More Limited (and hard to get) Harrison/Dark Horse

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Dark Horse Records has announced just what will be on sale at its pop-up Friar Park x Niwaki x Dark Horse in Tokyo this week (October 14-15).

To celebrate the launch of the Friar Park x Niwaki collection on October 12, a two-day-only pop-up will be held at Light Box Studio in Tokyo. This pop-up store will feature the limited edition collection of Friar Park x Niwaki Japanese garden tools, workwear and accessories, along with a selection of rare out-of-print titles and collectibles from Dark Horse Records:

There are two pop-up store exclusive colour vinyls: Extra Texture in blue, and The Radha Krsna Temple in “fire red” which look interesting, plus Living in the Material World on purple vinyl – previously only available as a George Harrison Store exclusive when the 50th anniversary editions of that album came out in 2024.

The others are re-issues of all six Record Store Day Zoetrope vinyls released so far, plus ‘Be Here Now’ a fairly rare 12″ single that came out for Record Store Day 2025. This has George performing the song on one side and Beck giving his interpretation on the other.

And Dark Horse has just posted a second list of titles that will be available at the pop-up – this time the focus being on Joe Strummer:

Its our understanding that these Strummer and the George Harrison LPs will also be available at a second, limited-time pop-up store in Tokyo. It will be on the 6th floor of Tower Records, Shibuya from October 20 to 26.

Tower Records will be the main launch site for 13 titles (11 from George Harrison and 2 from the Traveling Wilburys) which are newly remastered and being released as limited SHM-CD/mini-LP editions. In addition, three of George’s LPs — All Things Must Pass, Living in the Material World and Cloud Nine — will be released simultaneously on the super-high-end “100% Pure” 45rpm vinyl format. Not only that, Dhani Harrison will be at Tower Records Shibuya on 20 October to give a talk, meet fans and sign CDs and an exclusive Japanese red vinyl edition of Dragonflies, the album he recently released with Nigel Godrich.

Oh to be in Tokyo and have the ability to drop into either the Light Box Studio or Tower Records Shibuya.

Is anyone planning on going?

Two VERY Limited George Harrison 7″ Singles

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This month two very hard-to-get George Harrison 7″ singles hit the market. You’ll need deep pockets to get hold of both of them.

The first is part of a Harrison Estate collaboration with Niwaki, purveyors of high-quality Japanese gardening tools, clothing and other equipment. The collab is called Friar Park x Niwaki and it feeds into a Japan-focused series of events, initially in Tokyo, in the lead-up to the release of a new series of eleven George Harrison titles as Japanese SHM-CDs later in the month. These will be accompanied by three limited edition Harrison LPs also in Japan (All Things Must Pass 1500 copies, Living In The Material World and Cloud Nine 1000 copies), each on 45rpm high quality audiophile vinyl. Not only that, there’s two Traveling Wilbury SHM-CDs to be released as well.

But back to the limited edition 7″ singles….

There’s going to be a Tokyo Friar Park x Niwaki event on 14 and 15 October which will launch a limited edition collection created with Dhani Harrison and inspired by the gardens of Friar Park.

Part of that will include a Friar Park x Niwaki Collectors Edition tool bag, and in it will be a George Harrison 7″ single containing two songs inspired by Friar Park: ‘The Ballad of Sir Frankie Crisp (Let It Roll)’ b/w ‘Crackerbox Palace’. Its on the Dark Horse label and sits in the tool bag in a unique picture cover:

Now, that tool bag will set you back around £666 or US$882 (and for us here in Australia, about $1,264)! It’s not clear if the single will be sold separately, but the marketing info suggests it will be at the event in Tokyo: “In addition to the tools and workwear of the Friar Park x Niwaki collection, there will also be a selection of highly collectable rare and limited edition vinyl available.” It looks like the collection will be for sale at the Niwaki store in London – but pre-sales are already sold out. There’s no indication that the 7″ is being sold separately in London. It might be, but you can’t order it online, at least not yet.

The other collectable 7″ single out this month we’ve already told you about. Its the previously unreleased George Harrison track called ‘Apres Moi’. It comes exclusively in the deluxe edition of his book of photographs, The Third Eye. The deluxe edition is £500 and US$500 (and an eye-watering $1,400 here in Australia).

I mean, the book and package looks great but it makes this record unobtainable for the majority of us mere mortals.

Black Friday RSD – Pretty Quiet Unless You Collect Dark Horse

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The lists for US and UK Black Friday Record Store Day have been published and it is pretty quiet on the Beatle and solo fronts:

The Beatles – nothing to see here. (Understandable with the Rubber Soul SDE plus it’s many associated releases only just out).

John Lennon – nothing to see here.

