1970s

January 3rd 1970 was when the final Beatles recording I Me Mine took place inside Abbey Road. It marked the end of The Beatles association with Abbey Road and the beginning of new relationships with the band members as solo artists. Paul McCartney embarked on a solo career which blossomed into a new group called Wings. George Harrison went into Studio Three to record his chart topping single My Sweet Lord and his triple album set All Things Must Pass.

Towards the end of the 1960’s a new band were fast emerging as a powerful force in the world of underground music. Pink Floyd recorded albums which were technically every bit as adventurous as those of their famous predecessors and they were soon to take over the mantle of Abbey Road’s ‘house band’, spending hour upon hour in the studio. In June 1972 the band began work on the innovative and inventive Dark Side Of The Moon which was released in March 1973. By November 1981 this album had become the longest running contemporary album in the American Billboard charts, having been in the top 200 for 391 consecutive weeks, nearly eight years!

During the mid Seventies Paul McCartney & Wings produced three albums, Red Rose Speedway, Band on the Run and Venus and Mars, notching up five top ten singles during that period. The album Band On the Run was recorded in Lagos, Scotland and Abbey Road, and sold over three quarters of a million copies in the UK alone. In December 1977 his recording of Mull Of Kintyre held the no.1 position for nine weeks and became the first pop single to sell over 2 million copies in the UK. It was recorded on location by the Abbey Road mobile unit and completed in the studio, and still remains today one of the all-time best selling singles in Britain.

The seventies also brought back. Roy Wood who recorded his solo album Boulders. He subsequently returned with his new band Wizzard following their first big rock’n’roll gig at Wembley Stadium.

Another of Abbey Road’s many facilities also came into its own during the seventies. The studio now had four mastering suites which were in constant demand not only by acts signed to EMI but also to rival record companies. Chris Blair was a cutter much sought after by EMI and independent artists alike. In 1975 he cut 12 No.1 records for acts such as Pilot, Steve Harley, Mud, Suzi Quatro and Queen.

Steve Harley’s first four top 20 singles were also recorded in the studios including the chart topping Make Me Smile (Come Up and See Me).

The technical advances were again apparent and in 1975 the desk in Studio Three was replaced by a 36 channel Neve desk which meant that for the first time a non-EMI console was installed in Abbey Road.

The list of artists who made some part or all of a recording in Abbey Road during the decade is almost endless and includes names such as Spandau Ballet, Simple Minds, Boney M, Kiki Dee, XTC, Mike Oldfield, Jeff Beck, Magazine, Alan Parson Project, Tom Robinson and Kirsty Macoll.