Beatles with Records – Part Fifteen

Posted on January 29, 2013 by beatlesblogger

Masses of photos sent in recently – especially from Andrey in Russia. This series is about finding photographs of the Beatles actually holding the product they sold so prolifically – either their own records or those of other artists. We also accept photographs of those close to the Beatles in the proximity of records or CDs.

Back in Part 8 and in Part 10 we identified a very early photo of the band playing on a stage that had a backdrop consisting of a black curtain with LP covers pinned to it. Turns out these were taken in 1961 at a hall with the very grand title of The Palais Ballroom in place called Aldershot in the south of England. Pete Best is still their drummer and this was the band’s first foray to the south of the country. A mere 18 people turned up for the gig! Despite that, the Beatles look to be giving the performance their all. These were the photos we had so far:

From these we were able to identify the following records:

Well, Andrey has sent a couple more photos from that same 1961 Aldershot show:

(Click on some images to see larger versions)

From these its possible to identify at least three more LPs pinned to the backdrop. From the first photo, just above Paul’s microphone you can see this one:

And in the final photo, hanging upside down at an angle just behind Pete Best and above the guitar amp:

Just below the Bobby Darin, also on an angle, is one called Sing It Again No.2. I can’t find an image of that exact disc, but did find Sing It Again No.4 which has very similar artwork:

Also in Part 8 we had a small photo which was taken in 1963 at EMI headquarters for the launch of the Please Please Me LP. The band is on a stage with lots of album covers behind them:

Here are a couple more from that same day – and much larger, too:

This one below is also a fairly early photograph. Adoring fans seeking autographs on their Beatles singles. Maybe they are copies of “From Me To You”, the first 7″ single released in the plain green Parlophone paper sleeve?

These next two show the Beatles arriving back in the UK in 1964 after their tour to America – with Ringo, George and Paul each having records under their arms. To identify just what they are though will need your help:

If you can help identify Paul and Ringo’s records (its hard with George because his are in a paper bag!) please post a comment below or email me here

Once the band started to sell some records and earn some money they purchased the latest gadgets to play records – including in their cars:

Dick James formed the music publishing company Northern Songs (with Brian Epstein, John Lennon and Paul McCartney) and became the publisher of all the Beatles songs. As the photo caption says – he kept a close eye on the fortunes of his key partners:

(That’s some letter opener he has there!)

Finally, a photo of Klaus Voormann, the man who designed the Beatles Revolver cover art in 1966. Here he is more recently signing a copy of the CD for a fan:

As usual thanks to all those who have sent in content and further information. You can see the other parts in “The Beatles with Records” series here: Parts 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 , 6, 7 , 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 16 and 17.

COMING SOON – The Beatles with Gold Records – and believe me there are LOTS of those.

(Click on many of the images above to see larger versions)

A Minor Wings Find

Posted on January 13, 2013 by beatlesblogger

I have posted very rarely on Wings in this blog, but of course collecting records and CDs by (or related to) the Beatles and Paul McCartney means that the band is well-and-truly included. During a recent visit to Canberra (the capital of Australia) I came across a second-hand shop I’d not visited before in the city’s downtown area. They mostly specialise in CDs, DVDs and games, but on the floor there was a large amount of unsorted vinyl where I found a small but interesting addition to the collection.

I already have a German pressing of the Wings single “Good Night Tonight” (1979). It’s the 12″ full version (7 minutes 15 seconds) of the song, on a green EMI Electrola/Odeon label:

As you can see, the cover is not in great shape but the vinyl is in mint condition. Anyway, in the Canberra store I found the Australian release of this same disc. It came out here with an orange Parlophone label:

The two releases have pretty much identical exterior artwork throughout with the only real difference being the colour of the inner sleeves. The German inner sleeve is made from thin paper and is printed in black and white:

While the Australian inner sleeve is made of thicker cardboard and is more deep blue in colour:

I also have the 7″ 45rpm edited version (4 minutes 18 seconds) of “Good Night Tonight” on an Australian black and silver Parlophone label:

It’s nice to have the orange Parlophone version, and at the cost of just A$3.00, a small but worthwhile addition to the collection.