Paul McCartney – nothing to see here. (Again, understandable with The Boys of Dungeon Lane Special Edition coming on 2LP and CD on December 9).

Ringo Starr – nothing to see here.

The only Beatle-related action comes from Dark Horse Records. They’re continuing the quest to slowly release the whole of the George Harrison back-catalogue as Zoetrope picture discs. The next two installments will be Thirty Three and 1/3 from 1976:

And from 1979, Harrison’s self-titled George Harrison LP:

Both are limited editions and come in numbered die-cut jackets. They should also include inserts with cover art and credits and a small Zoetrope viewing instruction sheet. Both are limited to 2900 copies in the US, and probably the same again for the ROW.

Dark Horse is soon to re-issue the Traveling Wilbury back-catalogue, first as SHM-CD’s in Japan on 21 October, and then on black vinyl on 23 October worldwide. For RSD Black Friday they’ll issue the group’s second album, Traveling Wilburys Vol.3, as a picture disc.

Dark Horse says “…this is the perfect companion piece to the 2018 picture disc release of ‘Vol. 1’.” The picture disc will be available exclusively for RSD Black Friday only at participating stores. 2,500 copies in the US.

[BTW, that Japan re-issue campaign will be associated with a whole lot of activations and collaborations in Tokyo. Check out the Dark Horse news page for more.]

As has been the case for the last few Record Store Days, Dark Horse has been working its way through the Yusuf/Cat Stevens back-catalogue too. This time it’ll be Majikat Earth Tour 1976.

This is a double LP on black vinyl and comes in a lenticular cover. Just 1,050 copies for the US (UK figures unknown) so this will be harder to get.

And that’s about it this time around.

Those of you who collect Dhani Harrison will be interested to pick up an LP by his band, thenewno2.

For RSD Black Friday he’s put together the band’s first two EPs, ep001 & ep002, collected on a smokey clear colour LP. Newly remastered and available on vinyl for the first time ever, this limited edition release sees their debut EP on side 1, and sophomore EP on side 2.

Record Store Day Black Friday is on Friday, 27 November.

See the full US list here.

See the list for the UK here.

Dungeon Lane Special Edition Announced

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Well, it had to happen. There’s going to be a Special Edition of The Boys of Dungeon Lane released. The surprising thing is that the announcement comes on the very day that The Beatles’ Rubber Soul SDE hits the shops (here in Australia at least)!

So far this looks to be a store exclusive, available only through McCartney’s official sites (UK and USA), plus Universal online store outlets like The Circle in Germany, Universal Australia, etc.

The Boys of Dungeon Lane (Special Edition) contains four new tracks, including a new version of ‘Home To Us’, his duet with Ringo Starr. It is described as a “flip mix” which sees their original parts in the song swapped with each other. Alongside this are three previously unreleased tracks recorded during the Dungeon Lane sessions: ‘City Fox’, ‘One Night Stand’ and ‘Chelsea Boots’.

As you can see the Special Edition is a double LP with orange and blue marble discs. It comes in a unique gatefold jacket with cover artwork adapted from the brilliant silkscreened collage by Kate Gibb using over 100 images from Paul’s personal archive; a 23″ x 23″ double-sided fold-out poster with a re-coloured silkscreen portrait print of Paul on one side and lyrics and credits on the other, plus prints of Paul’s handwriting on the inner sleeves and gatefold spread.

The double LP has three playing sides.

Interestingly Side 4 is a Zoetrope etching disc.

There’s also a CD and digital download editions:

The CD comes in a softpak gatefold jacket with the same collage cover artwork as the LP, plus a 20 page lyric and credits booklet.

The digital release is available October 7. The CD and 2LP versions are out on December 9th.

I guess this calls for an update to our chart showing all the variations of this title:

[Click on image to see a larger version]

Three George Martin LPs Due for Re-Issue

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Rhino/Parlophone have announced the re-issue of three long-out-of-print George Martin & His Orchestra titles.

Off The Beatle Track was the first in a series of orchestral releases by George Martin and the first ever release under his own name. Originally released in 1964 at the height of Beatlemania, it was supported by the band and has liner notes written by John Lennon. Original copies of this vinyl are now in high demand due to its relatively limited release originally. Overseen by Martin’s son Giles, Off The Beatle Track has been faithfully remastered from the original master tapes, replicating the original release.

