Looking Through You – A New and Very Special Beatle Book

Posted on August 15, 2015 by beatlesblogger

An exciting new Beatles book Looking Through You (just out through Omnibus Press in the UK, and soon to be published in the US) has hit our desk – and it is a treat:

Looking Through You – Rare & Unseen Photographs From The Beatles Monthly Archive presents a selection of over 300 images taken from the pages of the precious The Beatles Book Monthly magazine photo archive. The Beatles Book Monthly was, as it’s name suggests, a monthly instalment detailing what the Beatles were up to. It started in August, 1663 and continued for six years:

The magazine, through the lens of photographer, Leslie Bryce, had unrivalled access to the group throughout the 1960s. Bryce captured the band at work and at play in public but also behind the scenes in un-rehearsed situations resulting in what are unique and candid images.

With a selection of photos from the magazine (all taken between 1963 and 1968), many of the photos gathered for the book are previously unpublished or unseen, often un-cropped and in their original form. The quality of the images is great too because they all are printed from the original negatives:

One thing which strikes you as you flip through each of the carefully chosen and captioned images is that this new book will be a treasure trove for those interested in the band’s instruments and equipment. Take this photograph below of George Harrison for example. How many shots have we seen of the group using their customary Vox amplifiers – but here, in this rear view (taken at the Hammersmith Odeon Theatre in December, 1964), you can pick up some great additional details. You can almost read the amps actual model and serial numbers:

There are numerous shots like this – close-ups of the band’s instruments while on stage as well as a huge number of them at work in the studio, like this one taken at Abbey Road in November, 1965:

Looking Through You has only just come out in the UK and will see a US release soon. The UK edition comes as a cased and numbered 208-page limited edition of 3,000, designed by Lora Findlay with text by Andy Neill. Also in the package is a replica of a rare Beatles artefact associated with the magazine: the 1964 Beatles Book calendar, containing a further 12 photographs from the Beatles Monthly archive.

The book’s Facebook site is here.

FYI there is also a Beatles Book Photo Library available online with low-res, watermarked photographs available to view. There is a process for approaching the Archive about accessing high quality images.

Beatles With Records – Part Twenty Eight

Posted on August 13, 2015 by beatlesblogger

Quite a few more photos of the Beatles holding or working with records have come in so it is time for a further instalment of our series The Beatles With Records.

The Liverpool Echo news site is reporting that the stereo radiogram shown in this picture of Ringo Starr and wife Maureen is up for auction:Maureen is shown sitting on the custom-built record player and radio which was built for the couple when they lived at 34 Montagu Square, London in 1965. It was a quality piece for the time with a Garrard turntable, a British Leak valve amplifier, and an Armstrong tuner with twin speakers. Also in the photo are at least four Beatle gold records, plus a shelf stacked with LPs of various kinds.

According to the Echo, Ringo gave the radiogram to his Auntie Everley and Uncle Jim at 59 Madrin Street, Liverpool, which was Ringo`s Grandad`s house. It has been in his Aunt’s possession since 1966 and has just surfaced after almost 50 years:The radiogram is just one of the lots in the Liverpool Beatles memorabilia Auction to be held in the Paul McCartney Auditorium there on August 29. We first featured the photo of Ringo and Maureen at home back in The Beatles With Records – Part Two.

Speaking of Liverpool, here is a cool photograph taken outside Brian Epstein’s NEMS Music Store:

Lots of records in the front window – and the arrow points to one record cover that may give a hint as to the date. It is Dylan’s The Times They Are A-Changin’, which came out in January, 1964:

Lots of other LPs and EPS there in the window. Anyone else recognise anything? (The image was kindly sent through by Billy Shears at the SgtPepperChannel on YouTube).

Back in The Beatles With Records Part Twenty Five we showed a photograph of George Harrison with the Radha Krsna Temple and an Apple single they’d released (and he produced) called ‘Govinda’.

Here they are together again – this time in 1970 – and one member is holding another single of their Apple singles, ‘Hare Krishna Mantra’:

(Again, thanks to Billy Shears for sending through those images).

The topic of George Harrison brings us to model Patti Boyd, who later became his wife. Before they were married she featured in a number of photo shoots with Beatle records. Here’s another. This time Patti is holding a UK mono copy of With The Beatles, from 1963:

And we’ve just had the anniversary (on August 11) of John Lennon apologising to the American people for his “the Beatles are bigger than Jesus” comment. It led to some very odd and sad scenes of LPs and singles being publicly destroyed, these ones below live on air on radio….

