A Small Find – But A Good One

Posted on by
Reply

When I ducked into a random newsagent shop recently in Surry Hills (in Sydney), I picked up the special Newsweek commemorative edition devoted to fifty years of the Beatles.

I also picked up a copy of this CD:

It was in a small pile of discs I saw in a corner on the floor. The pile was a selection of those free CDs which come attached to the front of some magazines. These discs had obviously become separated from a variety of publications over the last couple of months. The newsagent had held onto them and was now offering them for sale individually at $1.00 each. I don’t think they are supposed to do this – offer the CDs for separate sale….

Anyway, what I found in there was well worth the dollar asking price – it was “Sounds of the Star Club”, the free CD that came on the cover of this Uncut Magazine in March 2012:

The CD is actually a very good 16-track collection of the original versions of some of the songs the Beatles covered in the band’s very early years.

It’s not a bad little CD to have in the collection because it references some of the key musical influences to impact on the Beatles, songs they loved enough to put into their repetoire for live shows, or to record on early albums. This includes original tracks by the likes of Chuck Berry (“Roll Over Beethoven”); Carl Perkins (“Lend Me Your Comb” and “Everybody’s Trying to be My Baby”); Fats Waller (“Your Feet’s Too Big”); Little Richard (“Kansas City/Hey Hey Hey”); Peggy Lee (“Till There Was You”); Gene Vincent (“Be-Bop-A-Lula”); Ray Charles (“Hallelujah I Love Her So”) and Elvis Presley (“I’m Gonna Sit Right Down and Cry Over You”):

(click to see a larger image)

Newsweek – Commemorative Beatles Edition

Posted on by
1

I know its been out a while in a lot of markets around the world, but I’ve only just stumbled across this magazine. It happened accidentally when I wandered into a newsagent in a place called Surry Hills in Sydney, Australia….

This Newsweek mag is a commemorative edition subtitled “Celebrating a half century since “Love Me Do” and the band that started a revolution”.  The section headings are “The Beginning”; “The Band”; “The Mania”and “The Legacy”. It contains a lot of good stuff and is well laid out with wide range of great photos and text. There are 96 pages spanning the group’s entire career, including contributions from Anthony DeCurtis, Andrew Loog Oldham, Peter Brown, an interview with Ringo Starr (by critic Alan Light), an article by Billy Joel, a look at the band’s families, and a complete discography.

In some additional Newsweek online content former Beatles manager and author of the book “The Love You Make” Peter Brown talks about the original Sgt Pepper cover and how they had to change it prior to hitting the “go” button on the printing presses.

Steve Marinucci rates this Newsweek special offering as one of the more worthwhile Beatles magazines. And there’s another video link here detailing a little bit more on how it all came about.

One section is called “Welcome to Beatles Land!” where illustrator Jim Stoten translates a wide range of songs visually. How many can you find below?

(click to see a larger image)

Beatlemania – when the whole world seemed to be focused on these four young men from Liverpool known as the Fab Four….

George Harrison “Living in the Material World” – Winners Announced

Posted on by
Reply

We have two winners for the recent “Living in the Material World” competition.

The question was: “Olivia Harrison gave Martin Scorsese complete access to the Harrison family archives, including pictures, home videos, etc.  Martin Scorsese was on location filming another project when a security guard flew in from London with George Harrison’s diaries for him to view. In which city was he in, and which film was Scorsese making at the time?”

The correct answer:  He was in Boston, Massachusetts directing his 2010 film “Shutter Island“.

And our winners are Zachary Whitbeck from San Antonio, Texas (who will receive a copy of the “Living in the Material World” 2-disc DVD, and Ian Gray from Durham City, England (who gets a copy of the CD “Early Takes – Volume 1).  Congratulations!

Here’s what Zach and Ian will soon be opening in the post:

Thank you to everyone who entered. And thanks again to Universal Music Enterprises and Sneak Attack Media for providing the prizes.

Beatles With Records – Part Nine

Posted on by
6

Part Eight in this series looking at “The Beatles With Records” was intended to be the last – but I’ve just been contacted by a reader named Ben Summer (he  also has a very cool website) who has done a great job in identifying the record that John Lennon is carrying here in around 1967:

I’d posted this shot in “The Beatles With Records – Part Three” back in August last year. Turns out it’s an LP called “Electronic Music“, that came out in 1966 on Turnabout Records, featuring Walter Carlos among other composers:

Coincidentally, this disc has also been discussed in the last day or so by the community of record collectors at the Steve Hoffman Music Forum, who also correctly identified it as the “Electronic Music” LP.  Thanks to everyone for the information.

