Abbey Road Meets... Ken Townsend
Today marks the 51st anniversary of The Beatles’ first ever recording session at Abbey Road Studios, which took place on 6th June 1962.
In honour of the occasion we put your questions to Ken Townsend, who was an engineer on that very session and went on to manage Abbey Road Studios for over 20 years.
We were inundated with questions on Facebook and Twitter, and it was a tough call picking the best ones to put to Ken. Thank you to everyone who participated!
Here’s the interview in full:
What kind of engineer are you? - @manyreasonsy, via Twitter
A long since retired one, now an octogenarian and currently building a wall and steps in the garden!
I was trained as a design and development engineer at EMI in Hayes, but moved to Abbey Road in my final year as a trainee, in 1954. My job title was then Recording Engineer, but what are now known as Recording Engineers were then called Balance Engineers.
Source: Abbey Road Studios
