The “Abbey Road” photo session

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For a more in-depth look at this photo session, please refer to Roger Stormo’s The Daily Beatle and its article titled “Abbey Road – The Road That Goes On Forever.“

On this day, at approximately 10 am, The Beatles gathered outside EMI Studios to walk across the zebra crossing on Abbey Road. Photographer Iain Macmillan was positioned on a stepladder in the middle of the street, equipped with a Hasselblad camera, to capture what would become the iconic cover photograph of their album “Abbey Road“.

In the days leading up to the shoot, Macmillan had taken a test photo with four stand-ins to give The Beatles a preview of the intended composition. The white Volkswagen Beetle visible in the final image was already parked in place. It is believed its owner had left it there before going on holiday, so the car remained in place for several days.

On the day of the shoot, Macmillan took only six photographs of The Beatles crossing the street, alternating directions:

• First photo: The group crosses from left to right in the order John, Ringo, Paul, and George — an order maintained in all six shots. A Mercedes pulls out from behind the studio. John looks away from the camera, and both Paul and George are mid-step. Paul is wearing sandals.
• Second photo: The Beatles walk back in the same order. The spacing is good, but only John has a full step.
• Third photo: Crossing left to right again, this time with full steps, but the group is positioned too far to the left. Traffic has started to back up; a taxi, two vans, and a double-decker bus can be seen waiting. Paul is now barefoot.
• Fourth photo: Walking right to left, Paul, Ringo, and George are all in mid-step. The traffic has passed, though the bus has paused to watch.
• Fifth photo: This image was selected for the “Abbey Road” album cover. It is the only frame where Paul’s cigarette is visible and the only one in which all four Beatles’ legs form a perfect stride.
• Sixth photo: Ringo is slightly too far behind John. The bus has turned around to leave the scene.

Macmillan also took two additional photographs of the empty crossing, likely on the same day. One of them was later used by the American vocal group New York City for the cover of their 1974 album “Soulful Road.” The other resurfaced in 2023 as part of an auction, featured in a mock-up image with a faint “Abbey Road” sign superimposed at the top.

From the third photo onward, Paul removed his sandals. His barefoot appearance on the final album cover would later become one of the many “clues” cited by fans in support of the “Paul Is Dead” conspiracy theory, which gained momentum following the release of “Abbey Road.”

Once the photo session ended (at around 10:30 am), The Beatles decided it was too early to begin recording. Ringo went shopping, Paul took John back to his house, while George and Mal Evans visited Regent’s Park Zoo.

Meanwhile, Macmillan set out to photograph a street sign for the album’s back cover. He chose the corner of Abbey Road and Alexandra Road. During the shoot, a young woman in a blue dress walked through the frame — initially frustrating Macmillan, though the candid moment was ultimately kept and featured on the back cover. The wall bearing the street sign was demolished several years later.

In the days that followed, Apple Corps’ newly appointed creative director, John Kosh, designed the album’s packaging using Macmillan’s front and back photographs.

In 1985, Paul McCartney returned to the zebra crossing to film scenes for the promotional video of “Spies Like Us.” He revisited the crossing again in 1993 with Iain Macmillan to recreate the iconic image for his “Paul Is Live” album.

The crossing was right outside, and we said, ‘Let’s just go out, get a photographer and walk out on the crossing. It’ll be done in half an hour.’ It was getting quite late and you always have to get the cover in ahead of the sound. So we got hold of the photographer Iain Macmillan, gave him half an hour and walked across the crossing.

Paul McCartney – ​From “The Beatles Anthology” book, 2000

It was a hot day in London, a really nice hot day and I wore sandals. I only had to walk around the corner to get to the crossing because I lived nearby… for the photo session, I thought, ‘I’ll take my sandals off.’ Barefoot, nice warm day, I didn’t feel like wearing shoes. When the album came out, people started looking at it and they said, ‘Why has he got no shoes on? He’s never done that before!’