Help! was released the following year in 1965 and was the second release in the series. Featuring instrumental arrangements of Beatles songs, this reissue is true to the original UK release. (The original US release tracklisting omitted “Bahama Sound” and used some of the track working titles like ‘Auntie Gin’s Theme’ (I’ve Just Seen a Face), ‘That’s A Nice Hat’ (It’s Only Love) and ‘Scrambled Egg’ (Yesterday). The record came at a time when orchestral music had begun to embrace the sound of beat music – something it had initially dismissed as a ‘noisy’ genre, dismissing its integrity entirely. As Beatlemania grabbed hold of the world in the early 60s, and with respected ‘high-brow’ newspapers such as The Times of London giving serious analysis of Lennon and McCartney’s song writing, attitudes began to shift. This 2026 re-issue is also overseen by Giles Martin.

…And I Love Her dates from 1966 and is regarded by some as George Martin’s best instrumental project. Featuring his signature “Studio 2 Stereo” sound, which brought a lush, easy-listening sophistication to several popular hits of the mid-60s. Unlike the other two re-issues, this album not only has orchestral Beatles interpretations but Petula Clark’s ‘Downtown’, The Righteous Brothers’ ‘You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feeling’, as well as the original Martin composition ‘All Quiet On The Mersey Front’, a track he wrote for the Ferry Cross The Mersey soundtrack.

These three interesting re-issues are out on CD or 140g vinyl on November 6. They’ll also be available on streaming platforms globally for the first time.

George Harrison ‘The Third Eye – Early Photographs’

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There’s an out-of-reach-for-most-of-us Deluxe Edition coming on 26 October:

It is a cloth-bound book that comes in a clamshell box and has four fine art prints, a 5×7″ letterpress print signed and numbered by Olivia Harrison, and a vinyl single with a previously unreleased George track of him covering a 1950’s Eartha Kitt song called ‘Apres Moi’:

Why ‘Apre Moi’, and why Eartha Kitt? Instgrammer @innerlightpodcast explains:

Anyhow, for the rest of us it’s most probably going to be the standard edition at around US$65.00….which is due for release on October 6. It really does look to contain some special images – all taken by George:

Beatles ‘Revolver’ Turns 60

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This past week saw the 60th anniversary of The Beatles’ Revolver celebrated – and a post by bobzilla on reddit titled “Today is the day I get to show off my Revolver collection” immediately got our attention:

“I have somewhere in the vicinity of 400 copies and I’m not done yet. I have at least one mono and one stereo copy from every country that has released it. Almost every US label variation. Working on all of the UK label variations. Plus cassettes, reel to reels, 8-tracks, 4-tracks, Playtapes, and CDs.”

And then he posted two amazing photographs:

Somebody asked him in the comments section “Got any rubber soul?”, and he replied “Yes, but only 2 copies”. Proof that Revolver truly is the absolute favourite!

It reminded us that sometimes collectors get fixated on one particular thing.

Check out our reader named Simon who in 2022 sent us a photograph of all the many cassette variations he has of Magical Mystery Tour, followed by some of the vinyl gems he owns too. Simon has what he believes to be one of the world’s most extensive, if not the largest collection of Magical Mystery Tour.

Looks Like the Yoko Ono Reissue Train is Back On the Tracks

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After a solid start – way back in 2016 – the Yoko Ono reissue program came to an abrupt halt in 2019. It’s now been 7 years since we’ve had anything.

Back then the promise was 11 albums in all. They were to be reissued on LP, on CD and for the first time as digital downloads. The plan was to do this in three distinct groups:

1st group:
Unfinished Music No. 1: Two Virgins (1968)
Unfinished Music No. 2: Life With Lions (1969)
Yoko Ono/Plastic Ono Band (1970)

2nd group:
Fly (1971)
Approximately Infinite Universe (1973)
Feeling the Space (1973)
A Story (1974)

3rd group:
Season of Glass (1981)
It’s Alright (I See Rainbows) (1982)
Starpeace (1985)
Unfinished Music No. 3: Wedding Album (1969)

And that release plan all began to happen. There was even a promo video to officially kick things off:

Group one materialised in late 2016. Then group two (except for A Story) was issued across 2017. Then came a two year hiatus until Unfinished Music No. 3: Wedding Album suddenly appeared in all its box-set glory in 2019, the first release of group three.

And then, for about seven years, it all went very, very quiet. Until now.

Season of Glass has just been released and, like each of its predecessors, it comes on limited edition white vinyl, on black vinyl, and on CD. All the artwork is faithfully reproduced but only the CD comes with bonus material (vinyl buyers used to get digital downloads of the bonus tracks, but no longer it seems):

And today an email from Secretly Canadian/Chimera Music popped into our inbox alerting us that on September 18 It’s Alright (I See Rainbows) is set to follow quickly on the heels of Season of Glass. It is available for preorder now:

So that begs the question – are A Story and Starpeace soon to follow? Hope so.

Rubber Soul 2026 SDE – More Info and Images

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Yesterday’s boo boo by Amazon France gave us much of the detail of what the new 2026 re-issue of Rubber Soul contained – but not everything.

Now that it is officially announced more is known – especially about the rarities and outtakes, which comprise 24 early session recordings, including 20 previously unreleased takes and three previously unreleased home demos – among them early versions of Day Tripper and We Can Work It Out, plus (and this is really special) Little Girl, a previously unheard John Lennon song outline never before released or even rumoured. It was discovered by the Lennon Estate when they did a thorough trawl through their archives and passed on for consideration as part of this box set by Sean Ono Lennon. It is only available in the 5LP box or the 4CD box.

Some great alternative photos are now on the web as part of the promotion too, including a shot of the US version of Rubber Soul showing it is indeed the stereo edition. We just don’t know for sure which mix is being used, although the official press release says “the original Capitol US Album version“, so that implies it’s from 1965:

There’s also a nice close-up of the 45rpm single:

There are also alternate packshots of the 88-page hard-cover book, and glimpses of the album sleeves that show the US version will have the traditional Capitol Records look:

And while super-deluxe Beatle releases in the past have just about always had a picture disc (think Sgt Pepper, Abbey Road, Revolver and Let It Be), we didn’t know yesterday that this time it will come in the form of a Zoetrope disc:

And that there’ll also be “exclusive” orange coloured vinyl from key retailers, like Target in the US:

And HMV in the UK, JB HiFi in Australia and fnac in France:

Wouldn’t be surprised if this extends to other places, like jpc in Germany for example. Its also just popped up on Platekompaniet in Norway. And these days who knows if there’ll be even more coloured vinyl variants, though in the past Apple haven’t really gone in for such multiple variations.

Lastly, on the official Beatle site is the first example of the music rarities and outtakes, ‘Michelle (Take 1)’. It’s an early studio recording demonstrating the song’s development, and showcases the band’s performance before the final master was completed. From the website: “Recorded during a nine-hour session on 3 November 1965, Take 1 was the only complete performance to survive on the original four-track tape. Presented here without the later overdubs heard on the finished master, it reveals the song in its earliest recorded form. The tape also preserves tantalising fragments of earlier takes that had been recorded over, offering a rare glimpse into the band’s creative process”:

The Beatles – ‘Michelle (Take 1)’

Here Comes the Long-awaited ‘Rubber Soul’ SDE

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The countdown is on for the official announcement of The Beatles Rubber Soul in full super deluxe edition mode.

As the official Beatles website says, “Good things come to those who Wait”, with an official countdown to a full announcement tomorrow, July 30.

Only thing is, they forgot to tell the French Amazon site not to publish the details ahead of time……

Looks like we’re getting your choice of a 5LP plus 1×7″ single box set and book, or a 4CD box set and book.

LP 1 in the 5LP set is a new stereo remix of the original album. LPs 2 and 3 are 26 tracks of sessions and out takes (including 3 versions of ‘Norwegian Wood’; 3 versions of ‘Day Tripper’; 2 versions of ‘We Can Work It Out’; and 3 versions of ‘I’m Looking Through You’). LP 4 is a the original mono mix of the album, and LP 5 is the US version of the LP which has a completely different running order. It is 12 songs instead of the 14 on the UK version, plus it loses ‘If I Needed Someone’, ‘What Goes On’, ‘Nowhere Man’ and ‘Drive My Car’ and adds ‘I’ve Just Seen a Face’ and ‘It’s Only Love’. That really changes the whole feel of the album, so much so it has sometimes been called the first folk-rock record. Brian Wilson once said “[The American version of] Rubber Soul was like a folk album by the Beatles that somehow went together like no album ever made before, and I was very impressed.“

The 7″ single in the vinyl box is two additional songs from the time, ‘Day Tripper’ b/w ‘We Can Work It Out’.

CD 1 in the 4CD set is the new stereo remix of the original album. CD 2 is the 26 tracks of sessions and out takes, plus the two songs from the single, ‘Day Tripper’ and ‘We Can Work It Out’. CD 3 is the mono mix of the original, and CD 4 is the US version of the album.

There will also be 2LP and 2CD editions. These comprise a disc of the new stereo remix, plus a second disc that is a unique, 16-track truncated version of the sessions and out takes from the box set.

And perhaps the biggest surprise is a stand-alone Blu-ray comprised of a hi-res stereo re-mix of the original album (plus ‘Day Tripper’/’We Can Work It Out’), a Dolby Atmos mix of those tracks, and 4 videos.

Fans will either be celebrating or lamenting the Blu-ray because once upon a time these were included as a matter of course in Beatle SDE box sets. They disappeared completely after the Let It Be re-mix CD set in 2021. Now Blu-ray is back for those who want such things, but you’ll have to buy it separately….

Much more detail to come tomorrow.