Grammy-winning engineer behind the Beatles' Abbey Road who heard McCartney debut 'Yesterday' dies aged 80

Phil McDonald, born in Leeds in 1946, joined EMI Studios at just 18 and worked his first Beatles session on 17 June 1965, when Paul McCartney played 'Yesterday' to an audience of two: McDonald and producer George Martin. Abbey Road Studios announced his death in a statement praising him as "highly skilled, deeply trusted, and much-loved."

McDonald engineered some of the most celebrated albums ever recorded, including 'Sgt. Pepper's', 'The White Album', John Lennon's 'Imagine' and George Harrison's 'All Things Must Pass'.

After The Beatles split, he worked with all four members on their solo debuts simultaneously — mixing McCartney's secret debut in Studio Three while helping Ringo Starr next door.

His later credits stretched to Eric Clapton's 'Layla', Deep Purple's 'In Rock' and the 'Traveling Wilburys Vol. 1', cementing a career spanning six decades.