Abbey Road: The Story of the World's Most Famous Recording Studios

Absolutely nothing to dislike and everything to like brilliant book and truly wonderful seller service a five 🌟 experience all the way

A book worth having but still a big disappointment.! Nice pictures (the few colour ones are pointless) with an easy to read style. It could be a golden opportunity for a major rewrite by Peter Vince now that he has retired a few years ago. Much of it is simply style over substance with loads of interesting tittle-tattle ie people but zero technical data. No layout or diagrams or equipment (microphones or mixing desks etc) of all 4 studios by the decade. Virtually no costs, costings, labour charges and so on. Many Beatles 'fairy' stories remain unchallenged until ex-EMI Abbey Road engineer Malcolm Addey (now based in New York) publishes his autobiography very soon. For example, Jet Harris's Vox AC30 wasn't good enough so they used one Tannoy speaker and a quad amp as a bass amplifier for his Fender Precision bass guitar during a studio 2 session for the Shadows. The Shadows were the first band to record music during a night session back in 1960. And Bruce Welch brought his then fiance Olivia Newton-John (a pioneer WAG.?) into the studios to meet his mate Paul MacCartney in 1967 several months before John Lennon first brought Yoko Ono into the studios. Plenty more anecdotes in the same ilk. The only book with any technical data is "That Sound" by Malcolm Addey et al (One copy at the British Library and two copies held by The EMI Abbey Road Studios Library). Almost no secrets divulged as to how this studio got its mythical sound quality that The Shadows, Cliff Richard and Olivia 'Neutron-Bomb' aka Newton-John plus those omnipresent Beatles and many others obtained during their careers. The real point is that the building itself is the only real constant with all the sound engineers and other technicians the actual variables who inevitably will come and go over time.

I bought this book because I’m interested in the pre-war history of Abbey Road, where many of the great British dance bands of the time recorded, plus many famous personalities. In the event this period is dealt with quite briefly in Chapter 2, which first traces the history of the building, its acquisition by the Gramophone Company Ltd. in 1929 and its conversion into a studio, opening just two years later. The actual account of the extensive recording activities during the thirties is confined to six pages, a quite extraordinary distillation. That’s bad enough, but the authors compound the felony with some highly misleading information. To quote just one example “…one dance band which recorded regularly in Abbey Road remains a mystery to this day. The New Mayfair Dance Orchestra …” and later in the same paragraph “…the material they used was made up entirely of material rejected by EMI’s star big bands led by Jack Payne and Henry Hall.” Later on, Al Bowlly and Ray Noble get a mention as amongst other regular visitors to Abbey Road at that time. Faced with that, it’s difficult to know quite where to begin! Many recording companies had a house band, and HMV’s was already in existence in 1931, having been revived in November 1929, under the leadership of pianist Carroll Gibbons, after a break of nearly seven years. They recorded during the day, and the band (the personnel of which was never a mystery) comprised players from London’s top dance bands. Ray Noble assumed directorship in August 1929; he was a noted arranger and composer, and the orchestra recorded many of the top tunes of the day, including his own compositions. In late 1930 Al Bowlly (then resident with Roy Fox) began acting as the NMDO’s principal vocalist. In December 1932 it was restyled as Ray Noble and his Orchestra, although it continued in being as the HMV studio band. At the end of August 1934 Ray Noble accepted an offer from America to direct a band in New York, and left England, taking drummer Bill Harty and singer Al Bowlly with him. HMV reverted to the designation of The New Mayfair (Dance) Orchestra for its house band, which had a succession of directors, including Percival Mackey, Carroll Gibbons and Ronnie Munro. If you want only an outline of Abbey Road post-Beatles then this book will meet your needs, but as a comprehensive history of the studio it is less than adequate.

Excellent book - obviously well researched. Very interesting.

IT WAS GREAT I USED TO LIVE ON ABBEY ROAD