Jumping ahead in time, here’s Lennon at home with what looks like an acetate or test pressing in front of him (on the bed, lower right). Impossible to tell what it might be though: And John Lennon again, this time in what looks like a U.S. radio station studio with DJ Scott Muni:

This image looks very much like another photo from the same day, taken at the radio station WNEW-FM in New York. John was on the publicity trail for his album Rock’n’Roll. The two men are wearing the same clothing (Lennon a tee-shirt, and Muni a shirt and light coloured knitted sweater). You can see this photo in The Beatles With Records – Part Three:And to finish a video of Paul McCartney, performing live at the famous Amoeba Music record store in Los Angeles on Wednesday, June 27, 2007. Here Paul is literally surrounded by vinyl and CD’s in the hundreds and thousands:

Just two obvious cover shots from the posters on the wall behind him…..You will no doubt spot a lot more:

And here is the full video:

Check out all the posts in this series here.

Vale Cilla Black

Posted on August 3, 2015 by beatlesblogger

News is just coming in that Cilla Black has died at the age of 72.

Cilla was a great mate of the Beatles and was a central part of their manager Brian Epstein’s bevy of talented Liverpool artists. Because of those close relationships Cilla Black was the recipient of unique songs composed by Lennon and McCartney (for example her debut single ‘Love of the Loved’, as well as ‘It’s For You’ and ‘Step Inside Love’ – which became the theme song for one of her TV shows).

And of course she was signed to the Parlophone label. Her many hits were produced by the great George Martin.

Cilla Black leaves behind a fifty-year career in the entertainment business. Following her singing successes of the 1960s Cilla entered the world of British television and became a household name and much-loved icon.

Last year there was a terrific 3-part television docu-drama simply called Cilla (starring Sheridan Smith) covering her life in Liverpool, early career, and rise to fame. Well worth seeing.

McCartney Archive Series – Next Two Instalments Announced

Posted on August 2, 2015 by beatlesblogger

The next two instalments in the long-running Paul McCartney Archive Series, personally supervised my Paul McCartney himself, will be the albums Tug of War and Pipes of Peace.

As for past releases in the series these will both be issued as Special Edition double CDs, in a Deluxe edition with DVDs, books and inserts, and also as double LP vinyl sets:

The big change this time around will be the addition (just for Tug of War) of a Super Deluxe Edition, with the same content as the Tug of War Deluxe set but with a limited edition red acrylic outer cover and five hand numbered Linda McCartney photo prints included. This will be limited to 1000 copies worldwide:

There’ll also be a variety of digital downloads in high and low res – some with the bonus content and some without.

All are due for release on October 2. Here are two promo videos showing what’s inside:

John Lennon – 8 LP Box Set

Posted on July 26, 2015 by beatlesblogger

Here at Beatlesblogger we have a few items that we are always on the lookout for. When we first heard about the impending box set reissue of eight John Lennon LPs on 180 gram vinyl – we knew we’d have to eventually get a copy….

This is a deluxe box set of Lennon’s solo albums released between 1970 and 1984. The studio albums are remastered from their original analogue masters and have been newly cut to vinyl from 96k digital files with faithfully replicated original album art.

The albums featured in the box are John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band (1970); Imagine (1971); Some Time In New York City – a double album (1972); Mind Games (1973); Walls And Bridges (1974); Rock’n’Roll (1975); Double Fantasy (1980); and Milk And Honey (1984). The albums, which feature the 2010 remasters, will be available separately on August 21st.

It’s taken a little while with this one, but we finally got up the courage to visit Sandy’s Records, a great local independent record shop with an impressive range of CDs and LPs, to invest in a copy (it is a very expensive addition to the collection):

Rather than uploading a swathe of photographs of each LP here, this collector named Jordan has recorded quite a nice unboxing video (unfortunately though he doesn’t show all the actual discs and their authentically reproduced labels):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1E0t5hIuyxM

If you are after more of what is inside this official video promo clip takes comprehensive care of that:

As you can see, in keeping with the authentic UK album artwork for each LP: Imagine contains reproductions of its two postcards, poster and inner sleeve; Some Time In New York City includes reproductions of its original postcard and inner sleeves; Walls And Bridges includes its sleeve with two fold-over flaps, the original eight-page booklet and inner sleeve; Mind Games, Double Fantasy, and Milk And Honey also include faithful reproductions of their original inner sleeves. Nice.

However, the thing that has become really collectable about this box set is that it’s been temporarily withdrawn from sale while Universal Music sort out a BIG mistake with one of the albums in the set. In first pressings Lennon’s Rock’n’Roll LP has a production error. The song “Sweet Little Sixteen” appears twice, and “You Can’t Catch Me” is missing altogether….making it something of an instant collector’s item.

