Lester Smith is gatekeeper of the microphones at Abbey Road studios. He joined as a technical engineer in the early 70s; Paul McCartney was starting Wings, Pink Floyd would soon be in to record what would become one of the bestselling albums of all time, The Dark Side of the Moon, and the studio would later welcome a young Kate Bush. Throughout it all, Lester was in the technical room, learning how to engineer on EMI’s world-class recording equipment. He’s there to this day. Lester fell in love with microphones, and for decades has been developing and refining his skills in this corner of Abbey Road. These are the mics that have taken in the sounds – and spit – of the greatest singers in the world.
The music made inside those walls has changed, as have the faces coming in and out – even much of the building itself. But Lester has been through it all, working from his little office, building up stacks of carefully labelled valves and other skeletons of machinery around him. For all the years Lester’s been behind the mic, he and the other engineers and facilities staff have been keeping those studios alive. They tick away behind the scenes to give us the music that fills our ears every day. The music world is full of people like Lester. Although, more often than not, their contributions go largely unrecognised. Here are a few of the other unsung heroes who take the music from the studio to the stage.
