the situation has changed. There will be approximately 2,000 ticket holders who will visit the landmark St. John’s Wood complex for free for a rare open day tour, which is the world’s first purpose-built recording studio 90 Part of birthday celebration.For rock tourists and hardcores The Beatles The outside is crowded with fans of the world-famous zebra crossing, which is equivalent to winning a gold ticket for the Willy Wonka Chocolate Factory.

In the endless corridors of Abbey Road, the 90-year rich history of the studio inevitably comes to mind. Antique musical instruments and old-fashioned studio equipment fill every spare corner. Here: The gorgeous wooden piano keyboard heard in the Harry Potter movie soundtrack.Over there: the legendary “Mrs. Madonna Piano”, a 1905 Steinway looking dilapidated Paul McCartney Still like to play parties during recording. “I don’t think anyone wants to fix it,” Jack Franklin, Abbey Road’s event leader, said with a smile. “They painted the hammer so that it made a very bright sound. It is still recorded a lot.”

The photos squeezed on the walls of Abbey Road tell their own legends, from Edward Elgar and Paul Robertson to Cliff Richard and Mick Jagger, Adele, Kanye oo, Amy Winehouse, Harry Styles And more.Chic founder and superstar producer Rogers of the Nile Has been a frequent visitor to Abbey Road since the mid-1980s and currently serves as the studio’s chief creative consultant. He believes that this historic recording facility will always have a special attraction for artists.

“Musicians are superstitious,” Rogers claimed. “When they walked into Abbey Road, they knew a certain degree of magic would happen, did you know? Because they believed it would happen, it did happen.”

The tour of the open day starts with Studio Three, which is the smallest and most futuristic of the three main rooms on Abbey Road. Its huge 96-channel analog mixing console exudes a strong Starship Enterprise atmosphere. Pink Floyd, Deep Purple, Frank Ocean, Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga have all recorded here.

But for most open house visitors, the Holy Grail will have an extremely rare opportunity to enter Legend Studio No. 2, which is a huge sound laboratory where the Beatles produced most of their albums, and they were produced at Genius With the help of George Martin. This room is immediately recognized for its iconic staircase and towering soundproof screen, and is a mecca for rock connoisseurs.

“This is where most people cry and want to enter,” Franklin nodded. “In fact, when they came in, many of us cried when they touched the floor. People who came to the open day, we knew that at least 50% of them would come because of what happened in this room in the early 1960s. 10 years to the early 1970s.”

In the past 50 years, Studio Two has hosted hundreds of conferences, hosted by Kate Bush, David Bowie, Radiohead, Muse, Florence Welch and Ed Sheeran. Just as Oasis was ejected from the Beatles album at a late night party on Abbey Road at a louder than the rooftop, some artists will definitely book this historic space for its Fab Four Association. “The number is very small,” said Mark Robertson, Abbey Road’s communications director. “Mainly I think it has something to do with the acoustics of the room and the quality of the engineer. But you will get artists who return for this. Florence returned to Studio Two in her last album because, as she said, you can feel Something on the wall. She thinks it makes her her game.”

The open day tour ends with what Franklin called the “climax moment” in One Abbey Road’s most magnificent studio. This magnificent Art Deco banquet hall can accommodate an orchestra of 100 people and is still the world’s loudest recording studio. Elgar and Stravinsky once performed here for a live audience.Recently, Kanye and Kelly Record an orchestral session here. The polished parquet floor has remained unchanged since 1931. “We did clean it up a few years ago,” Robertson said. “Some composers worry about what effect this will have on the sound of the room.”

Studio One has a rough history. In the mid-1970s, as the demand for classical recording weakened, the room was almost in disrepair. “Pink Floyd drove their car down the ramp and stopped here,” Robertson said with a smile. “I think someone came to MOT one of their cars. People are playing badminton here, on the side. There are even plans to turn it into a parking lot.”

Fortunately, Ken Townsend, the former sound engineer of the Beatles who became the owner of Abbey Road, had a genius idea to transform Studio One into the world’s leading orchestral film soundtrack recording facility. Since 1980, most of the “Star Wars”, “James Bond”, “Harry Potter” and Marvel superhero movies have been filmed here, and there are countless Oscar winners, including “The Center of the Earth” Gravity, The Shape of Water and 1917.

Townsend also made the decision to rename Abbey Road. Contrary to popular misconceptions, the studio was actually named after the Beatles album in 1969, not the other way around. Long after the Fab Four split in 1970, the complex owned by EMI is still called EMI Studios. Townsend was renamed in 1976. How lucky the band did not name their penultimate album Mount Everest as McCartney originally intended. Otherwise, we might not even be here today to celebrate the rich heritage of Abbey Road.

“The album title, the album cover, the crosswalk are definitely helpful,” Abbey Road’s current managing director Isabel Garvey nodded. “But I think we will still be here because what happened inside the studio has not changed. The beating heart of this place is music production.”

At a cost of £100, open day tickets are not cheap. After all, rock fans can see McCartney himself perform less. However, even though Covid travel restrictions restrict the travel trade, sales of Abbey Road tours are active. “This is a once-in-a-lifetime thing,” Garvey argued. “If you look at the comparable experiences there, it feels like the right price. In fact, it might be a bit low compared to what others charge.”

After the open day, Abbey Road plans to hold more 90th anniversary celebrations. But Garvey is keen to emphasize that this second-class tourist landmark will not become a music theme park. In fact, during her seven years as the boss, she strengthened the studio’s long-term reputation as a young talent and cutting-edge technology laboratory, launching branch projects such as Abbey Road Institute and Abbey Road Red. “This place is not a museum,” Garvey insisted. “We did this to celebrate the 90th anniversary and invite super fans to see Tardis on Abbey Road. But we are not an amusement park, this is a studio.”

Nile Rodgers agrees with Garvey’s view that the studio celebrates its history while still looking to the future. “The real beauty of Abbey Road is that even with their legendary past, it is enough for them to continue to live, they are driven to innovate, they are driven to find the next cool thing,” Rogers said. “I always like to say that in the music industry, our two favorite words are: What if? Abbey Road is still a great hypothetical factory. They are pushing boundaries and they want to be part of the next generation of music producers.”