Wishing all our readers and followers the very best at this special time of year. Across 2020 we’ve shared our interest in collecting the Number 1 band in the world.
Despite these being very bleak times this has given us a lot of joy along the way.
To you and yours, stay safe. We wish you much happiness.
Here’s to a much brighter 2021!
Looks like the Lennon camp is belatedly getting in on the coloured vinyl craze – but nothing as lavish/extensive/crazy as the McCartney team (see * links and **image below).
There’s going to be an exclusive US Target store Opaque Blue release for the recent Gimme Some Truth 2 LP set:
This Gimme Some Truth double gatefold, previously only available on good old black vinyl, will hit Target stores in the United States on February 19, 2021.
* To view the many, many iterations of Paul McCartney’s just-released McCartney III, check out the following links: The Many Different Versions Emerge, There’ll Be A Cassette, More McCartney III Variations, Orange Vinyl, and Yellow….and More.
**And here’s the latest graphical representation of all the McCartney III variations presently out there [click on the image to enlarge]: 
In the vacuum of the year-long delay surrounding Peter Jackson’s film The Beatles: Get Back, the director has given us something of a holiday treat by releasing this terrific sneak peek teaser:
The sound, colour and clarity are fantastic, as is the mood of joy depicted.
Now, Jackson is at pains to say that this is neither a trailer nor a completed sequence from the film, but rather something to give us a flavour of what to expect.
It’ll therefore be interesting to see how the finished product comes up, because anyone with enough footage (and Jackson has more than 56 hours of it!) can edit together just the fun moments and make it look like everything with the band was hunky dory. We know this was not the case and that they were getting on each other’s nerves for quite a lot of the time as well.
However, this teaser is such fun to watch. It’s great to see The Beatles clowning around and enjoying themselves. We just hope there’s not too much history being revised.
From the web: “Acclaimed filmmaker Peter Jackson has released an exclusive sneak peek of his upcoming documentary The Beatles: Get Back for fans everywhere to enjoy. The 5-minute special look is available to fans worldwide on TheBeatles.com and streaming on Disney+.
Jackson said, “We wanted to give the fans of The Beatles all over the world a holiday treat, so we put together this five-minute sneak peek at our upcoming theatrical film The Beatles: Get Back. We hope it will bring a smile to everyone’s faces and some much-needed joy at this difficult time.”
The feature-length film is set to open in theatres on August 27, 2021.
Can’t wait!
Now this actually looks interesting.
Paul McCartney can be difficult to interview and get new and deeper insights from. He’s been interviewed and the subject of so many on-screen studies of his craft that he almost automatically falls back on a tried-and-true set of reactions and answers – and we (the audience) end up learning nothing new.
But chuck in a personality like veteran producer Rick Rubin – in what looks to be an in-depth, six-part examination of some of the greatest songs that McCartney has ever been involved with – and we might just have a classic on our hands.
McCartney has just teased on his website and YouTube channel “Paul McCartney x Rick Rubin. A Forthcoming Documentary Event. Coming Soon”
And it looks good:
The pairing of the two has been known about for some time, but there are scant other details as yet – not even where or when it will be shown. Rumour is it’ll be either Netflix or Apple TV+. Hence the interest in this 1’36 clip.
Deadline says the project is still untitled but it’s a six-parter, and that it marks “….the first time ever that the original masters have left Abbey Road”.
That claim is a little questionable as in 1982 the original master tapes of all 14 Beatle studio stereo albums left the EMI vaults at the Abbey Road Studios and were couriered to the Mobile Fidelity offices in California to produce this box set:
Suffice it to say, if that’s what’s happened again for this new doco, the original master tapes leaving the building nowadays is a very, VERY rare thing. A more likely scenario is that they’re using a digital copy.
Either way, it certainly looks from the footage released that Rubin and McCartney are listening to original recordings, isolating various tracks on the mixing desk, and discussing in detail the making of classics like ‘Lovely Rita’, ‘Come Together’ and ‘Live and Let Die’. This will be fascinating because the legendary producer knows his stuff and will hopefully push for detail and stories that haven’t ever been told before. Fingers crossed.
