GIVE ME THAT SHOCK ’N’ ROLL MUSIC...

John Lennon sang the backing vocals for Yellow Submarine through a condom, according to Beatles engineer Geoff Emerick. ‘John wanted to be recorded underwater to simulate being in a submarine,’ Emerick recalled. ‘He didn’t realise the implications… I thought to get a bottle of water and put a microphone in the water and get him to sing to that. Then I realised there was a huge amount of electrical current going through the microphone. So to protect the mic [Beatles road manager] Mal Evans had a condom in his bag, and I put the mic in the condom and put it in the bottle. John could’ve blown up because there was 240 volts running through this thing…’