DENNY LAINE REMEMBERS ABBEY ROAD - INTERVIEW

Denny Laine has fond memories of working and hanging out at Abbey Road Studios, the venerable London recording studio where The Beatles, Pink Floyd and many other British bands used innovative recording techniques to make musical history.Laine, a founding member of both The Moody Blues and Wings, will relive and share memories of those times Thursday at the Salt Gastropub in Byram when he and his band perform The Beatles' 1969 "Abbey Road" album. 

"The show isn't just the album -- that's only 46 minutes. It's Abbey Road memories ... and the music that was made there, not just by The Beatles, but by other bands from the British invasion. It should be a good show," said Laine, in a telephone interview from his home in Las Vegas.

 

"Abbey Road Memories" is a show that features a complete performance of the Beatles' legendary album, as well as other Beatles classics and songs recorded at Abbey Road Studios by the likes of The Zombies, Manfred Mann, Pink Floyd, Gerry and the Pacemakers, Stealer's Wheel and The Hollies. Of course, Laine will play his own songs, including The Moody Blues' No. 1 hit "Go Now," and Wings smashes such as "Time to Hide," "Live and Let Die" and "Band on the Run." 

Backing Laine will be a group of musicians known in music circles as "the Peter and Gordon Band" because in the '60s they played with British pop duo of Peter Asher and Gordon Waller. (Asher, of course, became head of Apple Records and a world-renown record producer.) The band consists of: Jeff Alan Ross (keyboards, guitar), who was in Gerry and the Pacemakers in the '60s and Badfinger in the '80s; Bill Cinque (bass), also a Pacemaker; Steve Aho (drums), and Brian Pothier (guitar), both of whom have toured and recorded with many acts of the '60s and beyond.

A sampling of Laine's Abbey Road memories includes Wings' "Live and Let Die" session with a 40-piece orchestra conducted by famed Beatles producer George Martin; and being present for The Beatles' "Fool on the Hill" session in 1967.

Laine's connection to Beatles music can be attributed to his long friendship with Paul McCartney. Considering his decade with McCartney and Wings from 1971 to 1981, he's practically a fifth Beatle. 

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