Sounds and Sights With the Beatles

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Not many people achieve their childhood dream just a week after entering the work force. But that’s exactly what British ex-pat and local resident Ken Scott did.

In early 1964, when he was still a teenager, Scott got a job as a sound engineer – at Abbey Road Studio in London. Just eight days on the job, he was working in the sound booth when the Beatles came in to record their “A Hard Day’s Night” album.

“All the teenage girls were screaming as they came in, and I felt like screaming, too,” he said. “Good thing I didn’t or I might not have ended up working for them.”

For Scott, that was just the start of what would become an illustrious career as a sound engineer and later a producer both in England and here in Los Angeles for such acts as Elton John, the Rolling Stones, David Bowie, Duran Duran and Missing Persons.

Scott, who is 65 and lives in Oak Park just north of Agoura Hills, has now written a book chronicling his career. “From Abbey Road to Ziggy Stardust” is being released this week by Alfred Music Publishing. Scott is also the guest of honor at a Grammy Museum screening this week of David Bowie’s “Ziggy Stardust: The Motion Picture,” on which he was sound engineer.

Scott, who still has the occasional sound engineering or producing gig, said last week that he had long considered writing a book, but waited several years for the right publisher.

“Most of the other publishers that approached me wanted me to dish out all the dirt on the various acts I worked with. And, to be honest, I just didn’t have all that much and I didn’t want to go there,” he said.

Still, the book does have some salacious moments, such as the story of how Scott passed the time during one of the Beatles’ recording sessions. While he and another crew member were wandering around the studio, they looked out a window and saw in the distance some women practicing what he termed “naked yoga.” None other than Ringo Starr caught them spying on the women.

“The next day, Ringo came back with the largest pair of binoculars we had ever seen,” Scott said.

Jaguar Sighting

Alyson Dutch describes herself as “a car freakazoid.”

“If I had all the money in the world, I’d have garages full of old Ferraris, Porsches, Jaguars, you name it,” she said.

That’s why Dutch, who’s chief executive of Brown + Dutch Public Relations Inc. in Malibu, was excited to go to a networking event by Amplify Roundtables being held among the exotic cars of a private collection at Galpin Ford recently in Van Nuys.

“It’s a super private, never-been-seen-by-regular-folk car museum,” she said. “They have some insane cars there. They’re unbelievable.”

On the night of the event, as everyone sat chatting around the dining tables, she asked people to name their favorite car.

“I asked everyone, ‘If you had your dream car, what would you buy?’”

When it was Dutch’s turn, she chose the 1969 Jaguar E-Type in buttercup yellow.

After dinner, Dutch got up with everyone else to look at some of the cars in the exclusive collection. That’s when she noticed, sitting behind one of the world’s most expensive cars, a 1969 Jaguar E-Type. It’s color? Buttercup yellow.

“I was so thrilled,” she said. “I’ve seen a few on the road before, but this one was pristine.”

Staff reporters Howard Fine and Bethany Firnhaber contributed to this column. Page 3 is compiled by Editor Charles Crumpley. He can be reached at ccrumpley@
labusinessjournal.com.

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