You can see the other parts in “The Beatles with Records” series here:  Parts 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 , 6, 7 , 8, 10 , 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16 and 17.

“The Fireman” – One More Packaging Variation

Posted on by
2

When I published a blog about all the different variations of Paul McCartney’s 2008 Fireman project “Electric Arguments” I thought I’d covered off just about everything….

Seems not because I’ve just received this variation which I’d never seen before – it comes in a clear plastic jewel case:

The standard single-disc CD in most major markets (e.g. the US, UK, and Japan) came out in a cardboard digipac cover. For example, here’s the Japanese cover (front and rear):

However, the seller I got the jewel case variation from was from Italy, and so I thought there might be a chance that is was unique to that country. Perhaps it is – but there’s nothing printed in this plastic jewel case version on either the booklet or the tray insert to say “Made in Italy”:

It all looks very generic inside and out and so this version of the packaging may also have turned up in other markets outside Italy. If you know anything about it then let us know too.

The CD itself is pressed in the UK and it is on the One Little Indian label:

Compare this to the original One Little Indian UK version from 2008:

If anyone knows anything more about it please use the comments box below.

Maybe it’s a lower cost version released more recently? I say this because the booklet is just 15 pages of photographs compared to the original release booklets which were very thick by CD booklet standards – they’ve got 46 pages. Here is the 15 page booklet from the jewel case version:

And here’s the cover of the 46 page booklet include in the original digipac editions from 2008:

The jewel case format therefore means that this cover of the booklet is unique. The black square with the album title, etc. and those coloured circles which look like stickers are actually printed onto the paper. On the original US and UK digipacs these were on a large clear plastic sticker attached to the outside of the shrink-wrap around the cardboard cover. You can see that here:

While I was trawling the web for photographs to help illustrate all the extensive variations McCartney produced for this project I came across what looks like one further intriguing packaging variation. It’s this one:

As you can see, it looks like a cardboard sleeve with a kind of folding envelope top where the CD is kept. If anyone also knows about the origins of this one let us know. Maybe it is a limited promo cover, or a prototype that never went into production?

“Living in the Material World” – Win a DVD or CD

Posted on by
1

The DVD, BluRay and a Deluxe box set edition of Martin Scorsese’s “Living in the Material World”, which have been previously released in the UK and other parts of the world, have only just come onto the market in the United States. Here’s Martin Scorsese talking about his film:

Also out on May 1st was a new CD, Vinyl (and Digital download) of previously unreleased George Harrison out-takes and studio demos featured in “Living In The Material World”.  It’s called “Early Takes – Volume 1“:

Now – here’s your chance to win either a DVD of “Living in the Material World” or the new CD “Early Takes – Volume 1”.  To be in the running to win all you have to do is be the first person to email me at beatlesblogger.gmail.com with the correct answer to this question:

Olivia Harrison gave Martin Scorsese complete access to the Harrison family archives, including pictures (like the ones above and below), home videos, etc.  Scorsese was on location filming another project when a security guard flew in from London with George Harrison’s diaries for him to view. In which city was he in, and which film was Scorsese making at the time?

Its a little bit tricky – but the answer is not far away.

The first two correct entries sent to my email address above will win. One person will get the new DVD, the next correct answer will win the new CD.

Thank you to Universal Music Enterprises and Sneak Attack Media for providing the prizes.

McCartney’s “Ram” Deluxe – What’s Inside

Posted on by
3

The forthcoming deluxe re-issue of Paul McCartney’s “Ram” [21st May (UK)/ 22nd May (USA/Rest Of World)] will be very different in the way it is packaged compared to the three previous deluxe reissues in the Archive series.

George Harrison “Living in the Material World” Multi-Touch book

Posted on by
4

Not one but two press releases out today (one from The Beatles official site, the other from the George Harrison official site) about a new “multi-touch” e-book edition of “Living in the Material World”.

There’s even a fancy trailer to look at:

This all comes hot on the heals of the release in the United States on DVD, BluRay and a Deluxe box set edition (which have all been out in the UK and other parts of the world since October last year) of the Martin Scorsese documentary film of the same name, plus a CD, Vinyl and Digital release of George Harrison previously un-released out-takes called “Early Takes – Volume 1“.

