Tourists reenacting the cover of Abbey Road -- timelapse video

"Garble Arch" is a short timelapse film of tourists at the Abbey Road zebra crossing reenacting the iconic cover of the Beatles album. London's full of spots like these, where tourism and the needs of locals to get their life underway collide; my favorite are the luxury flats that line the route of the (absolutely excellent) Jack the Ripper tours of east London. All summer long, as they dine with their windows flung open to catch the evening breeze, out-of-work actors stand beneath them with groups of tourists, propounding the grisly deaths that Jack the Ripper wrought on this very spot, lovingly describing the slaughter as they try to get some supper down.

Blame Ringo - Garble Arch (A Day in the Life of Abbey Road) (via Kottke)

I write books. My latest is a YA science fiction novel called Homeland (it's the sequel to Little Brother). More books: Rapture of the Nerds (a novel, with Charlie Stross); With a Little Help (short stories); and The Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow (novella and nonfic). I speak all over the place and I tweet and tumble, too.

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Phikus

At least it is a refreshing change from the usual refrain of “Blame Yoko!”

Btw, the reason Paul is barefoot in the original photo is because he wore sandals that day, and they didn’t want him wearing sandals on the album cover. I don’t know if it is in the out-takes, but there is a nice shot out there of the Beatles sitting on the AR Studio steps just before, smoking a joint.

The closest I have done to this is smoking a joint on the steps of the house the Grateful Dead used to all live in on Haight St. The people who lived there at the time seemed to be used to this.
TedJohnson

@10 “Really like that song. Anyone know who it is?”

Thanks to this post, I just happily spent half an hour on the Blame Ringo Web site. Blame Ringo is a band that used to be called Goodnight Vienna, until Ringo’s lawyers asked them to cease and desist.

Originally billed as “Goodnight Vienna,” the band had to change its name in late 2007 after being threatened with legal action by Richard Starkey Jr (aka Ringo Starr). Apparently “Goodnight Vienna” was the name of Ringo’s fourth studio album…

What a bastard.

After a spiteful name change (and a lot of muckraking) the new and improved Blame Ringo are set to have their revenge by seeking to expose the man who lays claim to inventing the ‘peace’ sign.

When life gives you lemons, blame Ringo.
Anonymous

Good ol’ times back in college when me and John Lennon were used to have few pints in the local pub while I would hear about his dream of making zebra crossings more famou than Jesus….
Anonymous

Perfectly intelligent conversation on a blog – man, I’m hanging around the wrong part of the internet. Glad you like the video, guys. This is a Tuesday afternoon. People were almost killed many many times. But that’s a day in the life of Abbey Road I spose.

@ #23 – your animated font rules. kudos to you.

Pete (from Blame Ringo fame)
muteboy

The phone box from the cover of “…Ziggy Stardust…” is another classic. Not sure if it’s there anymore.

When I lived in London, I used to get annoyed with the bloody tourists, coming over here year after year, getting in the way, spending their money on our goods and services…
Shelby Davis

Hehe! Reminds me of the steps outside the Philadelphia art museum–at any given moment of the morning, multiple joggers (myself included) stiking a Rocky pose at the tops of the steps. The renovation crews outside probably get pretty tired of it.
franko

@ #17 — well, that’s a great story. i idly wondered why they were called that, but didn’t pursue the thought. thanks for following through!
skeeto

Why does everyone feel they have to goose-step their way across? And swing their arms up over their heads? The Beatles were just walking normally.

Tourists like this would drive me nuts.
Bexta

I don’t mean to be a wet blanket but it would piss me off so much knowing that I had to stop for those bloody idiots strolling across and even stopping on the crossing.
rrh

Sign seen in a shop with glass eyes: “Please do not hold glass eyes in front of your eyes.”
InsertFingerHere

@ #2: — There are people with cameras taking pictures in public places in London. You were right the first time.
Slicklines

There is something oddly touching about the video. Scores of unrelated people reaching out to be a part of something that obviously still affects younger generations. It’s not just the Beatles, it’s the innocence (right or wrong) of the time.

