Richard Langham was recording engineer at Abbey Road Studios and worked with the Beatles from 1963-1964 on some of their early records, then again from 1969-1970. He also, during his long career, worked with Cliff Richard, the Shadows, Paul McCartney, Judy Garland, Marlene Dietrich, Noel Coward, Shirley Bassey, Ella Fitzgerald, Riccardo Muti and many more. We asked him a few questions by email about his work with the Beatles and his recent assistance to author Jude Southerland Kessler during the writing of her latest book. He'll back in the U.S. Nov. 28 for BeatEXPO 2010. More details at http://www.toursandevents.com/BEATexpo.htm.)
Q: How long did you work with the Beatles?
Richard Langham: Well I worked with The Beatles from Monday 11th February 1963 up to June 1964, then I worked for the EMI Studios in Cologne in Germany. I rejoined EMI Studios in London in 1968 and then worked again with The Beatles on Saturday 26th April 1969, my last session with The Beatles was on Saturday 28th February 1970. During these periods, I was on many of their sessions.
Q: What was the usual procedure when in the studio with the Beatles?
Richard Langham: No special procedure was used when they were there. We were just as professional with them as we were with all our other artists.
Q: Which Beatle was most involved with the recording sessions?
Richard Langham: I think it was John mainly involved with Paul a close second.
Q: Any particular incident stand out?
Richard Langham: Well, one incident was quite embarrassing really, I was alone in the Studio 2 control room when Brian Epstein came in and said hello to me and we chatted. Then he saw the Beatles in the studio and picked up the talk back microphone to say something to them about what they were playing, and John just said back to him "You just take your 10% and let us do what we do best." Well, Brian went beetroot red. It was so embarrassing as Brian was such a lovely guy.
Q: How were you involved with Jude Southerland Kessler's latest book "Shivering Inside"?
Richard Langham: Jude very kindly asked me to read through the chapters about the Beatles in EMI Studios to see if there were any mistakes. Well, due to so many books out there with inaccuracies in them some of the errors were glaring at me. So I just suggested some changes that I knew were wrong because I was there. I didn't comment on anything I could not personally vouch for.
Comments
Richard is being very modest. He's a virtual storehouse of information, not only about the Beatles but many other artists that came through the doors of Abbey Road Studios. He's got enough stories to fill a very interesting book...
In Mark Lewisholm's "The Beatles Recording Sessions" book, there is a picture of a young Richard with all four Beatles around the control desk for a picture. It's great to hear from the people behind the scenes that you hear their names, but don't know their faces.
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