New show gives audiences the chance to relive The Beatles time at Abbey Road

An innovative new show immerses audiences in The Beatles’ creative process at their legendary studios, writes Ed Power

Mon, 28 Mar, 2016 - 01:00

Ed Power

TO VISIT Abbey Road in London is to tumble into a real life Magical Mystery Tour. This is the studio where, in a never bettered run from 1962 to 1970, The Beatles recorded some of the most important pop documents of all time. Rubber Soul, Sgt Pepper, the White Album — all were conceived and assembled at Abbey Road, under the patrician gaze of George Martin.

For much of that period, the Beatles had ceased to be a live band. Sick of the hoopla, after 1966 they retreated from performance and threw themselves into the endless possibilities of studio production. No longer burdened by the demands of their screaming fan base, they spread their wings and soared.

This is the side of the Beatles story producer Stig Edgren sets out to tell with his new show, The Sessions — A Live Restaging of the Beatles at Abbey Road Studios. Recreating the band’s sacred recording space live on stage, the project aims to provide insights into The Beatles’ creative process that are beyond the scope of traditional tribute acts.

“Those are getting a bit old, a bit dated,” says Edgren, a veteran organiser of large scale events involving the Pope, Presidents Reagan and Clinton, and Nelson Mandela.

“I have two 29-year-old daughters who tell me they don’t want to see a 50-year-old guy in a wig. It’s kind of lame. We’re not trying to be a lookalike thing. The concept is: ‘What would it have been like to be a fly on the wall as the songs evolved?’

“It’s a way to present the Beatles in a serious light, rather than just four old guys in wigs and costume changes playing cover versions. Every word, every sound, every instrument has to be right, to put the audience in the room with the greatest music ever made while it’s being made.”

There will be no hokey Liverpudlian accent or dodgy mop-tops, Edgren promises. This is a musical travelogue that takes the audience through the grand span of The Beatles’ career, from their earliest incarnation as wide-eyed kids from the wrong side of the tracks, to the druggy, droning Sgt Pepper years and the Yoko-fuelled infighting of The White Album and Let It Be. With the band’s long-term studio engineer Geoff Emerick as consultant The Sessions... will be as close as fans will get to peeking over the shoulders of these icons through their glory days.

“Geoff was 15 years old when he started at Abbey Road,” says Edgren. “One week after he began The Beatles walked in. He was assistant engineer and then engineer. He quit during the White Album. Everyone was fighting, Yoko was on the scene. He left and then they asked him back for [swan song LP] Abbey Road.”

The ‘studio’ will be recreated in detail on stage, the walls replaced by transparent screens. To conjure the complex multi-tracking techniques employed by The Beatles, each band member is represented by two musicians on stage. Thus, when Paul McCartney sings over his own backing vocals we get to see Macca ‘duetting’ with himself. Out of sight will be a live band and 20- piece orchestra, so The Beatles’ studio musings are brought stirringly to life.

“We’re not trying to put a spotlight on a guy’s face and say ‘This is Paul McCartney’. It’s in your imagination. Our George Martin will explain what is going on in the different time periods. For instance, at one point he will say, ‘They didn’t really need me here at all — I was just watching’. It’s a behind the scenes journey. Everyone likes to be backstage. That is the feeling we are trying to get across.”