Tucked away in a quiet corner of North London sits the iconic Abbey Road Studios — a pillar of history where recorded music began in 1931, the Beatles found their artistic home and the world’s most celebrated artists still come to create new hits. Though tourists flock to the street crossing just outside where the Beatles shot their 1969 “Abbey Road” cover, the studio itself is closed to the public and shrouded in secrecy. However, on Saturday night, down in the basement that houses Studio One, Abbey Road hosted its first-ever rave for 300 lucky guests.
For music fans, walking inside the studio’s famed wooden double-doors is like stepping into the Vatican. Even in the reception, bits of music history are everywhere — decades-old gear, signed posters from James Bond movies that recorded their iconic opening songs there and black-and-white photographs of all the legends who have graced the storied halls, from the Beatles to Oasis to Frank Ocean. Though just touring the building would have been exciting enough, on Saturday night Studio One — Abbey Road’s biggest space, typically used for recording film soundtracks — was transformed into a dance hall.
Behind the operation were David and Stephen Dewaele — the Belgian brothers and electronic pioneers better known as Soulwax — who were shocked when Mark Robertson, Abbey Road’s director of marketing and creative, came to them with the idea. “We were surprised they even knew who we were,” David says with a laugh, speaking to Variety on Zoom from Abbey Road two days before the event.
“You rarely get the chance to be in one of the most iconic studios in the world and get sort of a carte blanche to do whatever you want to do — and then have it culminate into the first-ever rave, which we hope is not going to be the last,” Stephen adds.
Officially titled Abbey Road After Hours, the Dewaele brothers headlined the event under their DJ moniker 2ManyDJs, with friends Erol Alkan and Laima Leyton warming up the crowd. Though many attendees were in the industry, free tickets were raffled off through a hotline that fans could call beginning two weeks before. “About 8,000 people tried,” Stephen reveals. “Shit, really?!” David responds.
“It’s been weird because there’s all these names being added and they’re artists you know and you’re like, ‘We can’t put them on the list!’” Stephen continues. “That’s how it should be with a rave, no? Or we’ll see Paul McCartney come in and go, ‘Oh no…’”
Though the rave started out tame, with only a small group dancing at the front, once 2ManyDJs took to the decks things quickly got sweaty. After playing dance favorites including their remix of Marie Davidson’s “Work It” and vamped-up versions of Dead or Alive’s “You Spin Me Round (Like a Record),” Blur’s “Girls & Boys” and the Rapture’s “House of Jealous Lovers,” the Dewaeles debuted a brand-new Soulwax track that they recorded in Abbey Road’s Studio Two the day before and pressed onto vinyl with the in-house machine.
David and Stephen Dewaele recording at Abbey Road Studios.
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Soulwax had a “full-on geek fest” recording the track, Stephen says. They used the same grand piano the Beatles and Pink Floyd recorded on and rare stereo microphones, in addition to their own electronic equipment. A big part of their set-up on the night was their Deewee sound system, consisting of four huge speaker stacks in each corner of Studio One for an all-encompassing, soul-pounding sound.
“Most modern clubs have basically maximized the amount of volume and power that you can get out of small speakers. So normally they have what’s called array sound — it’s a lot of stuff hanging at different points all over the place and then subs and that’s how the sound is divided,” David explains. “Whereas what we’re using is a very old-school approach, which is gigantic towers of speakers. They’re humongous.”
The night was filmed and will be broadcast on YouTube on March 5, not unlike the popular “Boiler Room” series. However, Stephen says it will focus more on the historic aspect of the event and less on those behind the DJ booth.
“For a lot of people, this place is the crossing outside, it’s the Beatles. But there’s so much more here, and I think a lot of people forget that this is the first place where music was being recorded,” Stephen says. “Dave and me have been in a couple studios around the world, but there’s something about this one because so much of the musical DNA that we’ve been inspired by comes from this building.”
So, will there be more raves inside Abbey Road? Though Soulwax’s night didn’t go off without a hitch — the event ended 15 minutes earlier than planned due to a noise complaint, and one attendee was removed for rowdy behavior — the Dewaele brothers are hopeful.
“Mark [Robertson, Abbey Road director of creative and marketing] was saying he would like this to be a thing where once in a while we come in and come up with some weird ideas,” Stephen says. “And I was like, ‘Well, we could definitely do that, but I don’t know if you’re gonna like it!’”
Adds David with a smile: “To their credit, they really want us to push the limits, which is cool.”
David and Stephen Dewaele at Abbey Road Studios.
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