De Lane Lea Recording Studios, London
Producer: George Martin
Engineer: Dave Siddle
On the evening that the Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band album had its UK release, The Beatles went to De Lane Lea Studios at 129 Kingsway, London, where between 10.30pm and 3.30am they recorded a number of instrumental jams.
The group had used the independent studio for the recording of ‘It’s All Too Much’ on 25 May and 31 May 1967. For those sessions producer George Martin was not present, but he did attend this session.
The results of this session have never been officially released, and the most detailed description was provided by Beatles historian Mark Lewisohn:
On this day, 1 June 1967, perhaps the most celebrated day in their career, The Beatles went into the studio and recorded nothing but untitled, unplanned, highly tedious and – frankly – amateurish instrumental jams, with a bass guitar, an organ, lead guitar with reverb, guitar strings being scraped, drums and tambourine. the single-minded channelling of their great talent so evident on Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band did seem, for the moment, to have disappeared.
The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions
The Beatles returned to De Lane Lea on the following day to continue work on It’s All Too Much, and also filled two more tape reels with untitled jamming.
Also on this day...
- 2018: Ringo Starr live: Music Box, Borgata, Atlantic City, New Jersey
- 1981: US album release: Somewhere In England by George Harrison
- 1973: UK single release: Live And Let Die by Wings
- 1969: John Lennon and Yoko Ono record Give Peace A Chance
- 1969: John Lennon argues with Al Capp in Montreal
- 1969: George and Pattie Harrison holiday in Sardinia
- 1967: UK album release: Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band
- 1966: Recording: Yellow Submarine
- 1964: Recording: Matchbox, I’ll Cry Instead, Slow Down, I’ll Be Back
- 1963: Live: Granada Cinema, Tooting, London
- 1963: Radio: Pop Go The Beatles
- 1961: Live: Top Ten Club, Hamburg
Want more? Visit the Beatles history section.
Mark Lewisohn says in his description that the instruments used were two guitars, bass, organ, drums and tambourine, but he did not specify who played what.
My guess is that Paul played bass, George played the lead guitar with reverb, John played the scraped guitar strings and Ringo was obviously on drums. The organ was played either by Paul or John (it could well have been John, since he did enjoy his sonic experimentation and liked crazy sounds) and the tambourine was most likely played by Ringo, but as I said, this is only my guess and so I can’t officially verify that this was the line-up.