Another screenshot from the “multi-touch” edition.

Very soon I’ll have a copy of the DVD and a copy of the CD to give away to two lucky readers. 

Beatles Australian 10th Anniversary 1963-1973 Souvenir LP

Posted on by
16

My third item from the recent Glebe Record Fair (you can read about the other two here and here) is a unique and interesting Australian-only Beatles release:

To give you a bit of background to this one here’s a quote from the incredibly informative book “An Overview of Australian Beatles Records” by Jaeson Jones: “In February 1973, to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the first Beatles record released in Australia (Please Please Me/Ask Me Why), EMI (Australia) repackaged the two previously issued Greatest Hits compilations into a double LP set with a new gatefold sleeve and distinctive purple labels. The LP was promoted nationally by member stations of the major radio network of Australia, with the front cover featuring a gold sticker on the top left displaying the call sign of the promoting station. The participating radio stations were 2KO, 2UE, 3DB, 4BK, 5AD, 6PR, 7EX and 7HT.

While there was no new content, or new mixes of old content, the labels eschewed the orange hue that characterised contemporary Beatles releases in favour of a more subdued lilac/purple colour; not a particularly earth-shattering variation perhaps, but one that undeniably adds to the unique character of the Australian Beatles labelography.

The set was to be short-lived, however, for a few months later EMI UK announced the impending release of The Beatles 1962-66 (Red) and The Beatles 1967-70 (Blue) double LPs, effectively scuttling sales of this commemorative set, which was quietly deleted before mid-1973.”

Finding this LP in good condition is difficult because the white paper/cardboard used for the cover is very flimsy and very easily torn or scuffed. Most copies you see have significant ring wear. As you can see, mine is marked and not pristine, but overall not too bad for its age. Here’s the rear cover:

It has the gold corner sticker on the front left-hand side indicating it was originally purchased in Sydney, New South Wales, and consequently had publicity support of the participating radio station 2UE at the time:

As you can see on the first front cover image above, it also has the name of the person who owned it…. Linda Chinner – are you still out there?

At the time of this album’s release pre-Apple Beatles LPs were being issued in by EMI Australia on a bright orange Parlophone label that looks like this:

However, the two LPs in this set got an unusual and unique lilac/purple and silver Parlophone label:

This album set gathers together two “best of” previously released Australian LP’s “The Beatles Greatest Hits, Vol.1” and “The Beatles Greatest Hits, Vol.2” and packages them in a gatefold. These next two images are the inside of the gatefold, left side and right side:

  These are the original covers for the two albums in this 2 LP set. “The Beatles Greatest Hits Vol. 1” was released in Australia and New Zealand in mono in 1966 and in stereo in 1968; “The Beatles Greatest Hits Vol. 2” was released in both stereo and mono in 1967:

Badfinger “Magic Christian” Apple LP Re-issue

Posted on by
3

On Record Store Day 2012 I went to the huge Glebe Record Fair in search of some collectable treasure and came home with three nice items.

One of them was another in the series of Apple reissues that came out on vinyl in the early 1990s. These are now very rare and you can read all about the background to these here.  At the record fair I stumbled across one of the LPs from that time which I’ve been searching for for a very long time:

This is the original 1970 album “Magic Christian Music” by Badfinger, reissued in 1991 on Apple Records – only this time as a gatefold cover and containing a bonus 12″ disc with two extra songs. It was part of Phase I of a significant series of reissues which included James Taylor’s “James Taylor”, Mary Hopkins’ “Postcard”, Jackie Lomax’s “Is This What You Want?”, and Billy Preston’s “That’s the Way God Planned It”.

These vinyl reissues are now really very difficult to track down so I was surprised to see one at the fair and decided on the spot to get it.  It comes with the original Apple catalogue number SAPCOR 12 and looks to be a European pressing:

One of the distinctive and cool parts about it is that instead of being in a single sleeve it’s a gatefold:

Being a gatefold means there’s obviously space for more photos and information about the release, and that in the second half of the sleeve there’s another 12″ record (a 45 rpm disc) containing two additional songs. On Side 1 you get “Storm in a Teacup”, and on Side 2 you get the previously unreleased “Arthur”:

“Arthur” was later included on the double CD of bonus tracks which came with the Apple CD box set that came out in 2010, only with a different stereo remix.

Next time the other collectable item I discovered. Stay tuned.