LONDON — Abbey Road Studios, the legendary heart of Beatles music catalogcelebrated its 90th birthday this month.
A number of other famous artists – from Pink Floyd to Adele – have also used the recording studio. But it’s the Beatles and their chart-topping 1969 album – named after the street in London where the studio is located – with whom the venue is most closely associated.
The Beatles: Come Back
Directed by Peter Jackson, this three-part documentary series takes audiences back in time to the band’s intimate recording sessions at a pivotal moment in music history.
“I remember being quite nervous most of the time in the recording studio, but also very excited – nervous excitement. It was fantastic to be in Abbey Road”, Paul McCartney said, according to the Beatles’ 2000 autobiography, “The Beatles Anthology”.
“We used to live there,” he added. “I loved him so much I even had a house around the corner. I never wanted to leave.”
The world famous Abbey Road Studios are decorated with Beatles stickers on the walls, to mark the 50th anniversary of the release of Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band in London on June 1, 2017. Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band is the Beatles’ eighth studio album, released on May 26, 1967 in the United States.
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To celebrate nine decades of recording music, Abbey Road Studios this month held a two-day festival dedicated to the next generation of music makers. The festival featured panels and other events covering a range of topics, from how to become a music producer or engineer, to the business of music publishing. While looking to the future, this milestone anniversary was also a time for Beatles fans to remember the studio’s important place in music history.
Abbey Road Studios, formerly EMI Recording Studios, opened on November 12, 1931. The Gramophone Company, one of the UK’s first recording companies, had bought a nine-bedroom house on Abbey Road in the north of London, at St. John’s Wood. neighborhood in 1929 and spent two years turning it into “the world’s first purpose-built recording studio”, according to Abbey Road Studios website.
The Gramophone Company merged with Columbia Graphophone Company in 1931, becoming Electric Musical Industries (EMI). The recording studio was renamed in the 1970s in honor of the Beatles’ “Abbey Road” album.
The Beatles play the piano at Abbey Road Studios (originally called EMI Studios) in London, circa 1967. From left, John Lennon, Ringo Starr and Paul McCartney. George Harrison is seated in the background.
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Over the years Abbey Road Studios has been an integral part of many beloved film scores including ‘Indiana Jones: Raiders of the Lost Ark’, ‘The Lord of the Rings’, ‘Harry Potter’, ‘Star Wars’ “, “Sky Fall”. “, “Gravity” and “Black Panther”.
Lester Smith, the custodian of Abbey Road Studios’ impressive collection of microphones over the past 50 years, recalls working on the Oscar-winning 2010 film “The King’s Speech” with veteran sound engineer Peter Cobbin, who asked for the microphone used by British King George. VI.
“There were actually five microphones, and Peter asked me to try to get them to work,” Smith said in a statement earlier this month. “After being silent for 70 years, this was a very special opportunity to try.”
Left to right, George Harrison, Ringo Starr, John Lennon and, in front, Paul McCartney, at EMI studios in Abbey Road as they prepare for ‘Our World’, a live global television show airing in 24 countries.
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Abbey Road Studios is also credited with important technological creations. Stereophonic, or stereo, sound was invented in the 1930s by Alan Blumlein, an electronics engineer at EMI. Artificial Dual Tracking (ADT), a revolutionary technology for enhancing vocals or instruments during mixing, was invented specifically for The Beatles in 1966 by EMI sound engineer Ken Townsend.
“There are composers out there who can hear if something was recorded at Abbey Road because it has such a distinct sound,” Isabel Garvey, managing director of Abbey Road Studios, told ABC News in a statement. interview Wednesday.
Today, Abbey Road Studios not only make musical magic, but are also a place of pilgrimage for generations of Beatles fans. Every day, people from all over the world come to cross the famous Abbey Road level crossing, depicted on the album’s iconic cover, and pay tribute to the band by writing on a graffiti wall in front of the studio building, which is repainted. every few months to make room for new messages.
“The gravitational pull towards Abbey Road is global,” Garvey said, “and it’s not just for the Beatles.”
Graffiti adorns the entrance to the Abbey Road recording studios, which are being offered for sale by their owner EMI on February 17, 2010 in London.
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In 2010, amid reports that the building could be sold, Abbey Road Studios was added to the English treasury of listed buildings on the advice of the charity English Heritage. The pedestrian crossing also became the first of its kind to be listed in the same year. Garvey said that means the building and its recording studios, particularly the famous Studio Two, are virtually unchanged since the Beatles recorded there.
Abbey Road Studios remains at the forefront of technological and musical developments with its innovation branch, Abbey Road Red. Launched in 2015 as Europe’s first music-focused technology incubator, the program supports the efforts of entrepreneurs, developers and researchers. From an automated mastering platform to BrainRap, an AI-powered device that generates lyrics while an artist freely styles or sings, Abbey Road Red is harnessing the studio’s reach and fame to foster a new wave of music. inventions that will change the world of music.
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