The recent news that EMI are planning to sell off the Abbey Road recording studios for a reported £10million asking price, was accompanied by the usual gnashing of teeth and sack cloth wailings of multi millionaire pop stars, all bemoaning what they believed would be an unfathomable loss to British musical heritage.

Cash

However, whilst Sir Paul McCartney regaled the media of his times at the North London studios with The Beatles, without ever saying he was willing to part with any of his hard earned cash to save it for the nation, a small musical fact was never even mentioned.

Bands

Pink Floyd, The Beatles, The Manic Street Preachers, Blur, The London Symphony Orchestra and many ‘bands’ may have recorded there over the years — but so too have quite a few brass bands.

The GUS Band in particular used to enjoy their trips down from Kettering to record at the former Georgian town house, with players occasionally rubbing shoulders with some of the greats of the pop and classical worlds.

LPs

David Read MBE, the former principal cornet of GUS, and now the movement’s leading adjudicator, told 4BR: "We recorded a number of LPs there for EMI with GUS over the years – and many of them around the same time that the studios were being used by the famous pop groups of the day as well as some of the great orchestras and their conductors."

A number of bands recorded on the EMI label during the 1960’s and early 1970’s, and GUS made a number of recordings at the studio under the baton of Stanley Boddington, including their famous 'Bandstand' and 'World Champion' releases.

We recorded a number of LPs there for EMI with GUS over the years – and many of them around the same time that the studios were being used by the famous pop groups of the day as well as some of the great orchestras and their conductorsDavid Read MBE

Zebra crossing

David remembers it well – including a few players taking the opportunity to recreate the famous Beatles zebra crossing photograph on the cover of their iconic Abbey Road album.

"It was a wonderful studio to record in, and I believe that George Martin (the Beatles producer) was involved in a number of the early recordings with the band."

Photograph

Although no photo exists of David and his fellow solo cornets walking along the zebra crossing, a picture of the band in full uniform in the vast EMI main studio does adorn one of the albums.

Klemperer

Although David never managed to meet up with John, Paul, George and Ringo, when they recorded ‘Abbey Road’ in 1969 (originally the album was to be called ‘Everest’ but the band couldn’t be bothered to go to Nepal so took the iconic photo for the cover outside on the road) he did manage to see the great conductor Otto Klemperer in action with the Philharmonia Orchestra.

"We were very fortunate to see him, despite the fact that he didn’t like people see him work. He was well into his 80’s then, but a friendly security guard winked at us as the great man made his way in and told him that we were EMI studio staff."