Abbey Road: The Inside Story of the World’s Most Famous Recording Studio (with a foreword by Paul McCartney) Paperback – 4 May 2023

Yet again this music writer par excellence has come up with the goods. Anyone familiar with, and who has enjoyed his past work will find much to like, and for newcomers, welcome to the world of pop music writing that is both informative and entertaining, not always an easy mix.As with previous work, Hepworth takes a subject as a coat on which to pin a (invariably) chronological narrative, with frequent off piste stories to entertain. In theory this book serves as a quasi history of Abbey Road studios, but it could also be seen as a book which shows the development of recorded music and pop music generally over the last six or seven decades from the pre Beatles crooner/rock and roll era to the present day, with diversions into the development of recording systems, introduction of Stereo, the rise and fall of CD's and much more besides.It's a thoroughly good read, and you don't have to be over concerned that it is too Abbey Road centric, since as I have said, it uses that as a base to cover music development and trends in general.Highly recommended.

I bought this as a Kindle book and enjoyed it very much... but did I miss something? Was expecting something more about the LP of the same name... one of my all-time faves, maybe give it equal billing to Sgt Pepper but I can see why he wrote it like this given the importance of the latter in the history of pop music recording in all its aspects... That's where this book excels, DH takes us along a timeline that not only documents the evolution of the studio but music recording in general and it's not just pop music because other formats were significant for the people at this studio so I was intrigued by the earlier years. Classical, jazz and other music are covered so you might think of getting it and not assume it is just about the Beatles et al.As regards the Kindle version this was readable and accurate but I was a little miffed when reaching 75 percent the text ended and I was presented with a series of photos. These are good of course but I was really into the writing...Here's to your next book Mr H!

A great history documenting the life and times of one of THE recording studios in music. Howevet, it loses it a bit in the last couple of chapters, but this is not the writer's fault, it's the music industry fragmenting as technology - and, thus, working practices - changes and everything is not so clear cut. But back in the heyday, when things were more regimented/controlled there was a lot of classic work and innovation done, and this book nicely documents it, in a clear and readable style. Recommended.

I'm not sure if David Hepworth is capable of writing (or even saying) something, which I would not take the greatest pleasure in reading (listening to). You obviously need to have some (but not necessarily very much) interest in music of a certain age and how it is made but just leave the rest in the extraordinarily competent hands of Mr Hepworth. The unique history and the huge cross section of music produced at Abbey Road over the years clearly makes for a fitting subject but it is the inimitable style of the author, which makes this light where it could be heavy and serious when it could have been shallow.

Brought this book for my husband as he is a big Beatles fan he is enjoying it so far and is a proper book

Thoroughly enjoyed reading this well researched book. Unlike a previous reviewer, I actually loved the photographs as they gave perspective to the story of the studios

David Hepworth looks at the history of Abbey Road, the recording studio owned in its heyday by EMI and the location for the creation of two of the most famous records of all time: The Beatles' "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" (1967) and Pink Floyd's "The Dark Side Of The Moon" (1973). The Beatles used it as the name of the last album they recorded; its famous cover photo of them crossing the road has them walking away from the studio (as if for the last time).That's pretty much all that everyone knows about Abbey Road, but Hepworth characteristically goes beyond, unearthing all kinds of little details that stick in the memory. My favourite comes on p8: before electronic recording, the performance of an entire orchestra would have to be directed to a large horn which would capture the sound and relay it mechanically to a stylus cutting grooves on a record. This had implications for the dynamic range of the performance, and the instruments which could take part - timpani and double basses were left out of the orchestra, for example - and "French horn players would have their backs to the conductor, following his instructions in a wing mirror mounted on their instruments".There's other snapshots from the history of recording music, including the pianist Artur Schnabel who, believing that a performance could only be given once, had a hard time adjusting to a world where his recordings would be listened to by people he'd never see: in particular, he was worried about how they might be dressed whilst playing his record. Later on, when EMI threw a party to celebrate fifty years of recording Reginald Dixon on the Wurlitzer organ at Blackpool tower, Dixon drove down to London towing his caravan in order to have a place to stay.The history of Abbey Road is bound up with that of the EMI factory at Hayes, Middlesex, where I grew up. I hadn't fully realised its significance till I came across its name in the small print on the back of a Quicksilver Messenger Service LP in the 70s (the record was on the Capitol label, which was a subsidiary of EMI, who manufactured their records in Hayes). Before then, Hepworth's book tells me, it was where an EMI engineer created "Trains at Hayes Station", one of the first films having a stereo soundtrack.Although I enjoyed reading it, I found the pace start to flag in the second half of the book. There were a couple of inexact generalizations ("The digital revolution, like all revolutions, quickly turned out to have been overestimated in the short term and then understimated in the long term" [p302] and "The end came, as ends are wont to do, slowly at first and then very, very quickly" [p313]) which looked a little like lazy writing, but overall it provides a good overview of the development of music recording from the mechanical age, through electronic, to digital. Rock on.

This is well written, very interesting account of this world famous studio. Anyone who's read any of David's previous books will know the high standard of his writing and I was particularly pleased to see The Hollies receiving the recognition they deserve. 100% recommended.