John Leckie on Record Production

Back in Studio Three at Abbey Road, where he started, John Leckie tells George Shilling and an audience of 80 producers and engineers what the building was like half a century ago, with Shane Howard's animation bringing the stories to life.

He started there on 15 February 1970, after an interview with Ken Townsend and a phone call a few weeks later asking whether he could start on Monday. He turned up in loon pants and a market-stall T-shirt, with hair to match, and got the job anyway while everyone around him wore a suit and tie.

Engineers relaxed the dress code only on Saturdays, when the management were not in, which is why photographs of old Abbey Road sessions with anyone in a roll-neck are almost certainly from the weekend. He also passes on the story of the man whose job he took, a tape operator sacked on the spot at three in the morning for having his shoes off when the manager walked in.

The microphone associated with Ringo Starr's kit in those rooms is one he used himself, and he rates it less for its sound than for being almost impossible to break.