The good news for those who’ve paid out the big $$ for the box is that Universal Music has acknowledged the mistake and set up a website where you can request a replacement copy of that particular album. You’ll need to provide proof of purchase: Claim.LennonVinylBox.com

Beatles Stuff We Found on a Visit to France – Part Three

Posted on July 23, 2015 by beatlesblogger

Just back from a holiday in Europe where we picked up some nice Beatle treasure for the collection. This is the fourth and final instalment…

Ever since it was released way back in 2011 we’ve been on the lookout for a reasonably priced copy of the book Linda McCartney: Life in Photographs, published by the creative and interesting Taschen book company.

This book actually came out in four versions: a standard edition; a larger-format standard edition; a collectors edition (limited to 750 copies); and two art editions (of 125 copies each with a photographic print provided). The collector and art editions were always going to be way out of our price range (at £1,750 for the collectors edition, and £3,500 for an art edition!). But because we’ve always liked Linda McCartney’s photography a standard edition presenting some of her best images would be nice….

Turns out in Paris there’s a dedicated Taschen store. It’s in the trendy St Germain des Prez area, at 2 rue de Buci:

On the day we accidentally stumbled across this very groovy-looking bookshop they just happened to be having a big clearance. All stock was drastically reduced, and on the shelf was a sample copy of the of Linda McCartney: Life in Photographs (the standard edition). True, it’d been in the store a while and was a little shop-soiled – but not badly. It was on sale for €14.99 (that’s about $22.00 Australian, or US$16.00):

The striking cover image of Paul McCartney was taken in Los Angeles by Linda McCartney in 1968.

Inside the book traces Linda’s photographic career, beginning around 1966 and up to 1997, with images selected from her archive of over 200,000 photographs. It is edited by Alison Castle and produced in close collaboration with Paul McCartney and their children. Included are forewords by Paul, Stella, and Mary McCartney. There are also two appreciations of Linda’s work, one by the celebrated photographer Annie Leibovitz, and the other by art historian Martin Harrison.

Linda McCartney was one of the leading artists documenting the mid-to-late 1960s music scene:The book contains great photos of the Rolling Stones, Janis Joplin, Hendrix, B.B. King, Neil Young and Pete Townsend – to name just a few. There are of course some great Beatle shots, still-life, movie stars and landscapes. But the bulk are of Paul McCartney and the couple’s family – all beautifully composed and interesting in their own right:

Really like this one below of Paul working with John in 1968 – one of the happier times during the recording of the White Album no doubt:

For some reason this shot from 1970 of Paul writing amidst a domestically crowded table in Scotland reminds us of something:

Could it have been at least part inspiration for Linda’s work three years later for the rear cover of Band on the Run?

And we also like this one of Paul, with artist Willem de Kooning, taken in East Hampton, New York in 1983: Here’s the rear cover – the sticker says €29.99, but we got it for less than that….

See also: Beatles Stuff We Found on a Visit to France – Part One and Part Two, plus Some Local Beatle Pressings From a Visit to Holland

Beatles Stuff We Found on a Visit to France – Part Two

Posted on July 20, 2015 by beatlesblogger

Just back from a holiday in Europe where we picked up some Beatle and Beatle-related treasure along the way. This is the next instalment about what we found in France…

Last time we were in Paris (in 2012) we visited a great second-hand vinyl store in the Sorbonne area called Crocodisc (they’re at 42 Rue des Ecoles, Paris 5e) where we picked up some nice Beatle vinyl.

What we found this time though was a collectable Paul McCartney and Wings CD.

It’s the limited edition Advance Release of Venus and Mars. This came out in 2014 to promote the then latest instalment in the Paul McCartney Archive Collection series:

You can’t tell from the front cover that it is in any way different to the two CD Standard Edition of Venus and Mars (for which we have the Best Buy version, and which came with a limited edition vinyl single – and a different catalogue number).

However when you flip over the cover of the Advance Release there’s reference to a third disc in this set called “Bonus Film”:

Also, on the CD cover spine there are the words “Advance Release”:

The Advance Release also has a different catalogue number: HRM-35652ADV.

When you open out the triple gatefold cover this is what you see. On the first fold out on the left are the album credits, and on the right an advertisement for the three different, official versions (Deluxe CD, Standard CD and vinyl):

Then when you flip that open this is the inside of the set, fully open:

It contains three discs. Two CD’s and one DVD, each carrying the words “For promotional use only. Not for sale”:

The two CDs are exactly the same in content as the Standard Edition, while the DVD contains four short films: Recording My Carnival; Bon Voyageur; Wings at Elstree; and the Venus and Mars TV Ad. These are the same as those featured on the DVD which comes in the Deluxe version of Venus and Mars.

