Music stars make a pilgrimage to Abbey Road in London after 95 years

Music Olympus Abbey Road Studios The most famous recording studio in the world turns 95 As of: November 13th, 2026 • 5:41 p.m

London's Abbey Road Studios have been legendary for 95 years: The Beatles, Pink Floyd, Edward Elgar and Adele have made music history here. A place full of myths - and to this day a sought-after and often booked studio.

The British photographer Iain MacMillan is said to have taken only six photos. Then it was done: While a police officer briefly stopped traffic in the summer of 1969, John Lennon, Ringo Starr, Paul McCartney and George Harrison marched across what is now the most famous zebra crossing in the world. So fast that it seems plausible that the Beatles had no desire at all for a photo shoot that day.

A fan holds up the famous Beatles album cover, which shows the zebra crossing in front of the London studio with the four Beatles.

Lennon's eccentric suit, Paul's bare feet, the VW Beetle and an American tourist on the side of the road - all of this was just a makeshift solution. "No one knew that this casual image would become one of the most famous album covers of all time," confirms British music journalist David Hepworth. He has written a book about the recording studios on Abbey Road - and of course the zebra crossing also plays a role in it.

Today it is a listed building and tourists imitate the iconic cover from 1969 every day.

The studio, which opened on November 12, 1931, was their home, recalls Paul McCartney in the documentary "If These Walls Could Sing." The Beatles paid tribute to him with their last album together. The name “Abbey Road Studios” is a homage to the Beatles. The British record company EMI renamed the studios in 1976 - expressly to reflect the connection to the "Fab Four" and their famous album.

When it was founded in the 1930s, the world's first studio complex was simply called "EMI Studios". But the three studios behind the walls of the representative city villa in London's Westminster district were already outstanding back then.

The largest, Studio 1, is a veritable concert hall with 493 square meters and a ceiling height of twelve meters. At the opening ceremony on November 12, 1931, the British star composer Edward Elgar conducted "Pomp and Circumstance" - and so the huge studio was bursting at the seams. The Nobel Prize winner for literature, Bernard Shaw, who was invited as a guest of honor, only found space on the stage steps.

The studios were initially focused on classical music. The pianist Artur Schnabel ventured there to record the entirety of Beethoven's 32 piano sonatas. An “ordeal,” said Schnabel in a letter to his wife. He described the studio as a “torture chamber” and his employees as “slave drivers.”

Guitarist Axel Fischbacher had a completely different experience in the summer of 2023. When he remembers the "London Session" with his jazz trio, the Lübeck native still raves today: "The experience I had there was overwhelming: They offer the best technology in the world. Old analogue technology, microphones that are worth as much as my car!"

Despite Brexit hurdles, the Axel Fischbacher Trio decides to record their album "The London Session" at Abbey Road - using a special technique that only a few recording studios can master today. It's called Direct-to-Vinyl and it works like this: While the musicians are playing, the recording is pressed directly into the blank.

The direct-to-vinyl method, which only a few studios still offer, works like this: While the musicians are playing, the recording is pressed directly into the blank. 16 minutes at a time are recorded live.

In concrete terms, this means that the band has to play with extreme concentration and precision for 16 minutes at a time. This is how long the side of a plate is. Because nothing can be edited afterwards and even the mixing and mastering is done live, Axel Fischbacher finds this form of recording to be particularly honest.

The Axel Fischbacher Trio relies on professionalism, not digital post-production. Before the recordings, the experienced jazz guitarist was just as nervous as he was during his entrance exam at the conservatory. "Don't waste it now," he thought to himself - while sitting on the carpet on which Pink Floyd recorded "Dark Side Of The Moon". The album that regularly appears in lists of the best albums of all time.

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It was produced in the early 70s. The equipment in the Abbey Road studios was considered the cutting edge of innovation at the time. Here, sound engineers and producers worked long and intensively with the artists. "You can almost hear the structure of the studio," says music journalist David Hepworth of Pink Floyd's concept album. "If you hear the sound of footsteps, that is a crew member running across the hardwood floor in Studio 2."

When the EMI studios were officially renamed "Abbey Road Studios" in 1976, business was already in crisis; the large Studio 1 in particular was often empty for weeks. "There was even a proposal to convert Studio 1 into a parking garage," says chronicler David Hepworth.

But then the new studio boss Ken Townsend came up with the saving idea: He bought a cinema projector and a screen and converted the studio for music recordings for the cinema. The American composer John Williams produced the music for the Star Wars and Indiana Jones films here, and Ennio Morricone recorded the Oscar-winning soundtrack for "The Hateful Eight" in London.

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To this day, Studio 2 in particular is considered a magical place, the studio where the Beatles felt so at home in the 60s. Fans and musicians continue to make pilgrimages there to be inspired. The Beatles, Pink Floyd, Queen and Adele - of course these names didn't leave the Axel Fischbacher Trio indifferent either. “It’s inevitable if you go through it,” admits Axel Fischbacher. "This is an Olympus!"

The jazz combo financed the recordings of “The London Session” through crowdfunding. What surprised Axel Fischbacher when he booked: he had to pay in advance.

He later found out the reason in London: "Rich lawyers and senior doctors are calling there wanting to treat themselves to a recording at Abbey Road Studios." Quality doesn't matter. Anyone who has enough money can book. This also applies to hobby bands. "But if grandma gets sick, they'll drop out at short notice."

For the jazz trio, the effort and costs were worth it. The direct-to-vinyl record sold out quickly. "The sales argument 'Abbey Road Studios' still works," says Axel Fischbacher - and that he wants to go back to the Olympus of music production.

This topic in the program: WDR | time sign | 11/12/2026 | 9:45 a.m