This month two very hard-to-get George Harrison 7″ singles hit the market. You’ll need deep pockets to get hold of both of them.

The first is part of a Harrison Estate collaboration with Niwaki, purveyors of high-quality Japanese gardening tools, clothing and other equipment. The collab is called Friar Park x Niwaki and it feeds into a Japan-focused series of events, initially in Tokyo, in the lead-up to the release of a new series of eleven George Harrison titles as Japanese SHM-CDs later in the month. These will be accompanied by three limited edition Harrison LPs also in Japan (All Things Must Pass 1500 copies, Living In The Material World and Cloud Nine 1000 copies), each on 45rpm high quality audiophile vinyl. Not only that, there’s two Traveling Wilbury SHM-CDs to be released as well.

But back to the limited edition 7″ singles….

There’s going to be a Tokyo Friar Park x Niwaki event on 14 and 15 October which will launch a limited edition collection created with Dhani Harrison and inspired by the gardens of Friar Park.

Part of that will include a Friar Park x Niwaki Collectors Edition tool bag, and in it will be a George Harrison 7″ single containing two songs inspired by Friar Park: ‘The Ballad of Sir Frankie Crisp (Let It Roll)’ b/w ‘Crackerbox Palace’. Its on the Dark Horse label and sits in the tool bag in a unique picture cover:

Now, that tool bag will set you back around £666 or US$882 (and for us here in Australia, about $1,264)! It’s not clear if the single will be sold separately, but the marketing info suggests it will be at the event in Tokyo: “In addition to the tools and workwear of the Friar Park x Niwaki collection, there will also be a selection of highly collectable rare and limited edition vinyl available.” It looks like the collection will be for sale at the Niwaki store in London – but pre-sales are already sold out. There’s no indication that the 7″ is being sold separately in London. It might be, but you can’t order it online, at least not yet.

The other collectable 7″ single out this month we’ve already told you about. Its the previously unreleased George Harrison track called ‘Apres Moi’. It comes exclusively in the deluxe edition of his book of photographs, The Third Eye. The deluxe edition is £500 and US$500 (and an eye-watering $1,400 here in Australia).

I mean, the book and package looks great but it makes this record unobtainable for the majority of us mere mortals.