It Was Forty Years Ago Yesterday...

During the morning of August 8, 1969, photographer Iain MacMillan took some shots of a pop group on location near a recording studio in London NW8, to be used as the cover of their latest album. The group was the Beatles, and the location was the zebra crossing at Abbey Road. The resulting album would go on to become the fourth biggest selling album of the 1960s in the UK, and the cover one of the most famous pictures of all time.

I've visited the crossing twice - the first time was three years ago, during a weekend trip to London. I spent that Sunday morning on a Beatles walking tour, which incidentally was very good indeed - the tour guide was one of the leading authorites on all things Beatles - and the final stop on the tour was Abbey Road studios and the famous crossing. A couple of years later, I went there again - I was in London with GroupieGirl and asked her "would you like to see the crossing at Abbey Road?".

It's a little different now than it was in 1969 - it's been moved slightly - but tourists still flock to see the location and walk across themselves, and you can even see them doing it online - thanks to the Abbey Road webcam.

Anyway, to celebrate the 40th anniversary I uploaded my shot of the zebra crossing I took at the end of that walking tour in 2006.

It's amazing to think that album cover is still being referenced forty years on. GroupieGirl has a piece of rock history herself - one of her dolls is featured on the latest Right Said Fred album. I wonder if that cover will still be talked about in 2049?

THE BEATLES - MAXWELL'S SILVER HAMMER
(from the album "Abbey Road", 1969)