Produced by George Martin – DVD, BluRay and Six CD Box Set

Posted on December 29, 2012 by beatlesblogger

We’ve really been enjoying the newly-released BBC-Arena documentary “Produced by George Martin“. And it has been getting some very good reviews too. You might recall a little while ago we gave away a copy of the DVD to a lucky Beatlesblog reader, Eric Leon in France.

The DVD and BluRay contain the extensive documentary, plus over 50 minutes of extended interviews with Martin, Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr and many others. But it is not just Sir George’s work with the Beatles which is featured. “Produced by George Martin” is a history of Parlophone Records, which is a division of the huge recording conglomerate known as EMI. George Martin was the boss of Parlophone and so alongside the Beatles (by far his most famous signing) he was responsible for recording some of the top hit-makers in Britain (and the world) including Cilla Black, Peter Sellers, Spike Milligan, Rolf Harris, Gerry and the Pacemakers, Billy J. Kramer, Matt Monro, Shirley Bassey, and of course Wings. Many who see the doco will be wondering if there’s a way to get hold of some of the great music and comedy featured which Martin produced. There is – it’s a six CD box set of his work that came out way back in 2001. Interestingly, although it was released more than ten years before this latest documentary, it carries a very similar title to this year’s DVD and BluRay: “Produced by George Martin – 50 Years in Recording”:

Each CD set is individually numbered (mine is 08750) and comes in a fold-out, long-box length holdings which holds the six CD’s and a book. Here’s the rear cover and some of the inside fold-out panels:

The CD’s themselves contain tracks that date back to Sir George’s earliest work, beginning in 1955 and then traversing his entire career up to his post-Parlophone days recording acts like America, Jeff Beck, Jimmy Webb and John McLaughlin. Whoever designed the set decided to give each CD an authentic and historic Parlophone label. It’s a design idea that the Beatles themselves decided to copy in the their latest series of remastered re-issues of their own work, both for the 2009 CD remasters (mono and stereo), and for the LP box set which has only just been released:

Glued inside the fold-out package is a 35 page book, with liner notes by Mark Lewisohn (who will be well-known to Beatles fans as the band’s most knowledgable and respected biographer). In it Lewisohn details the background to Sir George’s life and the multitude of artists and styles he produced over a 45-year span in the business:

For those who were not able to fork out the considerable outlay for the full 6 CD box set, EMI/Parlophone also produced a “Highlights” single CD version containing 24 tracks:

And there was also a promo CD produced. It came in a simple cardboard slipcase with a further reduced selection of material (14 tracks). This would have been sent to radio stations, and reviewers at magazines and newspapers to promote the box set:

This 2001 box set from 2001 forms a great companion to the filmed “Produced by George Martin” DVD and BluRay documentary released in 2012.

Label Variations Part Nine – Plastic Ono Band “Cold Turkey”

Posted on December 16, 2012 by beatlesblogger

In Label Variations Part Eight an unusual New Zealand Parlophone label version of John Lennon’s “Imagine” was featured.

I’ve stumbled across another from NZ – this time Lennon’s anguished drug withdrawal song “Cold Turkey“, performed by the Plastic Ono Band. It’s definitely original and as you can see pretty beat up, but interesting I guess – especially for one particular reason which will be revealed later:

It is in it’s original New Zealand Parlophone bag – very faded, but the rear side is interesting with it’s groovy “Young Internationals” advertisement for Air New Zealand (only $397.50 one-way to Singapore or Hong Kong!):

The main point of interest though is the black and yellow Parlophone label:

The printing on the A-side is kind of faded and difficult to read because the silver-coloured lettering does not stand out well on the black background. Like the UK edition, this 45 rpm single carries the catalogue number APPLES 1001, and as in other markets around the world the flip-side is the Yoko Ono song “Don’t Worry Kyoko (Mummy’s Only Looking for Her Hand in the Snow)”. However, this New Zealand pressing has a spelling mistake. It clearly says “Don’t Worry Kajoko”, and it has no sub-title printed on the label:

