Beatles With Records – Part Twenty Eight

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:ringo_starr_montagu_square_flat_hendrix_lennonMaureen 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:photo-35JPGThe 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:NEMS

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:NEMS DYLAN

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’:George-Harrison-and-Hare-Krishna-Devotees-in-1970George Harrison Radha KrsnaGeorge Harrison 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:

Patti BoydPatti Boyd2with_the_beatles

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….Beatles Albums Destroyedbeatles-us-albums-hard-days-630-80 (1)Beatles Something new

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: lennon with acetateAnd John Lennon again, this time in what looks like a U.S. radio station studio with DJ Scott Muni:

lennon with dj

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:wnew-fmlennon_rockbAnd 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:Paul Amoeba 2Paul Amoeba

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

And here is the full video:

Check out all the posts in this series here.

Beatles With Records – Part Twenty Seven

Well, it’s been quite a while since we had a Beatles With Records post. In between time quite a number of new photographs have been found and submitted by keen Beatles Blog readers – especially Billy Shears, Lammert, and Andrey.

It’s going to be a reasonably big one. So, where to begin? Probably roughly chronologically would be best, starting with Dick Rowe, the Decca A&R man credited (wrongly as it turns out) with rejecting the Beatles at their audition for Decca Records in January, 1962:Dick Rowe

Some of the albums on his wall include A Taste of Tijuana by The Mexicans:

Tijuana2

Lulu’s Something to Shout About:Lulu Something

The Fortunes:The-Fortunes-The-Fortunes-351396

And Marianne Faithful’s North Country Maid:Marianne-Faithfull-North-Country-Mai-451002

But here’s the band that Decca missed out on:

rec teen5

It is a very youthful looking group on the front cover of the pop magazine Teen Screen. Notice the big “scoop”: WHY THE BEATLES ARE BREAKING UP!…..

There’s a bunch of records on the wall behind them, but they’re holding up with pride a copy of their then-new LP Please Please Me:PleasePleaseMe_1

You can see a slightly larger and clearer image of that front cover photo in The Beatles with Records Part Two.

And here is the band out promoting that same album:Beatles-17460-1024x768The Beatles were soon to star in their first full-length movie A Hard Day’s Night, and from that film comes these screenshots of one of their co-stars, Wilfrid Bramble. Bramble played Paul McCartney’s grandfather, “a clean old man” who none-the-less is taking a rather keen interest in this very sexy record cover:

Screen shot 2015-03-07 at 17.46.34Screen shot 2015-03-07 at 17.46.25Screen shot 2015-03-07 at 17.47.07White SatinGeorge Shearing’s White Satin LP came out in 1960….

In previous posts we’ve had photographs of various members of the band actually playing records. Here’s another, this time George with an unidentified stack of 45’s:rec g2

The Beatles were big in France, and there were unique covers produced in that country for their LPs, EPs and singles. Here they are stuck in a lift and signing a copy of the French EP Eight Days a Week:

22-06-1965france_les_beatles_1965_epThe Eight Days a Week EP (from 1965) above also featured in The Beatles With Records Part Five.

Onto the Beatles solo now and another interesting photo. These two were taken at John and Yoko’s historic “Bed-In For Peace” in Amsterdam on 30 March, 1969. Clearly the album on the bed is an early pressing of Unfinished Music No.2: Life with the Lions, which was to be released just two months later in May, 1969:

beatles with records LennonLife with the Lions 1Life-with-the-lions-front-cover1

Sticking with John Lennon and his album Rock ‘n’ Roll from 1975. It has a brilliant cover image taken way back in the Beatles Hamburg days by this man, photographer Jürgen Vollmer:

Jurgen VollmerRock n Roll LennonJumping ahead now to the year 1990, and a charity album called Nobody’s Child: Romanian Angel Appeal. This compilation contained two Beatle-related tracks. One is by the Traveling Wilburys (“Nobody’s Child”), and the other a duet by Paul Simon and George Harrison of the Simon composition “Homeward Bound”. It was recorded during a performance on Saturday Night Live in 1976. George and his wife Olivia got behind publicising the release and here are two different photographs of them holding copies of the vinyl edition: Nobody's child LP37Nobodys_Child_Romanian_Angel_Appeal_cover

Next a 1992 launch party for Ringo Starr’s Time Takes Time CD. Ringo does’t look all that pleased about the lady thrusting a Russian pressing of the Beatles LP Help! into his hands for him to sign….

1992 05 27 Time Takes Time' album party 1167349471992 05 27 Time Takes Time' album party 1168843241992 05 27 Time Takes Time' album party 1168814671992 05 27 Time Takes Time' album party 1167349731992 05 27 Time Takes Time' album party 116885246Russian HelpRussian Help2(Turns out that lady is the famous TV sex therapist Dr. Ruth Westheimer. Quite a few readers have contacted us and identified her – so thanks).