Paul McCartney – From “The Beatles: Off the Record” by Keith Badman, 2008

Back in the Sixties, the wild rumour was that I was dead because of certain alleged ‘clues’ on the Abbey Road sleeve. Because I was barefoot, it being a scorching summer’s day, it was taken as a bizarre Mafia sign of death. Then they said that because part of the numberplate of the Volkswagen parked behind read 28IF, it meant I being 27 at the time – would have been 28 IF I’d lived.

Paul McCartney – From the liner notes of “Paul Is Live – Album Sampler” (1993)

The day of the album cover photo session Paul was very much alive. I arrived late and when I got to the E.M.I. Studios John asked me to help the photographer. Iain McMillan, with anything he needed. Everybody was laughing about the fact that Paul had arrived with no shoes, and even though his house was just around the corner he said he couldn’t be bothered to go get any. McMillan set up his camera in the middle of Abbey Road, right outside the studios, and while the police stopped traffic the Beatles walked across the road three or four times. He kept shouting: “Stop! Start again,” until he was confident that he had the right shot.

Happy with the front cover, McMillan asked me to drive with him along Abbey Road to look for the best street sign to photograph for the back cover. It had to be one of the old-style tiled signs set into the bricks. The best one was at the far end of Abbey Road and we set up the camera on the edge of the pavement. McMillan decided to take a series of shots and was angry when, in the middle of them, a girl in a blue dress walked by, oblivious to what was happening. But this turned out to be the most interesting shot and the Beatles chose it for the back cover. Afterwards I joined John and Yoko at Paul’s house in St. John’s Wood, where everybody had gone for tea after the photo session.

Anthony Fawcett – John Lennon’s assistant – From “John Lennon – One Day At A Time” by Anthony Fawcett, 1976

I remember we hired a policeman to hold up traffic while I was up on the ladder taking the pictures. The whole idea, I must say, was Paul McCartney’s. A few days before the shoot, he drew a sketch of how he imagined the cover, which we executed almost exactly that day.

I took a couple of shots of the Beatles crossing Abbey Road one way. 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. The one eventually chosen for the cover was number five of six. It was the only one that had their legs in a perfect ‘V’ formation, which is what I wanted stylistically.

Iain Macmillan – From The Guardian, August 1989

That photo’s been called an icon of the Sixties. I suppose it is. I think the reason it became so popular is its simplicity. It’s a very simple, stylised shot. Also it’s a shot people can relate to. It’s a place where people can still walk.

Iain Macmillan – From The Guardian, August 1989

The only hint they gave me or anybody [that “Abbey Road” would be their last album] was on the album cover, where they’re walking across the street. For people who don’t know the geography, they’re actually walking away from the EMI Studios – or Abbey Road, as everybody knows it now. This was intentional on their part – they didn’t want to be seen as walking toward the studio. When I saw that photo, I did think to myself, ‘They’re sending a message.’

Geoff Emerick – Recording engineer – From MusicRadar, 2014 interview

The thing was, as far as I can recall, the pictures were only supposed to be publicity shots. They were never intended for an album cover, no matter what Paul McCartney says. It changed into an album cover when EMI saw the shots and decided they wanted an album cover by, say, Wednesday and this was Monday, something like that.

That same evening we had the pictures rush-processed. We put them on the lightbox and went through them one by one. And it seemed to me that the one we chose was the most obvious one. They were all supposed to be in step but of course they’re not. It took about twenty minutes for people to decide that it went from publicity shots to an album cover. We were poring over the pictures when we got a note from EMI saying they needed an album cover fast.

John Kosh – From “And in the End: The Last Days of the Beatles” by Ken McNab, 2019

When you worked for The Beatles anything could happen. Nothing was strange. We might have guessed it was for an album picture but I’m not one hundred per cent sure, but I was there on the Friday when they shot the picture for real. The thing was that the London traffic in those days was virtually non-existent. There was hardly any traffic going down Abbey Road except for the occasional bus or taxi. A policeman came along and he stopped whatever traffic there was. The whole thing lasted about twenty minutes. I think Iain was happy with what he had but The Beatles didn’t like to hang around much. They always wanted things done pretty quickly.