Some people quite like collecting label printing mistakes and so this makes it interesting as well. The spelling should be “Don’t Worry Kyoko….”:

Here are some other label variations from around the world, starting with Australia:

These images following aren’t from my collection but gleaned from the web. Here are two different variations from Brazil:

The original UK version looked like this:

And the US and Canadian versions:

Here’s one variation from Germany, followed by one from the Netherlands:

And since posting this I’ve been contacted by Claude Defer in France with two French variations. He says: “In France, we have 2 types of labels : the first one has «Cold Turkey» on the white part of the apple and the second one has «Cold Turkey» on the green part of the apple. The first one was probably a misprint and the second one fixed it.”:

Also, Andrey in Russia sent another France variation which is very similar to the one above, just a greener Apple:

If you have any other label variations you would like to share please email me.

Beatles with Records – Part Thirteen

Posted on November 13, 2012 by beatlesblogger

In Part Twelve in our series The Beatles With Records I couldn’t identify what disc a young Julian Lennon was holding in this photograph kindly sent in by reader Ariel Caceres:

Well, thanks to Beatles Blog reader Thomas McConnell, who incidentally is a singer/songwriter from Liverpool, we now have an answer:

He is holding the UK 1978 reissue of the 45rpm single “The Ballad of John and Yoko/Old Brown Shoe” from The Beatles Collection box set. This box set contained every UK Beatles single and had specially created picture sleeves. I even have a copy of the set, but I missed connecting the Julian Lennon photo with it! So, thank you to Thomas for solving that one.

Ariel (mentioned above) has sent in another interesting photograph. It’s of John Lennon and Harry Nilsson holding the early artwork for the 1979 Nilsson LP “Pussy Cats” – which Lennon produced and played on. It also featured the likes of Ringo Starr on drums and Klaus Voormann on bass:

If you’d like to read some more about this album – click here.

I’ve also had sent in a simple but striking candid photograph of Paul McCartney clearly enjoying a quiet browse through a box of second-hand LPs. This comes from French collector and author Claude Defer:

I reckon he looks pretty happy and contented. We’ve mulled over just which album that “Jazz Greats” LP could be at the back of the pile. Maybe Paul was doing some research for his “Kisses on the Bottom” recordings? With only the rear cover in view the album we can see could be any number of jazz records which carry that title. If you have any ideas contact me at: beatlesblogger@gmail.com

Russian collector Andrey sent the photo below with a bit of a story attached. In August, 1998 Ringo Starr visited Russia for the first time. Andrey was a winner of the Beatles United Radio-TV-Newspaper competition. The prize was a brief meeting with Ringo. Andrey (thats him in the picture) presented Ringo with one issue of the Russian BEATLESBEAT fanzine (released in 90s) and the bootleg CD-album “Rory Storm and the Hurricanes”:

This photo was taken on August 25, 1998 just an hour before Ringo’s show in the Russia State Central Concert Hall in Moscow (this building doesn’t exist any more). Ringo is taking a good look at the CD, which can be seen well in this enlarged fragment:

Later Ringo put his autograph on the photo specially for Andrey. Here’s the Rory Storm Russian bootleg CD cover that he’s studying:

And here’s an honorary Beatle if ever there was one. It’s their manager, Brian Epstein with a copy of their debut LP “Please Please Me”. Parlophone rush-released the album on 22 March, 1963 in the UK to capitalise on the success of singles “Please Please Me” and “Love Me Do”:

Thanks again to everyone who provided photos and further information. You can see the other parts in “The Beatles with Records” series here: Parts 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 14, 15, 16 and 17.

