Pepper preview for the press

Outside Abbey Road Studios yesterday. Photo: udiscovermusic

April 10, Giles Martin held a preview (or should that be prelisten?) of his new stereo mix of the “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” album in the best place possible for the occasion: No. 2 Studio at Abbey Road. Unfortunately, The Daily Beatle was not invited, but a hundred or so journalists from around the world were there.

Udiscovermusic sent their reporter, who came back with an article praising the mix, noting that “Sgt Pepper has always been hailed for its innovative studio techniques, but what you also get from the new mix is the sense of a band playing together. And not only that, but tapping into their early Hamburg club days and jamming hard, too”.

Martin, who called working on the album “a voyage of discovery”,  told the audience that he struggled with “A Day In The Life”. “I’d mixed it three times, actually. It’s got to be loud, but it comes out of ‘Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (Reprise)’. The difficulty was in getting the right feeling.”

At a Q&A session, Martin was asked by Paul Sinclair whether “Carnival of Light was considered for bonus material in the boxed set, to which Martin replied: “Yes, it was. As was ‘It’s Only A Northern Song’, as well, actually. But it wasn’t really part of Pepper. It wasn’t part of the Sgt. Pepper recording. It’s a very different thing. I hope we can do something interesting with that at some point…but it wasn’t really part of the Sgt. Pepper album.”

Read the full review from Jason Draper over at Udiscovermusic.

Paul Sinclair from Superdeluxeedition was there, too. Read his take on it here.

Rolling Stone previews the alternate Sgt Pepper album

Richard Williams was there, too