Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Get Back



Lemon Records, 1970

One of the earliest Beatlegs, sort of a hybrid of Kum Back (albeit in mono) and the Silver Album. Does not contain "Across The Universe", which is listed on the slipsheet.

- One After 909
- The Walk
- Don't Let Me Down
- Dig A Pony
- I've Got A Feeling
- Get Back

- For You Blue
- Teddy Boy
- Two Of Us
- Dig It
- Let It Be
- The Long And Winding Road

Tuesday, June 29, 2010

Starrlets



On September 13th, 1965, Ringo and Maureen Starkey welcomed their first child into the world. Zak Starkey was destined to become a drummer like his father, but Ringo certainly didn't know that at the time of these interviews, conducted the following day:



Two years later, on August 19th, 1967, the second Starkey son was born. Ringo spoke about Jason the following day:


Sunday, June 27, 2010

Live Paris Olympia



CBM, 1973

The first bootleg containing the evening Paris concert of June 20th, 1965. Now found in far superior quality on both videotape and CD.

- Twist And Shout
- She's A Woman
- Ticket To Ride
- Can't Buy Me Love
- I'm A Loser

- I Wanna Be Your Man
- A Hard Day's Night
- I Feel Fine
- Baby's In Black
- Rock And Roll Music
- Everybody's Trying To Be My Baby
- Long Tall Sally

Saturday, June 26, 2010

You've Got A Lucky Face



April 23rd, 1964 was a busy day for John Lennon and his bandmates.

After partying the previous night at the Ad-Lib Club with DJ Murray "the K" Kaufman, they had to be on location early in the morning to film portions of the "field scene" in A Hard Day's Night. Murray taped this brief interview while they were setting up the next shot:


Nursing a hangover, John then accompanied his wife Cynthia to the Dorchester for a luncheon in his honor, hosted by Foyles bookshop. Despite the wit and wordplay evident in his book In His Own Write, this was all John could manage when asked to give a speech in front of the assembled guests:


The evening was spent rehearsing for the TV special Around The Beatles, at Remembrance Hall. Murray recorded over 20 minutes of the proceedings as The Beatles practiced miming the musical numbers and ran through lines for their Midsummer Night's Dream adaptation:


Thursday, June 24, 2010

Sunday Night At The London Palladium



CBM, 1973

The original and still the only source of the January 1964 Palladium performance. The Big Night Out show on side 2 does circulate on video.

- I Want To Hold Your Hand
- This Boy
- All My Loving
- Money (That's What I Want)
- Twist And Shout

- Please Mr. Postman
- All My Loving
- I Wanna Be Your Man
- Till There Was You
- Please Mr. Postman
- I Want To Hold Your Hand

Tuesday, June 22, 2010

The One After 901



From March 25th - 31st, 1969, John and Yoko entertained newspaper, magazine, radio, TV and newsreel reporters from their bed in Room 902 of the Amsterdam Hilton.

Here are a few of the undated interviews conducted with the couple that week to promote peace:


Monday, June 21, 2010

Peace Of Mind



CBM, 1973

The first (but not best-quality) appearance of the mysterious title track, as well as the two atrocious-sounding BBC cuts. Also two Let It Be soundtrack numbers, one excellent and one poor, and the complete 1965 Ed Sullivan Show.

- Peace Of Mind
- Lend Me Your Comb
- Carol
- Rip It Up/Shake Rattle And Roll
- Kansas City/Miss Ann/Lawdy Miss Clawdy

- I Feel Fine
- I'm Down
- Act Naturally
- Ticket To Ride
- Yesterday
- Help!

Sunday, June 20, 2010

Kenny Kontinued



By request, here are some more of Kenny Everett's interviews from the August 1966 North American tour (exact dates unknown):


Saturday, June 19, 2010

1989 Beatleg News Christmas Record



no label, 1989

A cool little green vinyl EP sent to subscribers of Belmo's Beatleg News one Xmas, mostly consisting of unbooted (at the time) tapes. I can now reveal that I contributed a couple of tracks to this (I forget which ones now, but I think "She Loves You" and "Moonlight Bay" were mine). Ironically, my copy of the issue was missing the disc, but then-editor LRE King had one copy left which he sent me early in 1990.

- The World Is Waiting For The Sunrise
- I Saw Her Standing There
- A Taste Of Honey
- She Loves You
- Moonlight Bay
- Waltzing Matilda

- Helter Skelter
- Do You Like Me?
- Yvonne's The One
- Boys
- We Wish You A Merry Christmas

Friday, June 18, 2010

Tolstoy and Telstar



On November 29th, 1963, The Beatles' Autumn Tour stopped at the ABC Cinema in Huddersfield for two performances.

