The Beatles: I built their studios and they made me tea

In 1969, The Beatles were preparing for their rooftop concert in London when John Lennon asked an engineer if it was possible to build him a home studio.

Edward Veale, from Hertfordshire, was a regular at the Saville Row studios as the band recorded songs such as Get Back and Let it Be.

Often he would be called from his offices down the road to make repairs to The Beatles' basement studio.

Mr Veale would build studios for three Beatles, but Lennon's was the first.

"They were still together at that time, but John was clearly thinking about other things," said the engineer who would often fix monitors and other problems for the group as they recorded what would be their final studio album to be released.

"I found it very interesting; I saw lots of things I didn't notice at the time, but seeing myself I thought 'who's that character'," he laughed.

The Hatfield-born engineer fondly remembers working at Lennon's home at Tittenhurst Park, near Ascot in Berkshire, recognisable to fans from the music video for Imagine.

He believes his creation, known as Ascot Sound Studios, was the first home recording studio in Europe.

Lennon was keen to start recording songs for his second solo album Imagine, having recorded his Plastic Ono Band debut at Abbey Road the year before.

He would record at night and leave notes with instructions for Mr Veale who would continue constructing the studio the next day.

The two would see each other for a couple of hours in the afternoon.

"He was very pleasant, very forthright and had some great ideas," he said.

"He was very inquisitive, he was asking what, how and why things were being done in the studio, and when he could start recording."

The engineer recalls being present as Lennon, his wife Yoko Ono and producer Phil Spector worked on the songs that would appear on the Imagine album - released in 1971.

"Phil was an interesting character. During the recording for Imagine he had a number of demands that were like 'why didn't you do this yesterday before I thought of it?'," said Mr Veale.

Spector, who produced myriad pop hits from the early 1960s onwards, murdered actress Lana Clarkson at his Hollywood home in 2003, and he died in jail in 2021.

Lennon fans will be familiar with the studio which was filmed extensively for different documentaries about the creation of his first two albums.

Mr Veale can be spotted in these films, working and tinkering around and some of these recording sessions were attended by former Beatles George Harrison and Ringo Starr.

"John was very sociable but I was less so; I was focused on studio building and I wanted to get home and see my family," said Mr Veale.

At the end of 1971 John and Yoko moved to New York City and sold the 72-acre grade II listed house to Ringo.

Mr Veale was given the task with boxing up Lennon's beloved home studio and moving it in its entirety to a new location in New York.

Recalling that project he said: "For eight weeks I would go out on a morning flight and come back on an evening one; that got a bit tiring."

When plans fell through for Lennon's new US studio Mr Veale was then given the job of unboxing everything and reinstalling it for use by Starr before it had left Tittenhurst.

In 1972, Mr Veale begun work on George Harrison's home studio in Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire, and continued to work with him until his death in 2001.

"He had a great understanding of the technical aspects and had very clear ideas of what he wanted from a studio," he recalled.

Harrison chose a part of his Friar Park home for the studio and Mr Veale and among the various jobs in was one occasion the pair took a trip to New York to find some stained glass windows for the new facility.

Mr Veale said it was one of his happiest memories working with a Beatle, saying Americans would approach him and ask if it was "really George".

"I got on with him very well. If I was visiting George the first thing he would do is go and put the kettle on. He had no airs and graces."

The studio was often visited by other artists, including Harrison's Travelling Wilburys bandmates such as Bob Dylan and Roy Orbison.

"If he was doing any recordings he'd frequently call me up and say 'Ed, can you pop over and look after things for us?'."

Mr Veale said he had focused on his career for decades, trying to avoid being too familiar with those he worked with, but he "learnt to socialise" with Harrison and his friends.

"It was quite good fun when he got friends over and during a break everybody got sent to the kitchen to socialise," he said.

The socialising lessons paid off - the engineer said he formed friendships with the former Beatles and invited them to his home and offices in Stevenage, where he continues to work at his company Veale Associates Limited.

"Let's put it this way, George and Ringo came to a few garden parties here," he laughed.

"I think people paint them as being something extraordinary, but they are just pretty nice and ordinary people."