the beatles are at abbey road studios in london recording their latest number, all you need is love. bsolutely packed. that was then. this is now. the corridors of the legendary studios are empty, save for the ghostly presence of past glories. but all is not lost. hello. covid—19 has battered the arts, but not into submission. the players are returning, albeit in limited numbers and operating within strict social distancing protocols. nevertheless, abbey road is back in business. it feels great. it's so wonderful, i mean, you know, closing the doors, it's the first time we have closed the doors since opening in 1931. we didn't even close for world war ii. so, this is a real moment in history, actually, reopening again. we are fortunate that our studios has really big spaces, like this one, so where ordinarily we would have an 80—100 person orchestra in here, we have reduced that right down to a0. the string players of the royal philharmonic orchestra are the first musicians to return to the famous studios that they know very well. this is strange, but very exciting. it's quite odd to