Perhaps not surprisingly the Beatles official website has gone (a bit like us) a bit Beatles in Mono mad:
As well as various links off their front page, they have created a dedicated site which includes, amongst other pages, a media player where you can browse every title in the box set to get a sample of each track – in beautiful mono. The site comes complete with its own record player:
Picked up our copy today!
As you can see, The Beatles in Mono comes in a protective outer cardboard shipping box, similar to the one the Stereo LPs set was delivered in back in 2012. The sticker shows our Mono box was packed on June 18.
Like the Stereo box it comes delivered essentially as a box-within-a-box, providing very good protection and padding while the set is in transit:
In Australia The Beatles in Mono was actually available in store from last Thursday (September 4). The reason for the delay in posting these photos is that we couldn’t physically get to the shop we’d ordered ours from (the fab Redeye Records in Sydney) until today….a frustrating four-day wait!
Once removed from its protective packaging there’s a printed cardboard slip-cover which wraps around the box. Here’s the front:
And here’s the rear of the slip-cover:
Slip it off and here’s what you see on the front of the actual box itself:
FYI on the rear of the box is a sliced Apple logo: 
The Mono box is exactly the same size as the Stereo box from 2012. If they are sitting side-by-side on a shelf they are pigeon pairs – one black, one white: 
No need to go into hugely great detail about this set as there has already been a very early “unboxing” video released by Pete Nash of the Beatles Fan Club Magazine. That video is comprehensive and well worth a look, but here are a few photos of some of the detail contained in the packaging you might be interested in seeing – things that Pete Nash doesn’t show up close:
First this out is the beautiful, specially produced hard-cover book (still sealed in its heat- shrink):
Of course first album out is Please Please Me:
(Click on images to see a larger versions)
Each album (except the triple LP Mono Masters) is in a re-sealable clear plastic sleeve. This is different to the Stereo box where each LP was in heat-shrink plastic which has to be cut open to get to the cover and the record inside.
Here’s some of the detail in the printing and sleeve construction – all exactly faithful to the way this would have looked in 1963:
All printing and pressing of the box set is done by Optimal Media, based in the town of Robel in Germany. It has to be said that the quality and attention to detail is absolutely first-rate. The cardboard used for the covers is thick, and the 180g vinyl feels chunky and solid in your hands.
Each LP comes with individual 2014 insert cards, complete with mastering notes specific to each title:
All the labels are authentic reproductions of what the originals would have looked like at the time of release:
Magical Mystery Tour has the original booklet pasted inside the gatefold cover; Sgt Pepper is a gatefold with the cut-out sheet and a replica of the psychedelic pink inner sleeve; and the White Album is a top-loader, with The BEATLES embossed on the front, a limited edition number stamp, poster, four photos, and black inner sleeves – just like the 1968 originals:
Last album out of the box is the Mono Masters triple LP, containing all the singles and B-sides not captured on any of the original albums:
A reader has requested we publish some shots of the record spines. Here they are – and yes, that is the way that Sgt Pepper is printed. It looks upside down, but that’s also faithful to they way the original LPs were presented: 
There are only two bar-codes to be seen. One on the rear of the Mono Masters, and one on the outer slipcase for the box set:
(Click on images to see larger versions)
There’s a very interesting Billboard magazine article in which it is clear that these LPs are not “sanitised” versions of the mono releases like the mono CDs were all the clicks and pops and studio mistakes removed:
‘Five years after the Beatles mono recordings were released on CD, Capitol Records and Universal Music are fostering the notion that to hear the Beatles music the way John, Paul, George and Ringo did in the 1960s, a mono LP is mandatory listening….The mono CDs, which were cleaned up and re-EQ’d in a way that did not occur with the new set of LPs, “was an attempt to give the history its day in the sun,” said project supervisor Guy Hayden. “There was no hurry and, in true Beatles fashion, if you can do it better, you do it again,” says Sean Magee, an Abbey Road-trained engineer who oversaw the mastering of the albums.’
For a more in-depth review from a sound quality perspective have a look at this article from the audiophile magazine The Absolute Sound. Reviewer Neil Gader steps through a listen to of each album. As he says, “Spoiler alert: Wow!”.
There is also a great set of reviews of the sound at Analog Planet.
And who could have resisted this invitation to hear the Mono LPs launched at a function held in the actual place where these masterpieces were recorded – Abbey Road’s famed Studio 2:
Apple Records, Universal Music and Mojo magazine hosted a once-in-a-lifetime gathering for a select few at Abbey Road in London last week. Not only did the lucky audience get to listen to tracks from the new records in-situ on a £300,000 sound system (that’s A$522,000!), but also to hear a panel of distinguished guests discuss how the group recorded and mixed their songs. Read more here.
