The Wild London Night Rock-n-Roll T-Shirt Printers Almost Stole an Abbey Road Sign

IN 1980, THE Imprinted Sportswear Show (ISS) was held in London for the first time, expanding its global presence with the events it was conducting in the U.S. The show was small, but most of the Americans went there because it was in England. There isn’t much to say about the show other than attendance in the seminars was good and it was nice to deal with an international crowd. It’s what we did after the show that was exciting and stupid.

Once the show ended, which was on a Sunday, we went back to the hotel to change and have some drinks. In London at that time, the pubs closed at 6:00 p.m. on Sunday to force those in the pub to go home and be with their families. The exception to that were the hotels. They could serve liquor until quite late since those staying at the hotel weren’t locals, usually.

So, leave it to us rock’n’roll T-shirt printers to sniff out trouble. It was all in good fun … maybe. My friends Mark Yates and Trevor Gulliver from Mobile Merchandising were at the show and came back to the hotel with us. That included Leon Dymburt, my partner at Great American Screen Designs, Bob Stanton from Anvil, and myself.

Mark and Trevor were clients of Great American. We did the designing and separating of rock’n’roll groups touring Europe for them. They were quite a bit smarter than we were and signed the groups so the shirts they printed were legal, which we did not. Bootlegging was illegal but not enforced at the time, and I’m always the first to say that’s how I got started in the screen-printing business. Wrong to do, but honest and at the time somewhat the norm.

Beatle Mania

Mark and Trevor were known to enjoy drinking as were we, and we all proceeded to drink way too much. Seems like that happened a lot in the old days. After several hours of drinking, we decided that we should go see Abbey Road, where the Beatles had the photo shot for their album.

We hailed a black cab, which England is known for. The driver had just gone on duty, and we were his first fare. We asked him to take us to Abbey Road and off we went. While he was driving, it was mentioned that a black cab could make a turn on a dime. We offered the driver some money to do a three hundred and sixty turn on a narrow street, which he did. I’m sure he knew we were rather drunk and having fun, so he went along with our requests.

Once we got to Abbey Road, we looked to the specific cross street that was the same as on the Beatles album but couldn’t find it, although we drove up and down the street several times looking. When you have had too much to drink and it’s late at night, it’s difficult to find much.

Since we couldn’t find it, we came up with the great idea of getting an Abbey Road sign. Most of the signs were high up and attached to buildings.

After driving around for a while, we found one that was cemented into the sidewalk. We figured it wouldn’t take much to bend it back and forth until it snapped, and we would have it. The driver wasn’t having any part of it, so he drove down the street and pulled into a driveway so his cab couldn’t be seen. It probably took us about twenty minutes of bending back and forth before we snapped the sign out of the ground.

We signaled for the driver to come and get us, opened the door to the cab, threw the sign in, jumped in and off we went to Mark’s flat in Chelsea.

Once there, we waited until the street was clear, removed the sign from the cab and took it to Mark’s place. We tipped the cab driver so heavily that he went home a happy man after dropping us off. Those of us staying at the hotel went back and to sleep.

Now What?

The next day, Leon and I went to Mark’s flat to discuss what to do with the sign. While there, we noticed that Mark had a Bobbies (police) helmet. He said he was standing around when there was an altercation and the hat ended up near him. He picked it up and walked off with it. He offered to send it to us in the U.S. along with the sign.

Leon and I left London a few days later and headed back to Brooklyn. Several days after we returned, we received a call from Mark. He had wrapped the sign and helmet up and took it to his forwarding agent to send to us.

When the agent saw what they were, he refused to send them. The sign and helmet belonged to the Queen and if he got caught, it would be a heavy fine or jail time or both. Mark took them back to his flat and put them away. About a year later, Mark moved but didn’t take them with him. As far as we know, they may still be there.

Yes, rock’n’roll T-shirt printers have always had a wild side. The good news is, we calm down as we get older and leave the shenanigans to the younger generation. Go for it kids! Just don’t try to steal anything from the Queen.