A trip to Abbey Road Studios

On Thursday I made my third trip to Abbey Road Studios. I'd managed, through Twitter-begging to wangle a couple of spots in the audience to see Lower Dens record a few songs for a TV show. We arrived as instructed at the studios at "11am sharpish; if you're late, we can't let you in" we then sat in and around the cafe for three-quarters of an hour waiting...

We finally were let into Studio 1, and the audience of about 20 or so folk were sat in a circle around the band who stood facing each other in the middle of the studio. We were instructed to put on headphones so that we could hear a mix rather than just the kick drum - although frankly the sound through the headphones wasn't that great either, less of a mix and more of just shoving everything through at once. The band ran through three songs, and then ran through the same three songs again. It was a thoroughly enjoyable experience and I love Lower Dens, although I'll only be able to really appreciate what I heard when it goes out on the telly.

There are a few great pics of the performance over here.

Here is a video of a lower-key Lower Dens not in the the world's largest purpose built recording studio but doing a Tiny Desk Concert for NPR

My previous two trips to Abbey Road were:
1991: for the mastering of Brian's You Don't Want a Boyfriend 7"
9th August 1997: For the mastering of Luna's Dear Paulina 7"