Teaser for The Beatles “1” DVD? – Part 2

Posted on September 13, 2015 by beatlesblogger

The dearth of information in today’s mystery teaser announcement on the Beatles official page leads fans inevitably to snooping around the web trying to find something, anything, on what it might all be about.

Truth be told, there’s not much around. Word has it that there’ll be more official news on Tuesday….

But what is with that address given at the bottom of the image in the email sent out to subscribers of The Beatles.com? You can see it here:

If you search in Google Maps for 1538 20th Street, Santa Monica, California 90404, and then go to Street View, you’ll see this very non-descript building:

Does that look like the US headquarters of a multi-million dollar Beatle empire? No, we didn’t think so either. Check out that hand-written wooden sign propped on the right-hand-side windowsill, with the 1538 street number.

The email image also credits a company called Topspin, and a service called The Topspin Platform. That’s an online, direct-to-fan sales and marketing tool used by a wide range of bands to promote their product, make online sales, sell tickets to gigs, etc. Check out the video on the page to find out more. They’ve done a lot of work with the Concord label in marketing Paul McCartney’s releases over many years, so it’s not that surprising that Universal and/or Apple and the Beatles have used the company to kick off this campaign. But Topspin isn’t at 1538 20th Street, Santa Monica either. Their address is 3120 W. Empire Ave., Burbank, California 91504 – in a much more salubrious part of that city.

So what is going on? The mystery deepens…..

Teaser for The Beatles “1” DVD?

Posted on September 13, 2015 by beatlesblogger

The official Beatles website has emailed subscribers overnight teasing what could be the long-promised Beatles “1” DVD/BluRay – which has been rumoured to be in preparation for over a year now and will contain official versions of all the band’s promo videos and film-clips.

There’s precious little other information apart from the Twitter hashtag #THEBEATLES1…..and a 16 second video on the Beatles official YouTube channel:

The Beatles website has been given over to a holding page with the countdown clip as well.

It’s all very cryptic, but must surely be leading up to the announcement of a video equivalent of the top-selling “1” CD and vinyl.

A Big Pile of Beatle Sheet Music Rediscovered

Posted on September 7, 2015 by beatlesblogger

We were digging around in a cupboard the other day and came across a long-forgotten stash of Beatle sheet music collected from a variety of places over the years. Thought you might like to see the front covers. Most are printed and published for the Australia/New Zealand market. Some are books with numerous songs, others are single titles. As you’ll see, they’re in far from pristine condition, but interesting none-the-less.

Here they are in (roughly) chronological order:

Imitation is the Sincerest Form of Flattery – Part 4

Posted on August 30, 2015 by beatlesblogger

We’ve run an occasional series on Beatle album covers that have possibly been, well, borrowed as inspiration by others…..(see here, here, and here).

The Melbourne-based band The Paper Kites have just released their latest. It’s called Twelve Four:

Remind you of anything?

That’s not to say Paul McCartney was entirely original either, using as his inspiration for the cover of New the works of American artist Dan Flavin.

For more in-depth information about Flavin and his neon art visit the artsy.net website.

McCartney’s “Take It Away [Single Edit] (2015 Remaster)” Free Download

Posted on August 26, 2015 by beatlesblogger

Just as they did prior to the release of the Archive Collection editions of Venus and Mars and Wings At The Speed of Sound last year, Paul McCartney’s website has begun to issue some promotional free download tracks which won’t be on the forthcoming reissues of Tug of War and Pipes of Peace.

The first is an exclusive free download of Paul’s ‘Take It Away [Single Edit] (2015 Reissue)’. The track does not feature on the remastered Tug of War reissue and is only available as a download through PaulMcCartney.com (you’ll need to register on the site and give your email address to get access).

In Australia this single edit was originally released (in 1982) through EMI on the Parlophone label:

And this reminded us that the Tug of War album came out during McCartney’s brief but somewhat ill-fated career with CBS Records in the US. ‘Take It Away’ therefore came out on the Columbia label:

The B-side to the single, ‘I’ll Give You a Ring’, will be included as part of the re-issued Tug of War – which is due out in early October.

If you don’t want to sign up to the Mccartney site and just want to hear the track, it’s available as a Soundcloud file at rollingstone.com

Uncut magazine is also saying they have the Soundcloud file to listen to, but we can’t see it on their page anywhere…..maybe they’ll rectify that soon.

Signed Original “Love Me Do” Up For Auction

Posted on August 20, 2015 by beatlesblogger

If you are into Beatle autographs – and you have very deep pockets – Heritage Auctions in the US has an original copy of the single ‘Love Me Do/P.S. I Love You’ coming up as part of their Entertainment and Music Memorabilia Signature Auction in September.

The Heritage website says this is a genuine UK first pressing 45, and one of the first-ever signed Beatle records.

The Beatles’ first single for EMI was released on October 5, 1962. The very next day they traveled the short distance from Liverpool to Widnes in Lancashire for a 4:00 official autograph signing appearance (the first of only three in their career) at Dawson’s Music Shop. For thirty minutes, the Beatles signed copies of their brand new single for fans. This is one of the records signed that day, on the “B” side (P.S. I Love You) in black ballpoint.

(click on the image to see a clearer version)

The record comes mounted alongside a vintage black and white glossy photograph of the group taken during a January,1963 appearance at Brian Epstein’s NEMS record store in Liverpool, with three young ladies offering up singles for autographs (although what these are is not clear as ‘From Me To You’ was the first Beatle 7″ single released using the plain green Parlophone paper sleeves they are holding – see The Beatles With Records Part Fifteen):

According to Bruce Spizer and Frank Daniel’s reference book Beatles For Sale on Parlophone Records the autographed disc for auction is one of the “few thousand” pressed for the October 5, 1962 release with the very first version of the record label. The main indication is that “the initial labels have the Ardmore & Beechwood publishing credit left-aligned and slightly indented so that the ‘B’ is above the ‘XC’ in the matrix number prefix 7XCE.” All the other “tells” match including the tax code pressed into the trail off area, being “ZT”.

Bidding kicks of at US$5,000, and the disc is expected to fetch somewhere closer to US$10,000.

The record is just a small part of what is on offer – Heritage have gathered together roughly 300 lots from one of the biggest and most important Beatle memorabilia collections in the world – the Uwe Blaschke Collection.

You can seen more about other items to be offered – including the Beatles’ very first signed contract (expected to fetch a stunning US$150,000) here:

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.

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):

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 Blog

Adventures in collecting Beatles music

Tag Archives: Beatles Collecting

A Big Pile of Beatle Sheet Music Rediscovered

Imitation is the Sincerest Form of Flattery – Part 4

McCartney’s “Take It Away [Single Edit] (2015 Remaster)” Free Download

Signed Original “Love Me Do” Up For Auction

Looking Through You – A New and Very Special Beatle Book

McCartney Archive Series – Next Two Instalments Announced

John Lennon – 8 LP Box Set

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