That New York art installation/exhibition that features multiple copies of The Beatles (a.k.a. The White Album) we wrote about last year has now transferred across the Atlantic to the UK – to the city of Liverpool no less.
“We Buy White Albums” is now on show (until September 14) at the FACT space in Fleet Street, Liverpool. It’s the world’s largest collection of first-edition copies of The Beatles’ White Album. Artist Rutherford Chang has collected over 1000 copies of the double album on vinyl. The exhibition presents the records and, as you can see below, allows visitors to examine up close the decades of wear-and-tear, marks, doodles and damage that have affected the album’s minimalist cover:
Dust and Grooves did a great interview with artist Rutherford Chang and provided lots of other great photos of his White Album collection too. And there’s a video from the New York exhibition.
Visit fact.co.uk/whitealbum to find out more.
Stumbled across a John Lennon book that we were not aware of until today. It’s called Real Love: The Drawings for Sean.
As the cover suggests, this is a children’s book based on drawings that Lennon made for his young son Sean. The cover blurb sums up this book best:
“John Lennon was many things to many people: singer, songwriter, poet, political activist, and, not the least, the most outspoken member of the greatest rock-and-roll band of all time. But to Sean Lennon, he was Daddy.”
“Fatherhood was a role he took on with as much humor, intensity, and enthusiasm as any he had tackled. John made the drawings in this book with and for Sean. Drawing pictures and making up funny captions was one of the ways they played together. It was how John taught Sean about the simple joys of creativity, and it was one of the many ways John was able to express his affection for his son.”
“Real Love: The Drawings for Sean collects some of the funniest, cleverest, and most heartwarming images from those collaborations and provides a glimpse into the real love they shared.”
Real Love: The Drawings for Sean was initially published in 1999. This edition is a reprint from 2011 under the Insight Editions imprint. It is a large format hard-back, in full colour, and very nicely produced. You can see more examples from the book at The Artwork of John Lennon – a special site (we also just discovered today) dedicated not only to Lennon’s children’s drawings, but to his entire catalogue of art.
The George Harrison and The Beatles official sites have finally gone public, announcing for certain and in detail the news that Dhani Harrison leaked on social media at the end of July. The full details of the new box set The Apple Years 1968-75 have been placed on both websites and information has been emailed to subscribers. It will be released in just under three weeks time on September 22 (September 23 in the US).
There’s also a stylish video to accompany the news:
In the video you can catch a glimpse of how the box and each of the six CDs and DVD will be packaged – although it goes by fairly quickly! The information on the website confirms that there will be six albums and a DVD, and says that the box set will contain eight discs in all – meaning seven CDs and one DVD. That is confirmation that All Things Must Pass will be on two CD’s, just like the 2001 re-issue. However, it will contain a miniaturised version of the poster which was included in the original triple-LP release.
Complete track lists are available, including for the first time what will be on the DVD, which will be (for the time being) exclusive to The Apple Years box set:
• George Harrison – The Apple Years Feature (2014)
• All Things Must Pass (bonus feature in 2001 album package)
• The Concert for Bangladesh EPK (2005) Produced by Olivia Harrison and Jonathan Clyde
• Give Me Love (Give Me Peace On Earth) (video from Live In Japan, 1991)
• Miss O’Dell (alternative version from 2006 deluxe edition of Living In The Material World)
• Sue Me Sue You Blues (acoustic demo version from 2006 deluxe edition of Living In The Material World)
• Living In The Material World (feature from 2006 deluxe edition of Living In The Material World)
• Ding Dong, Ding Dong (original promo video, 1974)
• Dark Horse (original promotional clip, 1974)
As well as cover art and a picture of the contents of what’s inside the new George Harrison box set The Apple Years 1968-75, the release is now appearing for pre-order on both the UK Amazon and US Amazon sites – with September 22 and September 23 release dates respectively. 
Confusingly the US Amazon site has the heading The Apple Years [9 CD Box Set], but below that in the “Product Details” section it says: Number of Discs: 7 …. which makes us think that to get to the number nine they’re counting the three CD’s which will be inside All Things Must Pass.
If you click on the box set contents photo above to enlarge it you’ll see that ATMP comes in a faithfully replicated box, just like the original LP. If that’s the case then we can expect two CDs with orange Apple labels to be in there, plus a third CD which on the custom “Apple Jam” label – and that these will all be housed inside individual coloured inner sleeves. There should also be a great little replica poster of George Harrison in there as well.