Kevin Harrington – Beatles’ roadie – From “And in the End: The Last Days of the Beatles” by Ken McNab, 2019

On the final album cover, the three men standing on the left, above Paul’s head, are Alan Flanagan, Steve Millwood, and Derek Seagrove — interior decorators returning from lunch. Between John and Ringo’s heads on the right stands another man. Over the years, several people claimed to be him, including American tourist Paul Cole (but Beatles expert Roger Stormo thinks Paul Cole told tales).

I was actually working in the studios that day. I am the guy on the right, in the bottom left-hand corner of the picture. Most people when they look at the picture think we are outside somebody’s house but in actual fact we were at the other entrance to EMI Studios as it was then.

I was thirty-one at the time. There were two of us on the job that day and then another guy came and joined us outside the studios when the picture was being taken. It was just a coincidence that he was also a decorator working on some flats across the road. He saw what was happening and he actually joined us… I was with a colleague called Steve Millwood. On the day the picture was taken we were only at the studios by chance. […]

On this particular day we saw them all walking out the front door together around about ten or so, which was a bit unusual in itself. You rarely saw them at that time of day. We knew something was going on. I suppose curiosity got the better of us so we followed them. We stopped at the gate and they walked up the other end. We just stood there and watched what they were doing.

The guy who was taking the photograph was up on a very tall pair of steps and he was actually waving to us to get out of the way. But we decided to just stand our ground. He was waving his arms and shouting at us but we refused to budge, being a bit young and a bit bolshie, I suppose. We had no idea about the significance of the picture. We didn’t know what it was for. Of course, later on I wish I had been able to get them to sign a copy of the album but by the time the album came out they were never seen again in public and you certainly didn’t see them at the EMI Studios. It would have been worth a fortune. If the picture had been taken today we would probably have been airbrushed out of it and airbrushed out of history as well.

Derek Seagrove – One of the three men standing on the left, above Paul’s head – From “And in the End: The Last Days of the Beatles” by Ken McNab, 2019

It wasn’t until years after the ‘Abbey Road’ LP was produced that my husband discovered he is on the album cover. Derek was 31, and working for the decorating firm Fassnidge, Son & Morris, based in Uxbridge, when the picture was taken. He’s the one on the right of the three men in white overalls on the left-hand pavement. The other two are his work-mates, Alan Flanagan and Steve Millwood. They were doing a decorating job in Abbey Road studios and were coming back after a lunch break when the picture was taken. They hung around just to be nosey. Derek thought if it was used, he and his mates would be edited out.

Mrs N. C. Seagrove – From Abbey Road – The road that goes on forever – The Daily Beatle

This man [on the right side of the image], dressed in a brown coat and white shirt, was found years later after numerous people came forward claiming to be him. He’s actually an American tourist called Paul Cole, who was waiting for his wife when the picture was taken. He told The Mirror: “[I told her] ‘I’ve seen enough museums. I’ll just stay out here and see what’s going on outside’.“

Just then, he saw four guys walking over the zebra crossing and noticed something odd – one of them, Paul McCartney, had no shoes on! He remarked: “I just happened to look up, and I saw those guys walking across the street like a line of ducks. A bunch of kooks, I called them, because they were rather radical-looking at that time. You didn’t walk around in London barefoot.” Paul was amazed when he later spotted himself in the background on an album cover.

He said: “I saw the album and I recognised myself right away. I had a new sports jacket on and I’d just bought new shell-rimmed glasses. I told my kids, ‘Get a magnifying glass out and you’ll see me’.” Sadly, Paul passed away in 2008, when he was 98 years old.

From Mirror Online, March 14, 2024

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