BBC doc from 2007 in which the late Geoff Emerick (along with also Fabs recording assistant Richard Lush) guides various suspects (inc Kaiser Chiefs, Magic Numbers and Stereophonics) through a track each from Sgt Pepper, recording each on vintage Abbey Road kit.
There are a few revealing moments and along the way Geoff shares a few good Beatles stories. It’s not the whole album and the doc was made very quickly. I know as I directed it: we shot by day and edited by night for two weeks solid – but enough of that.
In my brief experience Geoff was a lovely chap. Off camera told me the detail about George’s chocolate biscuits – Yoko had three of them just under her blanket which she pulled up over her mouth to enable nibbling. He also spoke of how, before quitting during the White album, on one bad Beatle tempered evening he and a colleague hid in a store room to make the Fabs think they’d gone home, creeping out to clock off when their shift was actually over. Not that one would know this kind of thing from recent 50th Anniversary box set publicity…
During filming with Travis (who did Lovely Rita) Fran Healy was irritatingly bossy with the band. ‘Reminds me of Paul,’ said Geoff, ‘he was the guvnor.’.
There’s a longer version somewhere with remakes of the other tracks, as done by:
Bryan Adams
Athlete
The Fray
Jamie Cullum
Oasis
Russell Brand
The Zutons
Don’t know if it was ever broadcast.
I remember Noel G expressing some surprise that Liam’s choice was Within You Without You
Can you verify the existence of the longer version @brilliantmistake ?
Thanks for sharing the link, I missed this at the time and enjoyed catching up with it last night. It must have been fascinating to be a fly on the wall while all this was happening – the intraband dynamic of the contemporary bands was just as interesting for me as the Beatles aspect, especially given what we now know about some of them. (And Kaiser Chiefs really slaughtered Getting Better didn’t they?)
Not a big Bryan Adams fan but he gave a good account of himself here showing what an old pro he is.
Kaiser Chiefs track really should have been called “Getting Worse”.
Sadly not, BBC 2 only wanted one programme so I didn’t get to film the other bands – except the Zutons, which we didn’t use any of because frankly they were quite stoned. There was a good Radio 2 doc that covered the complete album and all the artists, though I can only find an archived Beeb page on it:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio2/events/60sseason/documentaries/sgtpeppers.shtml
It was enjoyable spending intensive bursts with the bands – The Fray were a fascinating bunch (very open and they had a group pray before the first take), Stereophonics were lovely people, Kelly especially friendly though the drummer did give me a copy of his solo album (sort of thing you have to watch out for) while members of Travis seemed resigned to being publicly patronised by their leader, which just felt awkward.
The Kaisers were a bit grouchy overall and didn’t just slaughter Getting Better, they tortured it first – but the shot near the beginning of their bass drum being carried in, did you see what I did there!
And yes Brian was a absolute pro, knocked it through pretty much first take, conducted the brass, decided that he should direct the cameraman when we interviewed him, then only wanted to talk about his fashion photography and went home!
My mistake – I though the rest was filmed too.
Listened to the R2 doc, and was hoping for pictures at some point – I now know why that never happened.
I always liked the understated Andy Burrows/Razorlight bit: “he’s the second best singer in Razorlight”. They never did day he was the best singer in the band.
“These psychedelic Liverpudlians have been… taking drugs!”
One of Emerick’s (and George Martin’s) greatest challenges was surely coordinating the Mark II Mahavishnu Orchestra (with added string quartet) with the London Symphony Orchestra, gathered in different studios at Abbey Road, and getting them recorded in real time for the album Apocalypse. It’s a mighty, sprawling behemoth of a thing, which I happen to love. Emerick even made the back-sleeve photo.
It’s easy to miss what the technicians do: he was obviously very good at his job. Sgt Pepper still one of the greatest achievements of the modern world too