In 1969, when Iain MacMillan climbed a ladder on the corner of Abbey Road and Grove End Road and took a picture of the Beatles, he probably wouldn’t have predicted that exactly half a century later hundreds of the band’s fans would be jostling for position on the same zebra crossing and trying to recreate it.
On the 50th anniversary of the photograph, Beatles enthusiasts made the pilgrimage to NW8 from around the world, as lookalike band the Fab Four stopped traffic on Abbey Road at 11:38 on Thursday morning, the exact time the cover shots were supposed to have been taken.
Chris, who travelled from New Zealand to Abbey Road for the anniversary – says that the 11,500 mile trip was worth it. “It’s dedication or stupidity,” he says. “But it’s a trip of a lifetime. When you’re here you feel like you are part of the whole thing again.”
Tony Bramwell, who knew the Beatles from childhood, worked at Apple Records and held the ladder which MacMillan scaled to capture the shot, also made the trip. Sat on a bench in the shade of the August sun, 50 years on, Bramwell says he had no idea that it would become a phenomenon back in 1969. “It was just another album sleeve,” says Bramwell. “We didn’t really plan them, except for Sgt Pepper’s. Someone just said ‘Why don’t we do it in the road?’ It was vaguely planned the day before.”
“It was a surprise that people were still talking about it three years after it came out, but 50 years on it feels normal,” he says. “The whole thing is iconic: the cover is iconic and the album is amazing.”
Reviewing the album for the Guardian in 1969, Geoffrey Cannon said the record was “clever and deft” and still had “far more ideas than all but the most talented music”. “But the old rock and roll had energy and purpose,” he added in a mostly negative review. “And this is what Abbey Road has not.”
Despite some lacklustre reviews the record and its cover image went on to have a second life with tourists flocking to the site and creating “the world’s longest photo session”. Helped by rumours that it contained hidden messages – including the idea that Paul McCartney’s bare feet and a cryptic numerological clue in a number plate signalled he was actually dead – the image, which was hastily shot in 10 minutes, became more famous than the group’s painstakingly constructed Sgt Pepper’s cover.
Every inch of it was pored over for clues and secret meaning, but for some visitors on the anniversary, the meaning is clear. “In the shot itself, they’re walking away,” says Ken Miller, who is visiting from Chicago. “They’re done. The Beatles are no more and this is the last time that you’re going to see them as a group.”
“I took a couple of shots of the Beatles crossing Abbey Road one way,” said MacMillian before his death in 2006. “We let some of the traffic go by and then they walked across the road the other way, and I took a few more shots.” Simplicity is why the album cover and the group continue to endure, according to one fan.
“The best thing about the Beatles is that it unites people from all over the world,” says Patrick Bourke, who came from Liverpool to witness the anniversary. “I’ve met people from Argentina, Italy, Spain, Brazil, Germany, Australia and New Zealand, and that was their greatest gift – that unification. Down here today nobody cares about religion or the colour of people’s skin, all they want to do is talk about music.”