You can read all about the many variations for the Russia-only LP Dr Ruth has here.

And lastly here’s Paul McCartney holding a copy of the CD booklet for his 2006 classical music release, Ecce Cor Meum (Behold My Heart) [see also The Beatles With Records Part Seventeen]:

11080899_838241276248646_2732204973016383007_npaul-mccartney-ecce-cor-meum

If you are interested in seeing more of the Beatles With Records check out the past twenty six instalments.  More soon!

Ringo Starr – Postcards From Paradise

Our CD copy of Ringo’s Postcards From Paradise has finally arrived. Apparently Australia Post has recently installed new automated machines which sort packages – and they are not going well…..

It has cost A$500 million to install the new system, but since then over 20% of parcels are being delivered to the wrong address! I’m blaming this on the length of time it took this little CD to get from Canada to my front door…..Ringo Postcards 1Ringo Postcards 2Ringo Postcards 3

It’s actually a pretty good listen with some really catchy hooks, clever lyrics and musical ideas. Here’s Ringo himself with a YouTube update:

Here’s the link to that cover story in Rolling Stone magazine that he mentions. And here Ringo is interviewed about the recording of the album:

And finally an album review from the April edition of Rolling Stone which gives Postcards three stars:

It’s been more than 50 years since Ringo Starr declared himself a fan of Beethoven — “especially his poems.” But all that time, he’s reigned as one of rock & roll’s most beloved sages. Postcards From Paradise, his 18th solo effort, is a masterful summary of Ringo-ness: his cheer, his cheek, his wisdom. He gets a little help from old friends like Joe Walsh and Todd Rundgren — no Kanye or Rihanna on this track list — and builds the title tune out of Beat-les quips: “It’s like I said the night before/I’ll love you when I’m 64.” Best of all is “Rory and the Hurricanes,” celebrating his pre-Beatles band — the one that made Ringo a star in Liverpool when the other three Fabs were nobodies.  ♦♦♦

And you can read an interview with Postcards From Paradise recording engineer Bruce Sugar at Beatles Examiner.

Four Recent Ebay Purchases

We got an email from PayPal the other day saying we’d earned a $10.00 credit that could be used on any Ebay purchase, and so we delved into the collection to uncover some items that were missing.

Turns out we’re drastically under-represented when it comes to early Ringo Starr Apple singles. For some reason or other these were a blind spot in the collection and so these three items have now been added:

Ringo Beaucoups of BluesRingo It Don't Come EasyRingo Back Off Boogaloo

These 7″ 45 rpm singles are all Australian Apple Records releases.

“Beaucoups of Blues” is taken from the 1970 album of the same name.

“It Don’t Come Easy” is a 1971 non-album single produced by George Harrison, and “Back Off Boogalooo” (also produced by Harrison) came out in March, 1972.

The same seller also had a Wings single we didn’t have and hadn’t previously been aware of:Wings Arrow Through Me 2

“Arrow Through Me” is b/w “Old Siam, Sir”, and both songs come from the 1979 album Back to the Egg.

Ringo’s “Postcards From Paradise” Lyric Video

Lots of Beatle song references here…..

Of course it’s not the first time Ringo has featured the Beatles and postcards.

Ringo Starr’s new album Postcards From Paradise will be released March 31. Sounding good!

Ringo postcards-cover

The Beatles in the News

Stumbled across a blog site that takes an interesting approach to Beatle history.

The Beatles in the News is just that – a site where multiple, random articles from across the decades and from all over the world are aggregated and re-published daily.

There are newspaper and magazine articles, concert reviews, TV news, and advertisements. It’s not only about the Beatles as a group but also as solo artists. Around 500 items from the past are uploaded every month.

One of the posts from January 23 this year caught our attention. It features – in full – a special colour supplement produced by the iconic Australian Women’s Weekly magazine in March, 1964 at the very height of Beatlemania:australia womans march 18 1964 bOf course, being a “women’s magazine” from the day meant you had to have a section dedicated to what to cook for that special Beatles party:australia womans march 18 1964 f

Just love those mop-top muffins with the chocolate hairdo’s! And also how to dress in Beatle fashion:

australia womans march 18 1964 g

Fantastic stuff.

With this site you never know from day-to-day just what gems might pop up.

For anyone interested in the Beatles The Beatles in the News is well worth visiting regularly. You never know what you might find.

Ringo’s ‘Beaucoups of Blues’ – German Pressing

Another visit to Audiomania, the eclectic second-hand record store not far from our local area, and another Ringo Starr record find….