Backstage between shows, the fabs were interviewed for Music Box, a monthly show produced by the Huddersfield Tape Recording Society. The series was played on a closed-circuit broadcast received by several local hospitals. The interviewer, Gorden Kaye, later achieved fame as a TV actor, and The Beatles utterly failed to take his questions seriously, no doubt to the delight of patients:


Even funnier are these comments from local fans outside the ABC Cinema:


Thursday, June 17, 2010

Ed Sullivan Show 1964 Japan 1966



O.T.M.O.Q. Records, 1989

Despite the cover, this red vinyl LP has nothing to do with the 1966 Munich concert. Side 1 and the first couple of songs on side 2 are from the June 30th Tokyo Budokan performance, and the remainder is from the first live Ed Sullivan Show broadcast.

- Rock And Roll Music
- She's A Woman
- If I Needed Someone
- Day Tripper
- Baby's In Black
- I Feel Fine
- Yesterday
- I Wanna Be Your Man
- Nowhere Man

- Paperback Writer
- I'm Down
- All My Loving
- Till There Was You
- She Loves You
- I Saw Her Standing There
- I Want To Hold Your Hand

Wednesday, June 16, 2010

Steel Rings



"In 1968 Robin Cruikshank’s small design company began working for Apple. At that time its management included Neil Aspinal, Peter Browne, Derek Taylor and Ron Kass and of course the four members of the Beatles.


In 1969 Ringo moved house to Hampstead and Robin was called in to help him realise some of the designs that Ringo and Maureen required for their new home. First on the list was the stainless steel fireplace. Robin had just started prototyping a new steel and glass furniture collection, and Ringo was able to add his own design ideas and improvements to Robin’s initial concepts.Their mutual interest in hi fi also helped further inspire the process with some interesting off the wall results.


The Chairman of Cunard approached Ringo and Robin to ask if they could design a disco for one of their London Hotels. Ringo’s experience was invaluable on this project. Although the project was later abandoned by Cunard it had helped to cement a good working relationship and friendship between the pair.


A host of new designs were created and with all this activity it was agreed that they should see if they could reform Robin’s company, then called ROBIN Ltd, and rename it ROR Ltd. The logo would retain the big RED O but place a five pointed star over it and a R each side. Terms were agreed and a new company was born with a memorable and appropriate new logo! Ringo’s received a 51% stake and Robin a 49% stake, with any disagreements to be resolved by the toss of a coin!

ROR’s new offices were on the top floor of Apple in Saville Row, next door to Ringo’s own office. The ideas continued to flourish and a young architect was bought in to help with all the detail design, a pretty but very competent young secretary was employed to run the very necessary administration.


Liberty’s – the first exhibition


Robin had contacts in Liberty’s of Regent Street, where he had sold his earlier designs. Liberty’s asked if ROR would like to stage an exhibition. The then British Steel Corporation wanted to use ROR designs in its advertising campaign due to their interesting use of stainless steel and in particular Ringo’s Rolls Royce table


As a result of these two almost simultaneous approaches, British Steel’s advertising campaign and a wave of favourable media coverage got The Liberty Exhibition off to a wonderful start. Liberty’s attendance figures rose dramatically for the exhibition period and ROR virtually sold out.


Robin recalls that he, Ringo and the Liberty staff were assembling and putting the final touches to the items on display right up until the last hour before the exhibition opened. This left Ringo barely enough time to get dressed and get ready and collect Maureen for the opening launch party. During this period Apple moved from Saville Row to St James Street, where ROR were given a spectacular display window which they were able to use to good effect.

Exhibitions followed at Harvey Nicholls and again at Liberty’s. International exhibitions were held overseas in Paris, New York and even in Lagos!"


Source: http://www.rorarchive.com


By request, here is a super-rare one-sided single recorded by Ringo in mid-1971 to promote the September exhibition at Liberty's:


Steel



Tuesday, June 15, 2010

First Crazy Stretch



Stash Records, 1988

Compilation of solo rarities and pirated tracks, with a couple of OOPS'ed Beatles tracks and one curiosity: an apparent outtake fragment from the "Revolution" promo shoot.

- Don't Get Around Much Anymore
- Kansas City/Hey Hey Hey Hey!
- Midnight Special
- Lawdy Miss Clawdy
- I Saw Her Standing There

- Don't Get Around Much Anymore
- Blue Moon Of Kentucky
- Twenty Flight Rock
- Best Friend
- Stop, You Don't Know Where She Came From
- Boil Crisis

- Sat Singing
- Lay His Head
- For You Blue
- Flying Hour

- God Save Us
- Simple As That
- You Know It Makes Sense
- I Don't Want To Do It
- Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da
- It's All Too Much
- studio chat
- Revolution
- Another Beatles Christmas Record

Monday, June 14, 2010

The Silent Beatle



In 1965/66, Brian Matthew recorded four individual interviews, one with each Beatle, for Pop Profile, a BBC Transcription Service program distributed on disc for overseas syndication.