Universal Music has announced overnight pre-orders for a new 5-song EP from Ringo Starr called Zoom In, available on March 19, 2021.
At the launch of last year’s What’s My Name LP (his 20th solo effort), Ringo intimated he was done with putting out full albums of songs and in future would turn to the more limited tracklists of the EP, or ‘extended play’. He’d just issue an EP here and there when he felt he had enough decent material to justify it.
Looks like that wish is coming true because this next release is definitely being marketed as an EP.
Zoom In will be issued on traditional black vinyl:
The now de rigueur coloured vinyl:
And of course on CD and digital download.
Zoom In tracklist:
1. Zoom in, Zoom Out
2. Here’s to the Nights
3. Waiting for the Tide to Turn
4. Not Enough Love in the World
5. Teach Me to Tango
To mark the occasion, Ringo has today released Track 2 from the EP, ‘Here’s To The Nights’. It’s an all-star affair with vocal contributions from Paul McCartney, Joe Walsh, Corinne Bailey Rae, Eric Burton (Black Pumas), Sheryl Crow, Finneas, Dave Grohl, Ben Harper, Lenny Kravitz, Jenny Lewis, Steve Lukather, Chris Stapleton and Yola:
UPDATE: And here’s the official video for ‘Here’s To The Nights’:
Since we last posted about the ever-growing McCartney III virtual rainbow of coloured vinyl on offer to pre-order, yet another two colour options have surfaced!
A yellow LP and a violet LP have now been added to the ten other colours already out there.
Late last week Paul McCartney used Facebook to send out this message:
Text Paul +1 (212) 313-9547 There may be something special coming your way soon…
![[IMG]](https://static.xx.fbcdn.net/images/emoji.php/v9/t57/1/16/1f609.png)
![[IMG]](https://static.xx.fbcdn.net/images/emoji.php/v9/t96/1/16/1f49c.png)
Fans who responded are today receiving texts back with a link to the official McCartney US store selling the latest in the never-ending, limited edition coloured vinyl craze surrounding this yet-to-be-released album. Seems that violet coloured heart emoji was a hint about the latest coloured vinyl:
The site says this is limited to 3000 copies. No sign yet of it being offered in the UK or other territories.
Also limited to 3000 copies in the US, but being offered on the Canadian Music Vaultz site and the UK Paul McCartney Official Store as well, McCartney’s new album can also be had in opaque yellow vinyl:
Interestingly, on the US store site it says that this yellow vinyl LP is only available for shipping to US addresses.
By our count that makes no fewer than 12 different vinyl colours……
Also since we last posted there’s been news of a Japanese SHM-CD release of McCartney III that contains four “Japan bonus tracks” on the one disc. There’s speculation that these four bonus tracks are the same four tracks that are only available individually on four separate CDs in other markets (although that is yet to be confirmed).
The Japanese SHM-CD Special Edition comes in a jacket with a red dice on the cover:
And, for a limited time, it comes with an A4 sized 2021 calendar: 
For a chart of the complete variations of this release (that we know about) click here, or see the image at the bottom of this page.
Meanwhile, back at campaign headquarters, the people doing the marketing for the worldwide release of McCartney III have put us on a Twitter and Facebook “countdown” called The Twelve Days of Paul.
This is an international series of events leading up to the album’s official launch date on December 18.
For each of the twelve days, in a different city around the world, a big white wall is having a mural applied to it depicting the sheet music from a song from McCartney III.
The first went up in London, then came Los Angeles, followed by Mexico City, and today Sydney Australia.
Online you can follow along with each city depicted as a white dice on a map and, as the campaign is rolled out (no pun intended), that dice turns red. Check out the map for a sped-up video of the sheet music graphic being applied.