Label Variations Part Eight – Lennon’s “Imagine” Single

Posted on November 7, 2012 by beatlesblogger

Last post I wrote about a couple of unusual garage sale finds. One was a vinyl copy of John Lennon’s 1971 single “Imagine” – but on the much less common Parlophone label in New Zealand.

When researching the post I had a good trawl around the internet to see if I could find a similar copy. I couldn’t.

However I did find a huge number of other interesting label variations. I guess that’s not surprising given the fact that this song has become an iconic John Lennon composition. Here are just some of them, starting with the rare New Zealand pressing I found:

Looking around the web I could not find anything about this release – so if you know more details please get in touch. The more common New Zealand pressing, though still quite collectable in my view, would be on the green Apple label:

Of course Lennon releases in Australia also came out on the Apple label, and I own probably the most common original Australian release of “Imagine”. It looks like this:

Searching through Google Images I actually stumbled across a picture of what would have been the original Apple acetate pressing of the song:

These acetates were test pressings, done in-house at Apple so that the engineers and John Lennon could take them away and have a listen to the mix and to the quality of the pressing before saying “yes” to printing so many hundreds of thousands of copies…Those big first press runs would have been in the United Kingdom – which used a green Apple. Here’s an early promo copy sent out to radio stations, followed by the legitimate single released to the public :

And in the United States – which used a plain white Apple label favoured by John Lennon at the time:

Of course other countries quickly followed, including places like Germany:

And the Netherlands:

Such was the fame of this song there were also pressings from unusual countries like Venezuela:

From Mexico:

And from Brazil:

Brazil also released the song on a plain white label – but a variation on the white Apple issued the USA:

In the US the song was so popular it kept getting re-issued on a variety of Capitol labels:

And this purple Capitol example:

Meanwhile back in the UK the single was being re-issued countless times as well. Here are two later examples on the Parlophone label:

Friend Andrey in Russia has sent another two examples. The first is a mono single from France:

And a slightly different image of the white label above from Brazil (different font on the year of issue):

There are no doubt many more examples given the worldwide love of this one song. If you have any other label variations you would like to share please email them through to beatlesblogger@gmail.com

Two Small But Unusual Garage Sale Finds

Posted on November 3, 2012 by beatlesblogger

There are times at garage or yard sales when you are on the hunt for Beatles vinyl that the pickings can be pretty slim.

This was the case last weekend. After visiting quite a few, and with the prospect of going home empty-handed, I struck two very unusual and potentially rare items at the very last house I visited. Sitting in a box of old 45’s I found two New Zealand pressings. They’re both collectable – with this one probably being the most rare:

As you can see, it’s a copy of John Lennon’s “Imagine” – but on the NZ Parlophone label:

I must admit, despite seeing quite a few copies of this single in my time, I’ve never seen in on the black and yellow Parlophone label before. Next post I’ll put up some of the great variety of label variations of “Imagine” from around the world.

Sitting with the John Lennon was another New Zealand single – a copy of the Beatles “Hey Jude” b/w “Revolution”. Unusually, it was in a UK cardboard outer sleeve:

These covers were produced for the UK Beatles box set “The Beatles Collection” containing all 25 British single releases. However, inside this one there was a New Zealand Parlophone pressing of the single – again on the yellow and black Parlophone label:

In “The Beatles Collection” box set this single looks like this:

So, the copy I found is quite strange. I’m not sure if New Zealand EMI ever produced a version of this box set where they sourced the British packaging but inserted locally pressed vinyl. In some countries that sometimes happened. If so, my single has become separated from the rest of the collection at some stage….

These are the other versions of the “Hey Jude” single in my collection. The record was released in that period just when Apple Records had first been created and so some copies in Australia also came out on the Beatles’ old label, Parlophone:

It was also released here on a standard Apple:

And here’s an example of some weird typography being used in the song title on a later Australian Apple pressing:

Finally an example of the original UK Apple version:

So, when garage sale hunting seems fruitless sometimes its worth going to just one more house….

Label Variations Part Ten – Abbey Road (More….)

