When 'Two Young Kids' Took Charge of the Beatles' Live Broadcast to the World
When the Beatles represented the United Kingdom during Our World, the world’s first live global TV linkup in 1967, a lot was at stake as they delivered “All You Need is Love,” a song specially written for the moment. An audience of 400 million people were watching, members of the Rolling Stones and the Who were in the studio, and the resulting recording was to be released on vinyl just days later.
But, as Beatles engineer Geoff Emerick told Uncle Joe Benson on the Ultimate Classic Rock Nights radio show, the responsibility for making it all work out fell on the shoulders of “two young kids” – himself, aged and his even younger assistant Richard Lush.
“I was in a terrible state because this thing was going to go out live and we didn’t have the technology then – backups and God knows what else,” Emerick said. “[T]he record that actually goes out and the one you see them recording, everything’s live apart from, I think, just Ringo (Starr)’s drum. The only overdub I remember doing afterwards was Ringo’s snare roll at the beginning.
Source: ultimateclassicrock.com