On mobile devices the map is replaced by a list of the cities involved in #12DaysOfPaul:
http://PaulMcCartney.com/12DaysOfPaul
@AmazonMusicUK
London – McCARTNEY III
Los Angeles – McCARTNEY III
Mexico City – McCARTNEY III
Sydney – McCARTNEY III
Toronto – McCARTNEY III
Berlin – McCARTNEY III
New York City – McCARTNEY III
Tokyo – McCARTNEY III
Chicago – McCARTNEY III
Paris – McCARTNEY III
Rio – McCARTNEY III
Liverpool – McCARTNEY III
(Being based in Australia we kind of think the Sydney offering looks a bit small compared to the other cities so far!)
There also seems to be a cover version campaign associated with The Twelve Days of Paul campaign whereby relatively well-known local musicians in each place record a cover version of the song for their city.
In London it was Blossoms doing a pretty cool version of the LP opener ‘Long Tailed Winter Bird‘. Oddly there didn’t seem to be anyone doing a version of ‘Find My Way’ (the song for LA), but in Mexico City the singer Lasso covered ‘Pretty Boys‘. (Lasso is actually a Venuzuelan singer who moved to Mexico in 2015 to expand his audience and musical career. Check out his website).
Amatuer singers and bands are also being encouraged to upload their versions of the new songs too.
Bring on release day! (Can there possibly be any more teasers or vinyl colour variations still in the woodworks?)
(click on the image above to see a larger version)
There are now no fewer than 10 vinyl colour variations of the forthcoming Paul McCartney release McCartney III.
It’s just been announced that a further colour has been added to the rainbow – an orange vinyl limited to 3000 copies – available exclusively through Universal Music Stores online (e.g. the US uDiscover Music Store, the UK uDiscover Music Store, German uDiscover Music Store, etc.)
You can check out the other vinyl colours (many now sold out) here.
Add to that the four “McCartney III Color Collection” CD versions, in two sleeve designs with individual bonus tracks associated with each colour.
Oh, and there’s a cassette……
The release date for the album has slipped back from December 11 to December 18. It’s rumoured that the one week delay was caused – in part – by Capitol having to press so many different variations and colours!
By our reckoning there are now 21 different ways to buy this album in physical form.
To help you keep track here’s a chart of where we are at (so far):
(click on the image to see a larger version)
UPDATE!
Since we published this article there were many additional variations to this release. Here’s where it eventually got to:
(click on the image to see a larger version)
We’re not getting a 50th anniversary box set of All Things Must Pass, but the anniversary hasn’t been missed by the BBC. You can now stream a great 56 minute radio documentary narrated by musician and composer Nitin Sawhney.
The radio special tells the story of George Harrison’s most successful album and shows how its themes, lyrics and musical style put it ahead of its time. It’s a terrific exploration of the music, and the musicians, who made the amazing triple LP.
While there won’t be a box set celebrating All Things Must Pass (at least not this year), don’t forget there’ll be a faithfully re-created single from the album released for Black Friday Record Store Day – this coming Friday:
Oh boy. Just when you thought that 9 vinyl colour variations, plus 2 CD cover variations – and a cassette – were enough, the folks at MPL and Capitol have devised even more ways to get you to buy the forthcoming McCartney III album – due out December 11.
If you are a collector of rare audio then hidden in amongst what, at first glance, looks like a merchandising onslaught are four bonus “secret demo” tracks. But to get them you have to buy four more copies of the main McCartney III CD. And as you’ll see there are LOTS of permutations….
It’s all a bit confusing. We’ll try to unpack it for you starting with what is available on the official US McCartney Store site (because it’s different on the UK McCartney store site).
First thing to get clear in your head are the colours: white, red, blue and yellow.
For example, on the US store you can buy a box containing a McCartney III white cover, store-exclusive mini-jacket CD (that includes one secret bonus demo track unique to that white cover CD), plus one of the following: a white McCartney III dice set in a pouch; a white McCartney III t-shirt; a white McCartney III cap; or a white McCartney III face mask.