First up was George, whose interview was recorded November 30th, 1965. Much of this has been included in latter-day BBC Radio specials, but here is the original unedited disc:


Sunday, June 13, 2010

Washington '64



Why Not Records, 1989

Pedestrian reissue of the Washington DC concert kinescope of February 11th, 1964, missing the truncated "Twist And Shout".

- Roll Over Beethoven
- From Me To You
- I Saw Her Standing There
- This Boy
- All My Loving

- I Wanna Be Your Man
- Please Please Me
- Till There Was You
- She Loves You
- I Want To Hold Your Hand

Saturday, June 12, 2010

Two Turntables and a Microphone



In mid-November, 1967, The Beatles were busy editing and scoring their TV spectacular Magical Mystery Tour. The soundtrack double EP was issued in the UK on December 8th, and John Lennon appeared on BBC Radio to promote the record and film.

The show, Where It's At, was ostensibly hosted by Chris Denning, but Kenny Everett tended to take over where Beatle content was concerned, and this was no exception:


When it was aired on November 25th, the show included a specially-recorded jingle performed by Paul McCartney at the piano (and incorporating riffs from "Hello Goodbye"). The broadcast version is heard above, but here is a longer composite recording from a cleaner source:



Thursday, June 10, 2010

Vancouver '64



Beatles as Mounties? Why not, indeed?

Why Not, 1989

- Twist And Shout
- You Can't Do That
- All My Loving
- She Loves You
- Things We Said Today

- Roll Over Beethoven
- Can't Buy Me Love
- If I Fell
- Boys
- A Hard Day's Night
- Long Tall Sally

Tuesday, June 8, 2010

This Girl Just Called Me A Tool!



The Beatles' tour blew into the windy city on August 20th, 1965 for two concerts at Chicago's Comiskey Park.

Associated Press cameras filmed some of the afternoon performance:



Between shows, they faced the press as usual:


Miami newsman Larry Kane also spoke at length with each of the Beatles backstage after the first performance. Note the ragged state of John's voice:


Last but not least, here's an... interesting... song someone wrote about the concert:


Sunday, June 6, 2010

Northern Songs



Magic Dwarf, 1988

A Swingin' Pig EP containing the first Beatleg appearance of the October 1963 Drop In TV performance from Stockholm.

Side 1:
- She Loves You
- Twist And Shout

Side 2:
- I Saw Her Standing There
- Long Tall Sally
- Drop In theme

Friday, June 4, 2010

Public Broadcasting Laboratory



In 1967, George never missed a chance to talk about his twin passions of Indian music and spirituality. Early in December, he sat down with Alan Freedman to film an interview for US public television. December 10th was Human Rights Day, celebrated by a concert at the UN General Assembly in New York featuring Ravi Shankar and Yehudi Menuhin. George spoke about Ravi and Indian music in general, even admitting that he's neglected guitar playing in favor of the sitar for a year or more (the situation would reverse in 1968).

The concert and interview were aired on New York's public station, WNDT, on December 10th, as part of the series Public Broadcasting Laboratory (PBL). All that survives is this fair-quality off-air home audio recording:



Thursday, June 3, 2010

Ultra Rare Trax Volumes 1 & 2



Drexel Records, 1988

Those who couldn't afford the Swingin' Pig CDs, or didn't have the equipment to play them on, were probably glad to settle for this vinyl release, the first Beatleg (apart from Sessions) to offer nothing but excellent-quality studio outtakes.

- I Saw Her Standing There
- One After 909
- She's A Woman
- I'm Looking Through You
- If You've Got Trouble
- How Do You Do It

- Penny Lane
- Strawberry Fields Forever
- From Me To You
- Besame Mucho
- The Fool On The Hill
- Paperback Writer

- Can't Buy Me Love
- There's A Place
- That Means A Lot
- Day Tripper

- I Am The Walrus
- Misery
- Leave My Kitten Alone
- We Can Work It Out
- A Hard Day's Night
- Norwegian Wood

Tuesday, June 1, 2010

Not In Kansas Anymore



June 11th, 1964 was a big day for Beatle fans Down Under, as the group (minus Ringo and plus Jimmy Nicol) first arrived on Australian soil.

Their flight from Hong Kong landed at Darwin in the Northern Territory at 2:35 am to refuel the plane and give the boys a chance to stretch their legs. They spoke briefly with local reporter John Edwards:


At Mascot Airport in Sydney, anticipation was mounting among the hundreds of fans who had camped out overnight in hopes of glimpsing The Beatles. TV reporters spoke with some of the waiting throng:


Finally the plane touched down and discharged its famous passengers, who were good enough to ride around in a flatbed truck in a pouring and blowing rainstorm to wave at fans for a few minutes, sheltered only by umbrellas (George's blew away almost immediately):


After a drive to the Sheraton hotel in Sydney, The Beatles dried off a bit and then faced Australian journalists for a press conference. Here is a composite recording of the event, lasting nearly half an hour and assembled from five different audio and video sources:


They also chatted with Bob Rogers, who was covering the entire Australasian tour for radio station 2SM: