Category Archives: Beatles Love

On Valentines Day – A Beatles “Love” Find

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What more could you want on Valentines Day than to find a bit of Beatle Love treasure?

Rummaging through some old theatre programs at our local St Vincent de Paul Society thrift shop (the equivalent of Goodwill stores in the US), what should we come across than a thick, lavishly illustrated program from the Beatles/Cirque du Soleil production Love, which is still showing at the Mirage Hotel in Las Vegas.

This is a beautifully produced book, about the same size and shape as an LP record, and it’s filled with photographs, drawings, cast details and information about this long-running success story – which last year celebrated its tenth year in production. love-cover

Inside there are fantastic drawings, illustrations, and photographs from the stage show – like these:

love-1 love-2 love-3

Impressively laid out, with some four page fold-out sections included, this particular theatre program seems to date from around February, 2008 as inside on the credits page in small print it says “Love.02.08”. The photograph of co-Music Director, Giles Martin is a decidedly youthful one:

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Right in the very centre of the book there are two pages of Beatle Love stickers. In the copy we found the previous owners have only removed two – the rest are perfectly intact:love-stickers

Here’s that full credit page in more detail:love-creditsAnd the rear cover:love-rearA nice Valentines Day find……(click on the images to see larger versions).

Making of ‘While My Guitar Gently Weeps’ Video (Love version)

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With the 10th anniversary of The Beatles/Cirque du Soleil Love album and stage show coming up on July 14, the official Beatle YouTube site has uploaded a “making of” style video for the George Harrison song ‘While My Guitar Gently Weeps’.

It includes a tribute to the late George Martin and information on how elements of the Las Vegas show are being tweaked and updated with fantastic new graphical elements for 2016:

The official Beatles site also has the song in full – complete with the fancy new graphics – all part of the 10th anniversary revamp:

Label Variations Part Six – Abbey Road

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I haven’t done one of these for a while. It’s been over a year in fact. The last Beatle-related “Label Variations” was Part Five – and that was way back in February, 2011.

(You can see Parts One, Two, Three, Four, and Five plus the Beatles “Love” variations here and here. There’s also a comprehensive post on all the extensive variations of the McCartney/Fireman “Electric Arguments” release, the Twin Freaks LP and singles, and McCartney‘s recent “Kisses On The Bottom” CD’s and LP. There is also a post on some George Harrison “All Things Must Pass” label variations).

So it’s now time for another. This time some label variations of the Beatles legendary 1969 release “Abbey Road”, kicking off with the original UK pressing:

Here’s a more recent (1994) UK re-issue. This label is more yellow/green:

Here are some Australian pressings:

The Australian “Abbey Road” front cover is distinguished by the word “Stereo” on the top right-hand side:

Here’s a couple of examples from New Zealand, starting with the original Apple pressing. As you can see the Apple colour on NZ pressings is quite a pale, washed-out green:

Incidentally, these early copies of “Abbey Road” in New Zealand came in covers with the old-fashioned external tab-fold on the rear of the cover:

These first New Zealand copies also come in a black paper inner sleeve.

Here’s a more recent black and silver Parlophone label from New Zealand:

Next an Apple label from Germany:

One made in France by Pathe Marconi:

This label below is the one used by EMI for Asian markets (Hong Kong, South East Asia and Malaysia):

And finally the fairly plain USA label:

I’ve also got a few copies of “Abbey Road” on CD (I really love this album!)

This first one is the original UK pressing:

And here’s the Australian CD, which is quite similar to the UK:

And the EU version of the very impressive 2009 Beatles digital remasters version:

Lastly, a CD that I think is an illegal copy from China. I got a series of these on a trip to Vietnam (you can read some more about this here). The series is called the Beatles “Double Golden Collection”. There are two CD’s in each jewel box and you get one 2009 remastered album on each disc, complete with the bonus mini documentary. Disc One, shown here, has “Abbey Road” (the other in this set has “Let It Be” on the second disc):

If anyone else has some “Abbey Road” labels they’d like to share please send them to beatlesblogger@gmail.com

(For most images above click to see a larger version)

“New” Yellow Submarine?

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You’re no doubt aware that there’s a BluRay and DVD re-issue of “Yellow Submarine” due in May. There’ll also be a re-issue of the “Yellow Submarine Songtrack” CD too.

But what will we actually get that is really “new”?

The Beatles site says (quote):  “Bonus features for the Yellow Submarine DVD and Blu-ray include a short making-of documentary titled “Mod Odyssey”, the film’s original theatrical trailer, audio commentary by producer John Coates and art director Heinz Edelmann, several brief interview clips with others involved with the film, storyboard sequences, 29 original pencil drawings and 30 behind-the-scenes photos. Both Digipak packages will include reproductions of animation cels from the film, collectible stickers, and a 16-page booklet with a new essay by Yellow Submarine aficionado John Lasseter (Chief Creative Officer, Walt Disney and Pixar Animation Studios)”.

That got me thinking, and so I got down off the shelf my 1999 edition of the DVD. This was issued at the same time as the newly digitally remastered “Yellow Submarine Songtrack” CD first came out. The cover looks like this:

Listed on the back in that yellow box breakout are the Special Features. They are: a short making-of documentary titled “Mod Odyssey”, the film’s original theatrical trailer, full length audio commentary, interviews with crew and vocal talents, storyboard sequences (including two not used in the original film), original pencil drawings, behind-the-scenes photos, a collectible booklet, and a music-only track highlighting the film’s score.

So, this new addition coming in May adds what exactly? I figure it’s the “….reproductions of animation cels from the film, collectible stickers, and a 16-page booklet with a new essay by Yellow Submarine aficionado John Lasseter”.

And that’s it.

Apart from the individually hand-cleaned, frame by frame digitisation – which I’m sure is going to look fantastic – there’s not a real lot else I’m afraid.

I’ll probably get the BluRay (the complete-ist in me will have to have it), but I just wish Apple Corps and the remaining Beatles would stop forcing us to re-purchase stuff we already have and re-issue some genuinely new material.

What do you think?

Beatles “Love” iTunes Exclusives

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Beatles Examiner reports that the two new iTunes exclusive “Love” tracks aren’t new – they date back to 2006 when George and Giles Martin originally mixed the music for the Cirque du Soleil Las Vegas theatrical production. To get the additional new tracks (“Fool on the Hill” and “Girl”) you have to download the whole Beatles “Love” album from the iTunes Store……that’s the only way they are officially available.

That got me thinking about how many more tracks might have been given the “Love” treatment back then and are just awaiting an opportune time for release.

And that reminded me of an interview Giles Martin gave on Australian radio when he was doing the worldwide publicity rounds for the “Love” CD back in 2006.

When explaining how they made “I Want To Hold Your Hand” he told The Music Show host Andrew Ford on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation that there were quite a few more tracks sitting in the can ready to go:

Did you hear that? He said there’s a whole swag of Beatles rock songs that were prepared for Cirque du Soleil that were never used in the show and quote: “….maybe we’ll stick them out later on.”  Giles specifically mentions “Love” versions of “Twist and Shout”, “She Loves You”, “Can’t Buy Me Love” and “A Hard Day’s Night”. I think we can look forward to more releases in the future.