Posted on October 26, 2012 by beatlesblogger

Since I posted Label Variations Part Six – Abbey Road I’ve had a few people sending in some further great examples from their own collections.

So, its time to share these now.

First comes from Jerry Woods who wrote: “Saw your blog featuring various record labels (I LOVE this stuff!!) and noticed that you didn’t have a MONO version of Abbey Road on display, so I thought I would share. Although, not a true mono mix (they never “officially” did one – and this LP sounds identical from start to finish to the Stereo version when the Stereo version is folded down to Mono) this is kind of an interesting oddity – but only a fold down to Mono from Stereo.”

Here are the labels – the record comes from Brazil:

Another nice one sent in was from a reader in New Zealand and it’s really quite unusual. It is Abbey Road on an orange Apple label – very similar (but not quite) to the orange labels used for George Harrison’s All Things Must Pass. VERY collectable:

Of course there were lots of green Apples from other countries. Nice examples here from France, Italy and a green vinyl pressing of the album from the UK:

There were these two from Canada that were missed first time around. They include a couple of purple Capitol labels with two variations (one with a fairly obvious spelling mistake):

There were also a couple of other US pressings. The orange Capitol, and also the collectable Mobile Fidelity Audiophile pressing:

Finally, a couple of pressings of Abbey Road on a black and silver Parlophone label. This first one is from the UK:

While this other one, sent in by Andrey in Russia, is much more unusual. It is a rare UAR (Egypt?) label for Abbey Road:

(except for a couple, click on labels to see larger versions)

Ah, collecting….the variations sometimes seem endless. Thanks to everyone who emailed more labels.

You can see Label Variations Parts One, Two, Three, Four, and Five and Six, plus the Beatles Love LP variations here and here.

There’s a post on the variations of the McCartney/Fireman Electric Arguments release; McCartney’s Twin Freaks LP and singles; as well as his recent Kisses On The Bottom CD’s and LP. There is also a post on some George Harrison All Things Must Pass label variations.

Beatles Vinyl Remasters – New Promo Video

Posted on October 23, 2012 by beatlesblogger

Thanks to Beatles Blog reader scub75 for sending in the link to a brand new promo video for the soon-to-be released Beatles vinyl remasters. He says:

“Finally they’ve released the video of the vinyl remasters. This was posted on the official YouTube page of Norway EMI. I cannot wait for the release date to have my box set!”

If you look closely it confirms a lot of new details – including that the record labels will be accurate to the original time at which they would have been released, and that the book will be quite lavish with special printing techniques used.

For more see the official Beatles site. It all comes out on November 12.

“Produced by George Martin” – We Have a Winner

Posted on October 21, 2012 by beatlesblogger

Our competition to win a DVD copy of “Produced by George Martin” in the previous post asked the question:

George Martin was never just about one band. There was also comedy, and in 1965 he produced and arranged and conducted the accompaniment for a mock, spoken version of the Beatles “A Hard Day’s Night”. Who was the performer?

The correct answer was Peter Sellers, the famous British comedian and actor who in 1965 released a single which was a comedy version of the Beatles “A Hard Day’s Night”. In it Sellers recites the lyrics to the song in the style of Laurence Olivier in Shakespeare’s “Richard III”. The Sellers version became a UK Top 20 hit:

There were lots of entries and the first person through with the correct answer was Eric Leon in France. Congratulations to Eric (who is a huge Beatles fan), and thank you to everyone who entered the competition.

And a very big thank you to Eagle Rock Entertainment for providing the prize.

Beatles Blog

Adventures in collecting Beatles music

Category Archives: Parlophone Records

Label Variations Part Nine – Plastic Ono Band “Cold Turkey”

Beatles with Records – Part Thirteen

Label Variations Part Eight – Lennon’s “Imagine” Single

Two Small But Unusual Garage Sale Finds

Label Variations Part Ten – Abbey Road (More….)

Beatles Vinyl Remasters – New Promo Video

“Produced by George Martin” – We Have a Winner

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