From what is shown above it’s clear that the Dark Horse CD has been similarly faithful to its original 1974 LP release. It will come in a gatefold cover with all the inserts, and will replicate the label styles from that LP on the CD. It all looks to have been very nicely done.
Those completists among us will be looking to acquire a copy of Diana Krall’s new CD called Wallflower. Due out on October 21, it will contain a previously unreleased tune from Paul McCartney called “If I Take You Home Tonight”.
Diana Krall, jazz pianist, vocalist, and wife of Elvis Costello, played a significant role on McCartney’s Kisses on the Bottom standards CD and LP from 2012.
“I still had a copy of the music,” Krall said, “and I asked him if he was O.K. if I did the song for my record and he said, ‘Sure’. So we recorded that and it came out just gorgeous. It’s a new Paul McCartney song that’s never been recorded that I’m pretty honored to have.”
Last month saw the 45th anniversary of the day the famous Abbey Road cover photo was taken. An interesting image has been sent to us by Beatles Blog reader Andrey (the dedicated Beatles collector and expert in Russia):
Andrey says it was taken at the turn of the 20th century – in the Russian city of Yeysk on Chernomorskaya Road (Black Sea Road)! Could Paul McCartney (who had the initial idea for the Abbey Road album cover) or photographer Iain Macmillan possibly have seen this archival photo and used it as their inspiration? Probably not – but it’s fun to dream…..
By the way, Andrey helps to keep this fantastic site up-to-date. It is an absolutely comprehensive guide to all the Beatles‘ Russian vinyl releases.
Russian collectors have also just launched a new special site which gathers together all the early Soviet press about the Beatles: http://beatlespress.com.ua
As usual it’s a thoroughly researched site. So far only the years 1964-1971 are ready but Andrey recommends a look at this chapter on all the printed music which has been released in his country. It details everything he has found so far. The very first edition is from the Soviet Estonia. Andrey’s research on the song “Yesterday” is here (complete with videos).
One of the most difficult items to identify in photographs of the Beatles with records are vinyl test pressings or acetates. These are cut at the studio and often contain demos or finished versions of songs or albums for them to listen to privately to gauge the quality of the pressing or the mix.
At EMI in the 1960s these were pressed onto 45rpm singles or 331/3 LP’s using labels which looked like this: 
The labels were left blank for the producer or engineer to hand-write or type information about the track including the title, which take it was, duration, name of the artist, etc.
That brings us to this great picture of George Harrison, taken in the studio at about the time of the recording of the The Beatles (or The White Album) in 1968:
First thing to say is that is a really cool watch he has on…..
Second point of interest is that acetate or test pressing of a single he has at his left elbow. It’s in a plain white paper sleeve with writing on it, and it’s on the Emidisc label – just like the example in the picture shown above. If we rotate the picture and adjust the contrast a bit we get this:
This makes the writing on the sleeve a little easier to make out. If we rotate it just a little bit more we can see a bit more clearly:
It is fairly clear that the hand-writing on the sleeve says: “with love from Paul McCartney“. His signature is very distinctive – it features on his official website even now – and here we can see that familiar looped “l” in the word “Paul”, and the trailed off “y” at the end of “McCartney”. Here’s another random example:
The tougher task is to identify what is hand-written onto the Emidisc label. We reckon it is this: under the word Emidisc there’s something like a number (maybe the duration of the track), then comes the song title. We think two words and, given this picture was taken during recordings for The White Album, our guess it’s the McCartney song “Honey Pie”. The writing looks a bit like that, too. Under that, just above the spindle hole, are some more letters or code numbers. On the left of the spindle hole it says “45 RPM”. On the right it looks like the duration of the track in minutes and seconds (which is difficult to make out). Then at the very bottom the writing clearly says “The Beatles”.
Was this a test cut for George to take home and have a listen to “Honey Pie”? Any further insights, thoughts or suggestions are very welcome.
There is one fly in the ointment with theory though……It is this photograph from the web of Ringo Starr, clearly taken at around the same time, also holding an acetate/test pressing:
The person who posted this says it is Ringo holding an acetate recording of “Get Back” -which would place it in early 1969, not 1968. We’d prefer to go with this website that clearly places it as a photo session from September, 1968. It is pretty likely therefore that this is the exact same disc as the one seen with George. The plain paper sleeve has the same greeting written in the same position: “With love from Paul McCartney“. It is difficult to make out the writing on the label, but it has a very similar set-out to the previous one….again, thoughts and theories are welcome!
The Beatles official YouTube site has just uploaded this video – it’s Pete Nash (of the Beatles Fan Club Magazine) unboxing one of the very first examples of the soon-to-be-released The Beatles in Mono box set:
Can’t wait until September 8!
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