I understand what a headache this must be to locals, but it’s comforting to think that there are still places in the world where people can go to celebrate something based on life rather than death.

Bravo to those who made the video.
oasisob1

How many tourists end up bloody each year at that crossing? There’s bound to be a few accidents…
flipcloud

Really like that song. Anyone know who it is?
labotomizer

On a side note.. I created that animated font used for the intro when I was 18. Back before Apple bought India and turned it into Livetype. Ahh those were heady days!
franko

i like the guy who drops his pants, too. funny!

i want to make light of these people, because i’m over the deification of the beatles, but i also know that if i happened to go there, i’d be doing the same thing.

you win, beatles!
Anonymous

Relax everyone, it’s all done in fun just like the Beatles did it.
freshacconci

I too have a piss-poor version of myself crossing the road: wrong angle, camera too low to the ground, camera too far away. But I walked it.

Love the outtake photos @#4. I’ve never seen them before. Of course there were outtakes. Why would I have thought that they took just the one? The Beatles walking the other direction!
digit

did he really have to set up another camera, i assume there are 400 cctv cameras on that block already.
Anonymous

Haha, great video!

Reminds me a lot of the idiots at Checkpoint Charlie in Berlin paying tons of money for souvenir pictures with actors in US or Soviet Army uniforms in front of a fake checkpoint building that has been rebuilt in a 1960s style well after the wall came down.

Would be almost funny if you weren’t hitting them with your bike on a regular basis.
Halloween Jack

God save Jack the Ripper
’cause tourists are money…
mdh

Go for the Trifecta Cory!

That Eames clip at Kottke today is awesomely good.
Jake0748

How sad (or weird) am I – that I first scanned the headline as, “TERRORISTS reenacting the cover of Abbey Road”?

Guess I need to get more sleep.
danwarning

I used to live 3 blocks from the Philadelphia Art Museum and one sunny afternoon, I spent about an hour sitting on the ‘famous’ front steps and counted no less than 28 people jogging up to the top and dancing around like Rocky did in the same spot. It was really quite remarkable!
Anonymous

what’s happening at 1.34 – why is he dropping his pants?
Anonymous

I did this with my parents and sister about 16 years ago! When you’re standing there you feel compelled to do it although at the time we thought we were being original.
mcmrbt

Nobody brings a step ladder (which is what you need to take an accurate facsimile), and some people crossing the road in the wrong direction can’t resist the impulse to strike a pose. In the early years, people used to steal the road sign. Now they steal photos.

This reminds me of “the most photographed barn in America” passage in Don Delillo’s White Noise: nobody sees the barn. This video shows the pleasure to be had in just watching people at that crossing. I stood there myself a few years ago and watched people for about half an hour. Imagine being a bus driver on that route!

It’ll be the 40th anniversary of the original photo this summer, and I wonder if in another 40 years it’ll just be “the most photographed zebra crossing in England”?

There are hundreds of examples on Flickr – but this guy has a collection of Beatles outtakes from the day of the shoot.
mgfarrelly

I took a, really excellent, walking tour of Edinburgh. It was a “ghost tour” that was really more of a stroll through the more grisly bits of Edinburgh lore. Our guide bore an uncanny resemblance to “Spike” from “Buffy, which only added to the fun.

At several points during the tour we came across some Edinburgh residents who would grumble “damn tourists” as we tromped by JK Rowling’s old flat or wandered into a cemetary at dusk. Our guide, a life long resident would jeer back “Hey, these people love this town!” and we’d all cheer.
Crubellier

MCMRBT, as it happens, I live nearby and it’s on my route to work. It is all but impossible to travel along Abbey Road without being stopped by crowds of tourists standing around on the crossing to be photographed. It makes me profoundly glad I do not own a handgun, or it would be Britain’s Most Regular Firearms Massacre.

I still remember the 30th anniversary – the rain was coming down in buckets and it was *still* packed most of the morning.
xaxa

If you choose to live round there you know what to expect.

It’s less delay than traffic lights or a level crossing would be.