Last Saturday, Abbey Road's owners opened its gates for a film festival honoring the 25th anniversary of the studio's work as one of the world's largest producers of movie music. Nearly two dozen films are being shown over 16 days in Studio One, the cavernous, auditorium-like room where the movie scores are performed and recorded. But for many, the main attraction is just across the hall: Studio Two is also open for festival-goers.
EMI veterans say the studio looks much the way it did when the Beatles worked there between 1962 and 1969. A soundproof iron door that looks like it could have done service on a German U-boat still guards the entrance. Inside, white paint is peeling from parts of the acoustic panels on the walls, and the parquet floor is scuffed from hundreds of amplifiers and instruments that have been hauled over it. There are a half-dozen sets of multicolored lights that were installed at the demand of the Beatles, who felt it gave the room a warmer, more psychedelic ambience.
Studio Two is a pop music afficionado's Sistine Chapel. There are other legendary studios, such as Motown's Hitsville USA, Stax studios (sadly no longer in existence), Rudy Van Gelder's studio at Englewood Cliffs, but I think Studio Two stands apart. The Beatles (along with George Martin, of course, providing the technical know-how as well as a steadying influence) were the first pop group to really delve into the possibilities of recording, to use the studio itself as an instrument, and that room was their laboratory for 192 of 202 songs. There are few rooms in this world I'd more enjoy seeing.
It would also be cool to see the bathroom just off Studio Two where they used to hide from George Martin to blaze up.
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