They wanted her to come in on Saturday, but she couldn’t because she was going to see Chuck Berry in Hammersmith. The very thought that I was standing in the room where the Beatles recorded the vast majority of their unparalleled music was simply overwhelming.

David Hepworth has been writing, broadcasting and speaking about music and media since the seventies. For me, the main and most interesting point to taker from the narrative is that the music that we have listened to and loved was the product of a combination of the artists themselves who supplied the vision of what they wanted to achieve, and the technicians and producers, without whom the sounds that we hear could not have been made reality. Discovered on a Manhattan street in 2020 and introduced on Stanton’s Humans of New York Instagram page, Johnson, then 76, shares her dynamic history as a “fiercely independent” Black burlesque dancer who used the stage name Tanqueray and became a celebrated fixture in midtown adult theaters.However, as microphones better captured nuanced vocals, crooners and pop music became more prominent, and an army of fussy technicians (EMI was a “belt-and-braces organization”) stood ready to assist. Excellent and interesting history of Abbey Road and the recording of artists well before the Beatles in the 60s. He was one of the presenters of the BBC rock music program The Old Grey Whistle Test and one of the anchors of the corporation’s coverage of Live Aid in 1985.

It slightly loses steam in the latter chapters, but that's mainly because Abbey Road and the music business as a whole have similarly declined. My books "1971: Never A Dull Moment", "Uncommon People: The Rise and Fall of the Rock Stars" and "A Fabulous Creation" are all Sunday Times best-sellers. Ken went on to work with some of the biggest names in rock including The Beatles, Pink Floyd, Jeff Beck, Donovan and David .Always intrigued when one landmark can pull in greatness from all corners of the world, this book captures everything from the artists themselves to the engineers and the groundbreaking discoveries.

Hepworth uses sound recording and one legendary studio as a palette to capture this arc of systemic change, how it impacts everyone along the chain in different ways, and explored all of its attendant pluses and minuses, depending on your perspective. Frank and unapologetic, Johnson vividly captures aspects of her former life as a stage seductress shimmying to blues tracks during 18-minute sets or sewing lingerie for plus-sized dancers.

With " Abbey Road: The Inside Story of the World's Most Famous Recording Studio," David Hepworth affords readers a stirring history of the much-heralded studio and the magic that has transpired within its hallowed walls. Highly recommended for anybody with an interest in the musical recording process and indeed anybody who has had the need to 'cross that bloody road with three mates'.