Beatles book inspires Abbey Road Studios to open to the public

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Beatles book inspires Abbey Road Studios to open to the public
Trina Yannicos
Celebrity Events Examiner
MARCH 11, 2012

For a brief time this March, Abbey Road Studios is allowing the public to visit the iconic Studio Two where The Beatles, Pink Floyd and other acts have recorded. The monumental book, Recording The Beatles, which documents every piece of equipment The Beatles used in the recording studio, played a large part in opening the studio to the public.

To celebrate the 80th anniversary of Abbey Road Studios, authors Brian Kehew and Kevin Ryan will conduct presentations inside Studio Two alongside famous instruments and recording equipment used by The Beatles and other famous musicians at Abbey Road. Rare archive photos, film and audio will illustrate the 80-year history of the studio tracing its progression from classical music to rock and the evolving technology.

Recording The Beatles required years of researching the Abbey Road archives and interviewing virtually every engineer that worked at Abbey Road in the 1960s. Secrets to The Beatles' recording process were uncovered including their use of the half-speed recording technique on certain instrumental parts of songs as well as 'varispeed', the process of slightly altering the playing speed of certain vocals in their songs. Although Recording the Beatles was released back in 2006, it still continues to sell out after several publishing runs. 

Abbey Road Studios has never officially been open to the public. There have been rare occasions where special tour groups like Beatle fans on the Magical History Tour have been allowed in to see Studio Two, but no official tours have ever been offered. Perhaps after the success of these 80th anniversary presentations, the Abbey Road executives will realize that opening the studio to the public on a regular basis, similar to RCA's Studio B in Nashville or Sun Studio in Memphis would be a great idea.

The first set of talks takes place on March 9, 10 and 11, while the second set is scheduled for March 23, 24 and 25. Visit abbeyroad.com for more information.

Abbey Road Studios in London

Credits: 

Getty Images