By way of providing a side-by-side comparison here’s the packaging for the Standard Edition CD:

Below is the Standard version’s first fold out of the gatefold cover. An 18 page booklet containing photos and album credits is attached to the left:

The inside fully open:And the Standard Edition CD’s:

So, another nice find in Paris, France.

Beatles Stuff We Found on a Visit to France – Part One

Posted on July 18, 2015 by beatlesblogger

Just back from a holiday in Europe where we picked up some Beatle treasure along the way. This is the next instalment about what we found…

Once we’d left Amsterdam it was off to France, specifically the beautiful Loire Valley and the city of Tours, about 240kms from Paris. It wasn’t until we were in a newsagent store there that we saw this, up on a shelf behind the counter:

It’s part of a series produced by Universal Music in conjunction with the French newspaper Le Monde and their weekly art, TV and culture magazine Télérama. Starting back in January, each week they’ve slowly been releasing a collection of 25 Beatle albums and DVDs. As you can see these are individual CDs (or DVDs), each in a cardboard gatefold CD/DVD cover. This is attached for display purposes to a larger black cardboard square (11 inches by 11 inches). Each backing square has unique artwork and everything is sealed in a clear cellophane outer.

The weekly sequence for each release is detailed on the rear of the black cardboard square. It began with Sgt Pepper, and ends with The Beatles Anthology 5 DVD :

These CD and DVDs are only available from newsstands and places where Le Monde and Télérama are sold [see Wog Blog’s article about these releases here]. Similar re-issues have also been done in Italy and Spain, however these are not exactly the same CDs and DVDs as those for France.

Until we saw the Beatles Anthology 2 DVD in its special cardboard sleeve we’d completely forgotten about this series. It reminded us that, while all of the main albums had come out in cardboard gatefold sleeves before, there were some very unique packaging elements associated with nine of the 25 French releases: these are the five Anthology DVDs, plus four of the other CDs (Love [single CD]; Anthology 1; Anthology 2 and Anthology 3 [all double CDs]). Each of these have never previously been released in this form with a cardboard gate-fold slipcase. And so these were the ones we wanted to add to our collection. They’re unavailable everywhere else, and purchasing them from French newsagents is the only way to get them.

The hunt therefore began…..

This wasn’t quite as easy as it might seem. Once each weekly issue is sold out the newsagents no longer stock them – and some of the items we were looking for dated back over seven weeks. While we were in Tours the then-current issue was The Beatles Anthology 2 DVD, so that was easy to pick up. As was The Beatles Anthology 1 DVD, which most newsagents seemed to still have supplies of:

We then needed to travel by train from Tours to the city of Amiens in the north, and while transferring through the huge Gare du Nord railway station in Paris to get there we found copies of The Beatles Anthology 2 Double CD and the Anthology 3 Double CD sets:

Arriving in Amiens we couldn’t find any other back-dated releases. But while there the latest release (The Beatles Anthology 3 DVD) actually came out – so we quickly grabbed a copy of that:

This left just the double CD Anthology 1 and the Love CD to track down. Our time back in Paris before heading out of the country and home was our last chance….and these final two proved very difficult to find. Lots of asking around turned nothing up at all, though the owners who operate the many little newsagency kiosks on the streets of Paris were really very helpful to us. These kiosks look like this and are dotted around all over the place:

Many of the proprietors really wanted to assist. When they didn’t have what we were after some gave us phone numbers to call (for Le Monde and Télérama), and one guy went above and beyond, using his mobile phone to call around to his mates in other kiosks to see if they had either the Anthology 1 CD or Love. He managed to track down a copy of Anthology 1 for us, and he said possibly the Love CD too. Could we come back the next day to pick these up? Of course we could! There’s nothing like having local knowledge on your side. When we got back next day it turned out he secured just this one for us, which was great:

And while he hadn’t been able to locate a copy of Love for us this helpful kiosk owner had managed to scrounge a copy of Sgt Pepper, the very first CD released in the series.

Because it was the first Pepper was displayed slightly differently. It came out attached to a much wider cardboard backing sheet which is 10 inches by 15.5 inches. So, because he’d been so very helpful (and because of the different appearance of this one), we decided to buy Pepper from him as well:

This meant though that the Beatles Love CD was still proving very elusive…

Love was actually the oldest one we were after. It’d been released to newsagents back in April and as it was now almost July it seemed absolutely no-one had it.

