Abbey Road at 80 - Lectures at the Studios

[Gordon]

Has anyone been to any of these lectures at Abbey Road? If so what was it like? They are expensive at £80!!

It would seem that the talks are given by two Americans who wrote a very expensive book called "Recording the Beatles" but they also cover a lot about the history of the studios right from 1931 when opened. It sounds fascinating.

Abbey Road is still going and it is good to celebrate - what about doing something for Kingsway Hall next? Although it is no longer in exitence it served the company well and its centenary is in December this year. Perhaps CD review could do somethng?

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

£80???!!!

Who's giving the lectures? Elgar?!


(Agree about Kingsway Hall: a Music Matters special if ever there was one!)

[Gordon]

The reason I didn't apply was the £80 and the travelling cost. Also the book when first published was over £100 and very heavy so when shipped from the US it was at enormous additional cost. It is now in another print run.

A friend whose father and godfather worked at EMI has one and it is a good book well made and presented [it's in a pseudo slipcase that is a 2" tape box, very nostalgic to them wot used them in days of yore, but on AMPEX quadruplex video machines not audio multitrack!!] It seems each purchaser was invited to a few planned lectures but word got out and demand soared so they put on an extra series of the talks for anyone. It seems that people come from all over the world to them, in which case £80 is just a small part of the total cost!! I would pay it if Elgar was putting in an appearance though!! I'd certainly ask him what he thought of the 3rd symphony.

Come to think of it, to whom would you pay £80 to see give a lecture on anything? EG Schubert, on why he started but never finished all those fragments?!?? And did he really write 20-odd thousand bars in 1815?