1990-03 - The day I walked right into Abbey Road Studios in London

OK, so this post isn't about a gig, but it isn't too far off topic. This is the story of a formative musical adventure into the world of the one band that made me want to play music more than any other: The Beatles.

I know, it's almost de rigueur -- just about any musician is likely to say nice things about The Beatles -- but for me, at least when I was first discovering music in the late 80's, they were an obsession. And if you're going to get all religious about something like that, you might as well make a pilgrimage.

My family spent a few days in London around March 1990, when I was a senior in high school. Though we hit the usual tourist sights, like the Tower of London and Buckingham Palace, I was really only interested in communing with The Beatles. In fact, as soon as we arrived, I hurried to the nearest book shop, bought a city map, and started looking for Abbey Road. Then I hopped on the first subway train in that direction.

My plan had been to start at one end of the street and keep walking until I found what I was looking for. I didn't know how long Abbey Road is, but I was willing to find out. Fortunately, though, I started at the right end and immediately found what I was looking for.

If you know The Beatles, you know this crosswalk

You can't really tell from the Abbey Road album cover, but this is a very busy street. To make matters worse, this crosswalk is at a Y-type intersection, so to get a picture of it, you need to stand in the exact spot where the three roads meet. All you can do is run into traffic, snap a picture fast, and hope for the best.

To fully document the experience, I took a pictures of the crosswalk and the general area from various angles, and in doing so I discovered something that should have been obvious: that crosswalk is actually in front of EMI Abbey Road Studios, where most Beatles albums were recorded. You can see the studio in my photo above -- it's the white building on the left, with the white wall and iron fence in front of it.

The gate was open, the door unlocked. How could I resist?

The gate to the parking lot was open, which I naturally interpreted as an invitation. I strolled nonchalantly up the steps and walked right through the front door. Just inside was a reception desk, staffed by some sort of uniformed security guard.

"Do you have business here?" he asked.

I just smiled dumbly, wondering if there were anything I could possibly say that would extend my stay for a second or two more.

"Alright then," he smiled. "You'll have to leave."

So I left. And I walked all the way back to downtown London (a few miles or so) contemplating my brush with history.

Along the way, I stopped at another key Beatle site, 3 Saville Row (the 5-story brick building with the white first floor in the picture at right). This nondescript office building was the late 60's headquarters of The Beatles' ill-fated record label Apple Corps. They recorded some tunes in the basement, including songs that ultimately ended up on the album Let It Be. The building is most famous, however, as the site of the final live Beatles performance.

On a cold day in January 1969, teetering on the brink of a rancorous break up, The Beatles dragged their instruments to the roof and rocked out one last time for an unsuspecting crowd of businessmen and shoppers on the streets below.

Of course, I tried to get in, but it was getting late and the doors were locked. I did manage to enter some adjacent buildings, hoping for a view of the rooftop, but couldn't locate a suitable vantage point.

Still, the trip to London was a successful adventure. Far more productive than the time I wandered around the Reeperbahn, the nefarious red light district of Hamburg, Germany, looking for the nightclubs where The Beatles started out... But I'll save that for another post.