Where we were staying was quite near the very large Gare Montparnasse railway station. Inside (and around it on the street) were multiple kiosks and small shops selling newspapers. So one afternoon, the day before our final departure for Australia, we hit this area pretty hard. For some time we went from place to place with no luck, getting very footsore and tired.

We’d pretty much given up all hope when we tried the very last kiosk we could find….and there we found it, hanging on a hook in the kiosk. It was a little beaten up (you can still see the hook hole) – but it was a copy of the single CD Love album in its unique French cardboard gatefold slipcase:

All these French reissues are in fact unique. They have different catalogue numbers and copyright details on the rear covers, and on their printed labels. For example, here’s the Anthology 1 CD. You can see reference to the Beatles Calderstone Productions Ltd., and even the fact that they are to be sold exclusively at newsagent kiosks:

Here’s a close-up of the small print (click on image for a larger version):

Of course, now we are back home that still leaves us with the quandary of how to source copies of The Beatles Anthology DVDs 4 and 5. These were released after we’d left the country…..so if anyone has any ideas on how we can get those two please drop us a line and let us know!

Some Local Beatle Pressings From a Visit to Holland

Posted on July 9, 2015 by beatlesblogger

As mentioned in our previous post, a recent holiday trip took us to Europe (including a first ever visit to the Netherlands) and this presented the opportunity to trawl through a few of Amsterdam’s specialty vinyl record shops – and there are quite a few of them!

Collectors will know that pressings from Holland are fairly common because once upon a time EMI had quite a large presence there and pressed a huge amount of discs (both LPs and CDs). These were not only for local consumption, but also for distribution worldwide.

So, as a travel memento, we wanted at least a couple of Beatle or Beatle-related pressings as a physical reminder of our visit to the Netherlands.

The shops we made it to in Amsterdam included Record Friend, in the city’s Niewmarket area (at St Antoniesbreestraat 64); the enormous Concerto Records (at Utrechtsestraat 52-60); and finally City Records, also in Niewmarket (at Geldersekade 100A). There are many more places to find vinyl – but we had only a limited time.

The Record Friend store is situated below street level and it’s pretty big – and a bit overwhelming when you first walk in:

But it was easy to find the Beatles section and we soon found a nice clean Dutch copy of this double LP in its gatefold cover:

We already have this LP (in Australian and US pressings), but this one is made in Holland with unusual grey and silver Parlophone labels, so it’s different. And for us it serves as a reminder of a fantastic visit to a fantastic city:

Country of origin detail on the rear cover:

Next we called in to Concerto – which is huge. The store (spread over five shops all joined together in one long line – see photo below) offers a wide selection of new and used vinyl, CDs and DVDs. Surprisingly they didn’t have a huge amount of Beatle vinyl.

So, after a lengthy browse of their many shelves we moved on to City Records.

There, in a small but very neat and clean store (fairly new and with the owner still in the process of setting up), we found three nice collectable items. We’re always on the lookout for different versions of the 1970 Apple LP John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band. We have quite a few – but to now have an original Holland pressing in the collection is a delight:

This one had the (censored) paper lyric sheet inner:

And a little surprise added bonus – the cheeky postcard insert from Lennon’s Imagine album which was meant as a rebuff to Paul McCartney’s Ram cover. Not sure how it ended up with this LP, but out it fell when we got home:

Next out of the crates at City Records was a Dutch pressing of George Harrison’s budget compilation LP The Best of George Harrison. We’ve been looking for a vinyl version of this for some time so it’s good to finally have one, pressed in Holland of course:

And here’s the final Beatle LP we found at City Records. This version of The Beatles Ballads is a really nice find. This release (which is a Beatles “Best Of” style LP also issued in the UK and Australia) is collectable because it has a front and rear cover unique to Holland and is titled De Mooiste Songs (which roughly translates as The Most Beautiful Songs):

The British and Australian covers for this have a blue border on the front cover:

And a predominantly yellow rear cover:

Here’s the Dutch label:

In Australia this came out originally on the orange and black Parlophone label:

For more on the background to the special painting done for this cover have a look here.

The owner of City Records was very helpful. Realising these albums had to make the very l-o-n-g journey back to Australia, he offered to put the LPs into a sturdy cardboard mailer to help protect them more fully. A kind gesture very much appreciated.

Next time – what happened on our visit to France……

Beatles Blog

Adventures in collecting Beatles music

Category Archives: Beatles

Looking Through You – A New and Very Special Beatle Book

McCartney Archive Series – Next Two Instalments Announced

John Lennon – 8 LP Box Set

Beatles Stuff We Found on a Visit to France – Part One

Some Local Beatle Pressings From a Visit to Holland

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