These box sets are obviously custom printed, but also seem to be specially made to hold the CD too. If you look closely there is a black cardboard slot inside that surrounds the CD. It’s got an opening on the right hand side to get your finger in to neatly lift out the cover:
If you prefer red you can buy a box containing a McCartney III red cover, store-exclusive mini-jacket CD (that includes one secret bonus demo track unique to that red cover CD), plus one of the following: a red McCartney III cap; a red McCartney III dice set in a pouch; a red McCartney III face mask; or a red McCartney III t-shirt.
And so on for the blue and yellow boxed CDs and merch.
Note however that each colour has a different McCartney III logo. (The pouch and logo for the dice sets remain the same though. Click on the image below for a larger version):
So, that means for the extremely keen collector of merchandise and audio you’d have to buy 16 boxes to get absolutely every variation – but, you still only end up with the same 4 “secret bonus demo tracks”.
Staying on the US site, if audio is your main thing, for US$7.33 you can purchase separately each of the four secret demo edition store-exclusives as mini-jacket CDs. These are the same as those in the merch-related box sets above. We believe (but it’s not definitive at this point) that the CDs contain the standard CD track listing, plus one unique demo for each colour. Here’s the yellow example. As you can see it comes in a simple card sleeve cover only – no booklet, etc:
Or, for US$14.33, you can purchase separately each of the four secret demo colour-coded editions in what is described as a “Deluxe Edition” softpak CD cover. These we presume are similar to the standard retail CD packaging and will come with a gatefold and booklet. The yellow example is shown below and this would also contain the standard CD tracklisting plus the unique “yellow” secret bonus demo track:
So, for the absolute US completist they’d also have to buy four more copies of this CD to have every possible permutation.
It’s interesting that no details have been given about the titles of the four demo tracks. I guess that’s why they are secret!
Meanwhile, over at the UK McCartney store, the offer is slightly different. There, if you purchace one of the four coloured merchandise boxes on offer, you get all the merchandise (plus your CD colour of choice) in one box.
For example, if you order the white box it will bundle together the white cover, store-exclusive mini-jacket CD (including the “white cover” secret bonus demo track), the white dice set, white t-shirt, white cap, and white McCartney III face mask:
Likewise the red, blue and yellow bundles.
Also, unlike the US store, at the UK store you can’t get the simple card sleeve coloured versions separately, you only have the “Deluxe Edition” softpak CD on offer. But you can get just the red tee if you want, or just the blue dice, or just the yellow face mask. No need to get the bundle if you don’t want to.
On fan blogs and forums fans are debating this new announcement, not only trying to nut out all the confusing variations but also asking the question why? There are now 10 CD variations. Why so many permutations? And why make us buy multiple copies of the CD to add these four tracks of bonus materials to our collections?
One astute observer probably has it correct: “The whole reason for this is to juice the first-week sales of the ALBUM. Selling a CD single won’t do that. Between the four CD versions here, the green one, the regular one and the black/white/red/green/cokebottle/[blue]/pink vinyl versions (not even counting the yellow one, because hardly anyone got it), some members here will likely have purchased 5-10 copies of this EACH! Hello, Billboard…”
It’s not so much about money (though no doubt that plays a factor) – it’s about trying to get a Number 1 album on the charts the first week the record goes on sale.
Check out McCartney’s Twitter feed too.
Paul McCartney’s faithful re-issue of his 1984 die-cut single ‘We All Stand Together’ is now out. It’s been done for the 100th anniversary of the cartoon character Rupert the Bear.
Paul Sinclair over at Super Deluxe Edition has done a video unboxing of how it looks:
McCartney has also issued on YouTube a newly-restored 4K version of the 1984 animated short film Rupert and the Frog Song. It was written and produced by Paul McCartney and directed by animator Geoff Dunbar:
Just out of interest we dragged out our copies of the original 1984 UK black vinyl 7″ single, and also the shaped picture disc. The black vinyl came in this picture sleeve:
The 1984 shaped picture disc came in a clear plastic cover:
The sleeve is colour printed on the outside:
Sadly, the shaped picture disc inside is showing definite signs of age. The clear vinyl is yellowing quite a bit in places. Here’s the A-side:
And the B-Side (note the yellowing around the edges):
Compare this to the 2020 edition:
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