Day 11: 20 October 2009, Tuesday
Our first agenda for today was to pay a visit to Abbey Road Studios, one of the most famous recording studios in the world. Abbey Road is most closely associated with The Beatles, who recorded 190 of their 210 songs at the studio. To get there, we took the Tube and alighted at St. John’s Wood station. From there, it was a short five-minute walk away to Abbey Road.
The influence of The Beatles was clear from the moment we alighted the Tube. Directions to Abbey Road Studios were indicated in an information board at the station, a testament to the number of tourists like us who made the port of call at St. John’s Wood for that purpose. Located right outside the station was a Beatles Coffee Shop selling official Beatles merchandise.
Surprisingly, it was quiet when we arrived at Abbey Road Studios at 9am. The studio itself was just like any other building along the street. Without any tourists milling around, you wouldn’t have guessed that world-class musicians and artists could be inside recording some of their soon-to-be landmark works. Perhaps a tell-tale sign would be the graffiti on the whitewashed front walls at the entrance. In fact, visitors are encouraged to write a message on the graffiti wall, but we didn’t bring along a marker so we didn’t leave our marks behind.
We entered the compound and I took at photo at the entrance to mark my visit. As a music fan, this was an important pit stop. We weren’t sure whether we could enter the studio building so we didn’t venture any further. The Abbey Road Shop opened only in 2015 so it wasn’t there yet when we visited. It would have been cool to buy some souvenirs from the shop.
Of course, no visit to Abbey Road is complete without taking a photo at the famous zebra crossing, immortalised on the cover of the aptly titled Abbey Road album by The Beatles in 1969. The album cover features the four members walking in step across the zebra crossing, and countless Beatles fans have tried to recreate this iconic image. One thing to note is that the original zebra crossing, where the photograph was taken, was moved several metres for traffic management reasons more than 40 years ago, so no matter how you try, you will not be able to recreate the exact shot anymore.
But of course, I had to do it since I was there. Even though it was a quiet Tuesday morning, there was a constant flow of vehicles plying through the road. I felt a bit bad for holding up the traffic, but kudos to KP for braving the cars in the middle of the road to help me snap this photo!
Next, we went to the TKTS booth at Leicester Square again. TKTS sells discounted theatre tickets and it opens at 10am daily. You’ll need to go early if you want to snag the best seats. Other early birds were already in the queue when we arrived at 9:45am. KP and TH queued up to buy tickets for The Phantom of the Opera but I didn’t join them because I had already watched the musical in Singapore, and also because there were no discounted tickets for Thriller Live, the show I wanted to catch. This was because Thriller Live was a relatively new show, having premiered in London in January 2009. Demand was also high because of MJ’s recent passing on 25 June 2009. After KP and TH successfully purchased their discounted Phantom tickets, we walked over to the Lyric Theatre at Shaftesbury Avenue, where I bought my ticket for Thriller Live.
We then took a brisk walk through Green Park to catch the Changing of the Guard at Buckingham Palace. The ceremony takes place at the forecourt of Buckingham Palace and it officially begins at 11am. The best spot to watch the proceedings is on the steps of the Victoria Memorial, directly facing the palace, but it was already full when we arrived. So we planted ourselves outside the palace gates, hoping it would be good enough.
The purpose of the ceremony is for the Queen’s Guard to hand over responsibility for protecting Buckingham Palace and St. James’s Palace to the New Guard. The entire Changing of the Guard also involves the Old Guard leaving St. James’s Palace and the New Guard leaving Wellington Barrack to converge at Buckingham Palace, where the symbolic gesture of transfer of responsibility takes place.
About 15 minutes after we arrived, a detachment of the Old Guard from St. James’s Palace appeared, preceded by the Band, who provided musical support. The Band and the Guards were dressed in their trademark black bearskin caps and red tunics. They entered the forecourt of the palace and took up position beside the Buckingham Palace detachment of the Old Guard.
We tried to catch glimpses of the proceedings through the gates but it was hard to see what was really going on as the crowds were too thick and everyone was jostling for the best position, holding digital cameras above their heads.
Another 15 minutes later, the New Guard appeared, also led by a Band. This time round, the contingent marched past us before they entered the palace via a different gate. The Household Cavalry Mounted Regiment also followed, and they looked mightily impressive in their gold-plated armour and headgear while riding horses.
With both the Old and New Guard in position at Buckingham Palace, the handover procedures were carried out. The Band also played some musical pieces as part of the ceremony. KP managed to take some good shots of the Band in action.
As I stood there watching, I was reminded of my time in the military band when we did the monthly Changing of the Guard ceremony in front of the Istana gates in Singapore. It was a fun parade as we always attracted lots of attention from the crowd. It was also just cool to march down Orchard Road with the military police stopping traffic and opening the roads for us. Of course, our uniforms weren’t as impressive as the ones worn by these soldiers in London, but I wouldn’t fancy wearing bearskin caps in our hot and humid weather!
The ceremony ended around 12:15pm. After that, we were done with our main agenda for the day. We took a leisurely stroll to Oxford Street and it was time for shopping! We decided to do spend the rest of the day free-and-easy and I parted ways with KP and TH. I made a beeline for HMV and I ended up spending two hours there. Back in 2009, we still had HMV in Singapore but it was nothing compared to the one on Oxford Street, which was way bigger. I pored through every section and rack and wanted to get my hands on everything. I can’t remember how much money I spent there but it was pretty substantial.
At night, I went to the Lyric Theatre to catch the Thriller Live musical. It was the most expensive among the three musicals I watched, but also the most disappointing. There was no storyline, the singing was so-so and the dancing was not great. My honest opinion was that it felt like a high school production. I think my expectations were too high and it was unfair to expect anyone to perform exactly like Michael Jackson, because he was truly one of a kind. But with his recent passing in June 2009, the show was a celebration of his life and genius, and it was heart-warming to see so much love from the audience. MJ’s legacy lives on forever!
