{"id":825224,"date":"2026-07-26T16:17:11","date_gmt":"2026-07-26T16:17:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/825224\/"},"modified":"2026-07-26T16:17:11","modified_gmt":"2026-07-26T16:17:11","slug":"the-time-the-beatles-spiked-george-martins-tea","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/825224\/","title":{"rendered":"The time the Beatles spiked George Martin\u2018s tea"},"content":{"rendered":"

In George Martin, the Beatles had a producer who excelled at thinking outside the box. Martin\u2018s innovative studio techniques and openness to new ideas made him the ideal producer for a group as wildly creative as the Beatles.<\/p>\n

But he was only human, and like most people he preferred to wrap up the workday at a reasonable hour.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

That didn\u2018t always sit well with the Beatles, particularly in their later years, when recording sessions frequently carried over past midnight..<\/p>\n

Latest Videos FromGuitarPlayer<\/p>\n

\u201cSome of the people here \u2014 the engineer, for instance \u2014 would always be trying to go home at 5:30, and we’d be trying to make history,\u201d George Harrison says in the 1991 Beatles Anthology documentary as he, Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr sit in Abbey Road Studios.<\/p>\n

The Beatles certainly knew how to fight fatigue. When performing night-long sets in Hamburg in the early 1960s, they\u2018d take Preludin, an appetite suppressant and stimulant with effects similar to amphetamines \u2014 a.k.a. speed, or uppers \u2014 to help them stay awake.<\/p>\n

You may like<\/p>\n

Which is how they managed to get Martin and engineer Geoff Emerick to work after hours on one particular night in the late 1960s: by lacing a pot of tea \u2014 prepared by their roadie, Mal Evans \u2014 with speed.<\/p>\n

\u201cMal had this big teapot,\u201d Harrison explained. \u201cIt was a big aluminum teapot, and I remember one specific incident where he made a pot of tea, and we doused the tea with uppers.\u201d<\/p>\n

All the latest guitar news, interviews, lessons, reviews, deals and more, direct to your inbox!<\/p>\n

Evans proceeded to take cups of tea up to the control booth overlooking the studio. “\u2018Cause they were asking, \u2018Can we go home now?\u2019\u201d Harrison continues. \u201c\u2018No, you can\u2019t, you bastard. Have a cup of tea!\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd then they were up there until 11 o\u2018clock at night.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, and then they didn\u2019t want to go home,\u201d McCartney adds. \u201cThey wouldn\u2018t let us leave.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Beatles accidentally got George Martin ‘high’ – YouTube
\n\"The<\/p>\n

Watch On <\/a><\/p>\n

It was only when the 1995 documentary first aired that Martin learned about the episode.<\/p>\n

Ironically, Harrison and John Lennon’s first time taking LSD came after a dentist friend spiked their coffee.<\/p>\n

George Harrison on Taking LSD in The Beatles #thebeatles #georgeharrison – YouTube
\n\"George<\/p>\n

Watch On <\/a><\/p>\n

It wasn\u2018t all fun and games, though. McCartney’s love of pot got him busted in Japan<\/a>. And American singer-songwriter James Taylor \u2014 who signed to the Beatles’ Apple label in 1968 \u2014 claimed his heroin use influenced Lennon’s decision to try the drug. He subsequently became addicted.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In George Martin, the Beatles had a producer who excelled at thinking outside the box. Martin\u2018s innovative studio…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":825225,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[64,63,134,136],"class_list":["post-825224","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-entertainment","tag-music"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/825224","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=825224"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/825224\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/825225"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=825224"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=825224"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=825224"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}