Audiomania is a quirky shop located in a run-down, semi-industrial area. It only opens two days a week (Thursdays and Saturdays), and then for only four hours at a time. One side of the premises contains blue crates full of good quality vinyl (pop, rock, and blues, as well as lots of jazz and reggae). On the other side they sell used hi-fi, restored motor cycles….and artworks made out of old motorcycle and hi fi parts.

Like we said, it’s an unusual place:Audiomania

After a thorough trawl here last Saturday we ended up with two items.

The first find was a nice clean German pressing of Ringo Starr’s 1970 solo release Beaucoups of Blues. This one is on the Hörzu/Apple label, making it quite interesting:beaucoups doublebeaucoups_shze_label aBeaucoups of Blues_LP_label_b

Starting in the 1960s Hörzu (principally a radio and TV listing magazine) began producing and releasing records as a subsidiary of the Electrola company. Electrola had the rights to release EMI product (including the Beatles) in Germany.

Like we said in the previous post, we seem to moving from not having much Ringo as a solo artist on vinyl to now having quite a few of his releases.

Vinyl is the specialty of Audiomania, but while at the store we found a couple of small crates with some CDs. In there we turned up an original 1986 UK copy of Paul McCartney’s Press to PlayPress to PlayPress to Play label

This is the disc without the bonus tracks (which were added for the 1993 re-issues called The Paul McCartney Collection). The lovely lady who runs the store gave this one to us for free!

How Much is That Beatle Autograph Worth?

We don’t collect Beatle memorabilia like autographs, signed photos, tickets, posters, toys and such – but many people do.

If you have an authentic Beatle photograph which is autographed by one or more of the band you might be wondering what it’s worth. And is it increasing in value as the years go by?Signed Beatles PostcardBeatles_Autograhs

Well, it turns out that signed Beatle photographs appear to be a pretty good investment.

That’s according to the PFC40 Autograph Index (to 2018), compiled by Paul Fraser Collectibles. Their list tracks the values of 40 of the world’s most sought-after autographs since the year 2000. The prices given are an evaluation of the market value for a fully authenticated, best quality signed photo, based on close monitoring of dealer and auction sales. (A “best quality” example will feature a photograph in superb condition, depicting the subject in their most famous era, with a sharp, clear signature acquired during that period).

On the latest PFC40 Autograph Index Summary the Beatles feature prominently:

The most valuable autograph: £29,500 for a signed photo of The Beatles. (That’s US$38,560, or AU$50,439 at today’s exchange rate!)

One of the top performing autographs was Paul McCartney’s, with a value for the year of £2950.

Over the period 2000-2018 the top performing autograph was George Harrison’s with an 18.2% increase over that period.

The Beatles as a group appear twice in the Top 40 list for 2000-2018, as do all four individual Beatles – John Lennon (+12.2% over 18 years), Paul McCartney (+17% over 18 years), George Harrison (see above), and Ringo Starr (+12% over 18 years).

Ringo AutographLennon_Autograph

So, hang on to those autographs – especially if they are on photographs or album covers.

To see some of the prices that Beatle items are fetching go to the search page at Paul Fraser Collectables.

Lennon and Starr “Icon” CD’s

This month John Lennon and Ringo Starr were added to Universal Music’s Icon series of budget CDs.

The label’s Icon imprint is “….a greatest hits series of the most popular artists in music history, all at a great low price”:Lennon Icon Front

Lennon Icon RearLennon Icon CDStarr Icon FrontStarr Icon rearStarr Icon CD

Interestingly the Ringo Starr rear cover, booklet, and the CD itself carry an Apple logo alongside the Capitol. It has a © and ⓟ of 2014, while the John Lennon is dated ⓟ 2010 and ©2014. It has no Apple markings.

Next McCartney Archive Series Releases – Dates Pushed Back

Seems the never-ending announcements about releases for Beatles or Beatle-related product in the month of September has forced Paul McCartney to delay the release of the next two instalments in his Archive series. We just had an email from Amazon saying that the dates for Venus and Mars and Wings at the Speed of Sound have been pushed back.

It’s not that surprising that something had to give.

We’ve just had the new DVD and BluRay of A Hard Day’s Night, the Beatles Japan Box CD set, and the vinyl re-issue of Lennon’s Shaved Fish. Then in September comes The Beatles In Mono vinyl box set (September 8); the Icon series CD’s for John Lennon and Ringo Starr (both September 9); and the news that a George Harrison The Apple Years CD box set is due for a September 22 release.

The schedule was getting very crowded….not to mention the strain on collectors’ wallets!