Iain Macmillan - 1966-1971

1966-1971

On 9 November 1966 John Lennon met Yoko at the Indica Gallery, later on she introduced him to Iain. In 1969 John invited Iain to photograph the Abbey Road cover. The Beatles recorded most of their music at the EMI Studios on Abbey Road, St John's Wood, London. They decided to name their last album after the road. Later EMI changed the name of the studio to the Abbey Road Studios.

Iain was given a sketch by Paul McCartney a couple of days before the shoot showing where and what the picture should look like. Iain added his own sketch in the top corner to confirm the layout. The Volkswagen? Iain said "The car just happened to be standing there. It had been left there by someone on holiday. Nobody with any connection to The Beatles. A policeman tried to move it away for us, but he couldn't". On 8 August 1969, around 11:30am, Iain climbed up a stepladder about 10 feet in the air in the middle of Abbey Road and took six pictures of the Beatles crossing the street. A policeman was hired to control traffic. The Beatles usually came to the studio around 2-3pm so the earlier hour was chosen to avoid fans.

First Photo. John leads the group from left to right followed by Ringo, Paul and George. They kept this order throughout all the photos. There is a Mercedes pulling out of the studio behind them. John is looking away from the camera and Paul and George are in mid step. Paul is wearing sandals
Second Photo. They walk back in the same order. Good spacing but only John has a full step.
Third Photo. Left to right again, full steps this time but they are all too far left. There is now a traffic backup. There is a taxi, two vans and a double decker bus waiting to come forward. Paul is now barefoot.
Fourth Photo. Walking right to left, once again Paul Ringo and George all in mid step. The traffic has gone through but the bus has stopped to watch. This photo is the cover of Abbey Road by Brian Southall.
Fifth Photo. This photo was used for the cover of the album and is the only photo where we see Paul smoking. The only one with their legs in perfect formation. The three men on the left above Paul's head are Alan Flanagan, Steve Millwood and Derek Seagrove. They were interior decorators returning from a lunch break. On the right side between John and Ringo's head is Paul Cole an American tourist.
Sixth Photo. Ringo slightly too far behind John.
After the shoot Iain went to find a road sign for use on the back cover. It was taken on the corner with Alexandra Road. During photographing the sign a girl in a blue dress walked through the shot. Iain was angry but later it was chosen as the back cover. The wall with the sign was demolished several years later.

Iain worked for John and Yoko until 1971 doing such work as

• The cloud on the album cover for Live Peace in Toronto.
• Photos on the album Some Time in New York City.
• The wedding cake in the Wedding Album.
• Yoko's book Flies.
• The cover photo on Yoko's book Grapefruit.
• The merging heads label of John and Yoko's vinyl single "Happy Xmas (War is Over)".
• The merging heads label of John and Yoko's album "Some Time In New York City".
• Kenny Rogers And The First Edition - cover photograph of Something's Burning, 1970.