Amateur Photographer - UK (2020-12-05)

ALLTIME GREATEST ALBUM COVERS

Abbey Road

By Iain Macmillan

A

photographtakenbythe
lateIainMacmillanfrom
a stepladderinthemiddle
ofAbbeyRoad,London,
on8 August 1969 remainsoneof
rockandroll’smosticonicimages
overhalfa centurylater.Usinga
Hasselblad500Ccamera,witha Zeiss
Distagon50mmf/4lens,Macmillan
onlytooksixshotsoftheBeatles

as theywalkedacrossthecrossing

nearEMIStudios,wherethegroup

usuallyrecorded.

Thevisualideafortheshootcame

fromPaulMcCartney.Ina 1989

interviewwithTheGuardian

newspaper,Macmillanrecalled,‘We

hireda policemantoholduptraffic

whileI wasupontheladder.A few

daysbeforetheshoot,he[Paul]drew

Iain Macmillan was

born in Carnoustie,

Scotland, in 1938.

Initially he was a cruise

ship photographer but

his street photography

in Scotland led to

commissions from

major UK newspapers.

In the mid-1960s,

his work on an art

exhibition catalogue led

to him meeting Yoko

Ono, from which John

Lennon asked him to

shoot the Abbey Road

cover. Macmillan died

of cancer in 2006.

Steve Fairclough discovers the inside

story of the iconic cover of The Beatles’

 nal recording, Abbey Road

TheBeatles’

AbbeyRoad

Musicians:JohnLennon,

PaulMcCartney,George

Harrison,RingoStarr, Billy

Preston,GeorgeMartin

Released: 26 September

1969 (AppleRecords)

Bestchartperformance:

No.1UKAlbumsChart (the

albumenteredthe chart at

No.1)andNo.1US Billboard

TopLPschart.The LP also

reachedNo.1in Australia,

Canada,TheNetherlands,

Norway,Sweden,Spain and

WestGermany.

Sales:Over 31 million

worldwide

Fascinatingfact:The  nal

trackof thealbum, The End,

wasthelasttimeall four

of TheBeatlesrecorded

a tracktogether– this was

on 18 August1969. John

Lennonprivatelyleft the

groupsixdaysbefore the

releaseof thealbum,

whilePaulMcCartney

publiclyconrmed he was

nolongerin TheBeatles

on9 April1970.

a sketchofhowheimagined the

cover,whichweexecutedalmost

exactlythatday.

‘I tooka coupleofshots.We let

someofthetraffic go,thenthey

walkedacrosstheroadtheother

way,andI tooka fewmore. The one

chosenwasnumberfiveofsix. It was

theonlyonethathadtheir legs in a

perfect‘V’formation.’

It was a straightforward shoot that

took little more than 10 minutes.

Macmillan commented, ‘That photo

has been called an icon of the 1960s.

I suppose it is. I think the reason it

became so popular is its simplicity.

Also it’s a shot people can relate to.

It’s a place where people can still

walk.’ Macmillan also shot an Abbey

Road road sign, which was used on

the album’s back cover.

Short schedule

The next step in the process was

down to John Kosh, who John

Lennon had hired as creative

FACT FILE

© IAIN MACMILLAN ARCHIVE, COURTESY BONHAMS