Tag Archives: Beatles Collecting

We Buy White Albums – Exhibition

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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:

We Buy White Albums1 We Buy White Albums2 We Buy White Albums3We Buy White Albums5Dust 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.

 

 

It’s Official – George Harrison “The Apple Years 1968-1975”

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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)

The Apple Years 1968-75

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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. Harrison Apple Years CoverHarrison The Apple Years Box Set

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.

Previously Unreleased McCartney Song for Diana Krall

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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”.

Wallflower

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.”

Official “Unboxing” of the Beatles in Mono

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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!

Next McCartney Archive Series Releases – Dates Pushed Back

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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!

With The Beatles: Inside Beatlemania

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We were in the city of Sydney last week and dropped by our fave discount bookshop to see if there was any Beatle treasure lurking there. And there was. Stacked on one table where multiple copies of this very beautifully produced large-format hardback:01_Beatles

The book’s full title is LIFE With The Beatles: Inside Beatlemania, and it features hundreds of never-before-seen and rare photographs by Robert Whitaker, who was hired by the Beatles’ manager Brian Epstein to document what was happening to the band for two crazy years between 1964 and 1966.

Typical of LIFE magazine, the book has a wealth of great and unusual images:09_Beatles04_Beatles

A Google search revealed a website for a company called Li’l Robin, the people who actually worked on the design and layout of the book. Their site has more images from inside. It’s very much worth a look. Li’l Robin has also produced a digital version of this book:03_Beatles_iPad-566x379Nice. Amazon has a “Look Inside” if you would like a further peek at the contents.

George Harrison The Apple Years – Update

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The Spin online CD and vinyl shop is today listing The Apple Years – the new George Harrison 7 CD/DVD remastered box set – with a definite September 22 shipping date. I

The British site displays a £69.99 price tag, shows the the likely cover image, and lists the contents as being:

1. Wonderwall Music;  2. Electronic Sound;  3. All Things Must Pass (2CD);  4. Living in the Material World;  5. Dark Horse;  6. Extra Texture (Read All About It);  Bonus DVD;  Booklet. Wonderwall Insert

 

Lennon’s Shaved Fish Vinyl To Be Re-issued – More info

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A little while back Wogblog’s Beatles site alerted us that the 1975 John Lennon “best-of” compilation Shaved Fish was being being readied for a re-issue on vinyl.

Always seemed like an odd one to select for a vinyl re-issue….

A little more digging reveals that the album is part of Universal Music’s “Back to Black” vinyl re-issue series which was created to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the LP record. Shaved Fish joins eighty-four other titles already released under the “Back to Black” imprint, including LP’s from the likes of Deep Purple, Bonnie Raitt, Steely Dan, Abba, Elton John, and Grace Jones – to name but a few. Each album also comes with a code for an MP3 download.

While the record won’t be available in the US until August 19 (according to Amazon US), turns out it’s already come out in the UK. Universal’s online listing for the record has a release date of July 14, and Amazon UK has it available to ship now. 0600753511121_medium0600753511121_malt1We found another Universal Music Back to Black website that seems to indicate that Shaved Fish is being issued on it’s original green Apple labels – and that Universal has been faithful to the original packaging, housing the album in an inner sleeve with lyrics on one side and a Japanese rising sun on the other:john-lennon-and-the-plastic-ono-band-shaved-fish-side1john-lennon-and-the-plastic-ono-band-shaved-fish-side2john-lennon-and-the-plastic-ono-band-shaved-fish-sleeve

If anyone already has a copy let us know if this is correct.

 

Venus & Mars and Speed of Sound Re-issue Dates Announced

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The long-expected official announcement of the next two instalments in the Paul McCartney Archive Collection has just been made.

Paul McCartney and Wings’ Venus and Mars (1975) and At The Speed of Sound (1976) will both be issued on 22 September in the UK and 23 September in the US, slotting into an already crowded Beatles and related release schedule for September:Venus and Mars Archive CollectionSpeed of Sound Archive Collection

Both albums will be available in a variety of physical and digital formats:

The Standard Editions will be a 2 CD set featuring the original albums remastered, plus a second CD of bonus material including demos and previously un-released tracks.

The Deluxe Editions will each contain 2 CDs plus a DVD, housed in a numbered hardback book featuring new articles, interviews, photographs, facsimile archive inserts and expanded track-by-track information. The DVD will feature material filmed at the time of each album’s release, some of which is previously unseen.

Both albums will be issued on vinyl in special gatefold covers. Digital downloads will be available for both Standard and Deluxe, and in a variety of formats including hi-res versions.

The detailed contents of each (including full track-lists) can be found at the Paul McCartney official page, and there’s more info in these two new YouTube clips which have just gone public: