Sgt. Pepper at 50: Giles Martin on The Beatles classic

On the 50th birthday of The Beatles' Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band we talk to Giles Martin, who follows in his father's footsteps as he remasters the anniversary edition

Feature by Jamie Bowman | 31 May 2017

For a man entrusted with what many music fans regard as the crown jewels of 60s pop, Giles Martin cuts a pretty relaxed figure as he prepares to unleash the new stereo remix of what is arguably The Beatles’ and his father George Martin’s masterpiece. Reborn and augmented by a raft of revelatory extras and sonic experiments, the 47-year-old’s ability to slip into Martin senior’s shoes and continue his determination to push the boundaries has resulted in a project worthy of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band’s 50th anniversary.

“It’s an album that everyone feels like they own both spiritually and physically so I’m just delighted that’s it’s been received so well,” says Martin. “I played a mix to a friend of mine, Bob Clearmountain, who’s produced Bruce Springsteen and the Rolling Stones, and he actually cried. He said he felt like he was hearing the album for the first time and I thought ‘that’s good’. When you’re doing it you can’t get too nervous about it or you’re not doing your job – if you were flying a plane and you thought you were going to crash you wouldn’t be flying well. My job is to push the boundaries – that’s what the Beatles demand and I think that’s made for a more courageous mix to a certain degree.”

Asking what Martin and Abbey Road’s senior engineer Sam Okell have actually done to those 50 year old tapes is a tricky task for the layman. To these ears, Ringo’s drums sound incredible and the pair appear to have done something very clever with the vocals so that they hit you between the eyes. Anything else? “There’s a spiritual and a technical answer to that,” laughs Martin. “I think in layman’s terms you can say it is like a couple of panes of glass falling away from the record.

“When I first came to Abbey Road I worked on the Anthology with my dad and listened to A Day in the Life on a four track and it was incredible how clear it was – it didn’t sound old. What people hear now is actually things we didn’t do even though I don’t mind taking the credit! We didn’t make the drums sound like that – that’s what the drums sound like, simple as that. I couldn’t believe how loud they were and how loud they sung. In Eleanor Rigby Paul is just screaming 'arghhhhhhhhh' because I think they were just used to playing live. Ringo hits things really hard.

“I just tell people to listen to it – my mission is to try to get people to hear what we hear in the studios when we play the tapes. The more you hear them the more you appreciate how good the Beatles were.” 

While that last statement might seem obvious, five decades on from the Summer of Love, Martin is worried quite how The Beatles will be accepted by a new generation. Fashions change and an appreciation of just what those four young men from Liverpool achieved with a four track studio and a lot of imagination can be easily lost in a time of streaming and swiping. 

“The only way you could record on four track was by playing together,” he says. “Being For The Benefit of Mr Kite is supposed to be a psychedelic song but the take you hear is Paul playing bass live, John singing live and my dad playing harmonium. Fixing a Hole was three takes and they used the first take. It was really quite simple and we live in a world now where we create things by computers and we cut up and change stuff but everything you hear on Pepper is live.”

Indeed, so many moments come alive on the album that remind you of the band’s extraordinary capabilities, from the genius of A Day in the Life to the unearthing of previously frivolous gems like Lovely Rita and Fixing A Hole. “I knew Ringo was a great drummer before Sgt. Pepper,” says Martin. “Paul’s bass playing is just amazing and then you think of John’s voice on A Day in the Life.

“George is 24 and there he is writing Within You Without You and playing the sitar," he continues. "You think here’s a guy from Liverpool who didn’t even have an inside toilet in his house. Seven years before he was having a crap outside and then he decided to go all spiritual and write a beautiful Indian song. But the thing about this album is it is the height of their collaboration – they are all pulling in the same direction. My dad always said it was his favourite album to work on because of that and because it was just such a happy time.”

While Martin’s work is a tribute to the talent of The Beatles it’s also a testament to the skills of George Martin, who passed away last year before his son had finished what he started. Hearing those clipped English tones introduce the unreleased takes or commenting on each demo is moving in the extreme for any Beatles fan so goodness knows what it was like for his son. “It was a bit odd and I can’t deny it,” agrees Martin. “We were incredibly close and we worked together so closely. When he died I took a week off and then the first time we got back in the studio was to talk about this project. I pressed play on the tape and the first voice I heard was his and it reminded me of when I first did the Love show and I sat with Yoko. She said to me: 'the funny thing about John is he’s just a voice now' and I kind of understand now what she meant.

“I hope I’ve done him proud and this mix is not a correction of his work with The Beatles but more a celebration of what they did. What they did is amazing and still stands up today," he concludes. 


Buy Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band Anniversary Edition here: http://TheBeatles.lnk.to/SgtPepperAnniversary