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Tag Archives: George Harrison
“Remembering George Harrison” – Life Books
More on George Harrison…..
Stumbled across a mint copy of this in our local discount bookstore the other day:
At just A$7.95, who could resist?
This book was originally released in 2011. The text about George is written by Marilyn Fu, who breaks her subject into five main chapter headings: “Remembering George“; “Joining John’s Band“; “Beatlemania“; “And In The End“; and “Liberated“. The book is filled with a selection of great photographs: 
And there’s an early shot of George with “The Ole Black Gretsch” guitar:
Here is the rear cover image:
“George Fest” – A New Harrison Tribute Collection
I don’t know if your’e into these tribute concert recordings where various musical luminaries are invited to pay their respects by singing favourite songs. I must say they don’t really do a lot for me, but there’s obviously a market out there for them.
The latest is George Fest – The Music of George Harrison, recorded and filmed on September 28th, 2014 at the The Fonda Theater in Los Angeles:
To be released on February 26th, 2016, this live tribute will be available in 5 configurations including 2xCD/DVD, 2xCD/Blu-Ray, 3xLP (180 gram), digital, and a store exclusive bundle:
The artist line-up and songs include:
• OLD BROWN SHOE Conan O’Brien
• I ME MINE Britt Daniel (from Spoon)
• BALLAD OF SIR FRANKIE CRISP (LET IT ROLL) Jonathan Bates w. Dhani Harrison
• SOMETHING Norah Jones
• GOT MY MIND SET ON YOU Brandon Flowers (from The Killers)
• IF NOT FOR YOU Heartless Bastards
• BE HERE NOW Ian Asbury (from The Cult)
• WAH-WAH Nick Valensi (from The Strokes)
• IF I NEEDED SOMEONE Jamestown Revival
• ART OF DYING Black Rebel Motorcycle Club
• SAVOY TRUFFLE Dhani Harrison
• FOR YOU BLUE Chase Cohl w. Brian Bell (from Weezer)
• BEWARE OF DARKNESS Ann Wilson (from Heart)
• LET IT DOWN Dhani Harrison
• GIVE ME LOVE (GIVE ME PEACE ON EARTH) Ben Harper
• HERE COMES THE SUN Perry Farrel (from Jane’s Addiction)
• WHAT IS LIFE “Weird Al” Yankovic
• BEHIND THAT LOCKED DOOR Norah Jones
• MY SWEET LORD Brian Wilson (from The Beach Boys)
• ISN’T IT A PITY The Black Ryder
• ANY ROAD Butch Walker
• I’D HAVE YOU ANYTIME Karen Elson
• TAXMAN Cold War Kids
• IT’S ALL TOO MUCH The Flaming Lips
• HANDLE WITH CARE Brandon Flowers, Britt Daniel, Dhani Harrison, Jonathan Bates, Wayne Coyne, and “Weird Al” Yankovic
• ALL THINGS MUST PASS Ann Wilson, Dhani Harrison, Karen Elson and Norah Jones
“Handle Me With Care” has now been posted on YouTube:
The Beatles in The City of Light (La Ville Lumière)
Thinking of all those in Paris during this time of mourning. Stay strong.
John Lennon “Rock’n’Roll” Replacement LP Arrives
While sitting at home this morning there was a knock on the door. It was a courier with a registered parcel that looked suspiciously like an LP mailer:
Could this finally be the replacement John Lennon Rock’n’Roll album from the John Lennon 8-LP box set? The postmarks were from Great Britain, and the sender address was Universal Music in London.
As you know, Universal are now the manufacturers and distributors of all Beatle releases, including the back-catalogues of John Lennon and George Harrison. They had a big problem with the Rock’n’Roll album shipped with the Lennon box. The set was temporarily withdrawn from sale while they sorted out a production error where the song “Sweet Little Sixteen” appeared twice, and the song “You Can’t Catch Me” was missing altogether.
The company set up a special website. Providing you had proof of purchase you could request a replacement copy of the faulty album. We did this at the start of August, but had nothing but stoney silence from Universal since, despite a couple of follow-up emails to them seeking an update on progress.
Now, over two months later, out of the blue our corrected replacement copy has arrived:
Thanks Universal!
Beatles’ First Recording Contract Sells for US$93,750
The Beatles’ first recording contract, part of a just-concluded New York auction of items from the Uwe Blaschke Collection, has sold for an impressive US$93,750. It went to an unknown internet bidder, but fell short of the predicted US$150,000 target.
The 1961 contract, signed by all four members of the group at that time (John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Pete Best), was for a recording session with the Polydor company in Germany and produced the single ‘My Bonnie’. It was credited on the label to “Tony Sheridan & The Beat Brothers” because there was a stipulation in the contract allowing Polydor to use a different group name. They felt the name “Beatles” wouldn’t be readily accepted in the German market. Never-the-less, the group was making it’s very first professional recording for commercial release by an actual record label.
While ‘My Bonnie’ achieved only modest success in Germany, back home in Liverpool Beatle fans who knew about the recording began asking for it in record shops, including the store owned and managed by Brian Epstein. When he learned that the requests were for a local group, he paid a visit to the Cavern club to see what the fuss was about, and the rest is history….
Also in this auction was the 45 single ‘P.S. I Love You’ (the B-side to ‘Love Me Do’) – signed by all four Beatles and which we wrote about last month. This was the next most expensive item to go under the hammer yesterday. It fetched a substantial US$25,000 from a bidder in the room at the New York auction. This was well above the expected US$10,000: 
The third most expensive item on the day was a framed, signed Beatle fan card photo from 1962. On the back is printed “With Best Wishes from Paul, Pete, John, and George. The Beatles. April 5th 1962”. Around that text are a number of signatures: “für Christa von George Harrison”, “für Christa von Paul McCartney”, “Roy Young” (a British Rock singer and pianist), “für Christa von John Lennon”, “Best Wishes from Pete Best”, and “Best Wishes from Bernard Boyle” (the founder of the Beatles Fan Club). These fan cards were given out at a Cavern Club concert on April 5 honoring the Official Fan Club. This sold for US$12,500: 
A Big Pile of Beatle Sheet Music Rediscovered
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: 
Beatles With Records – Part Twenty Eight
Quite a few more photos of the Beatles holding or working with records have come in so it is time for a further instalment of our series The Beatles With Records.
The Liverpool Echo news site is reporting that the stereo radiogram shown in this picture of Ringo Starr and wife Maureen is up for auction:
Maureen is shown sitting on the custom-built record player and radio which was built for the couple when they lived at 34 Montagu Square, London in 1965. It was a quality piece for the time with a Garrard turntable, a British Leak valve amplifier, and an Armstrong tuner with twin speakers. Also in the photo are at least four Beatle gold records, plus a shelf stacked with LPs of various kinds.
According to the Echo, Ringo gave the radiogram to his Auntie Everley and Uncle Jim at 59 Madrin Street, Liverpool, which was Ringo`s Grandad`s house. It has been in his Aunt’s possession since 1966 and has just surfaced after almost 50 years:
The radiogram is just one of the lots in the Liverpool Beatles memorabilia Auction to be held in the Paul McCartney Auditorium there on August 29. We first featured the photo of Ringo and Maureen at home back in The Beatles With Records – Part Two.
Speaking of Liverpool, here is a cool photograph taken outside Brian Epstein’s NEMS Music Store:
Lots of records in the front window – and the arrow points to one record cover that may give a hint as to the date. It is Dylan’s The Times They Are A-Changin’, which came out in January, 1964:
Lots of other LPs and EPS there in the window. Anyone else recognise anything? (The image was kindly sent through by Billy Shears at the SgtPepperChannel on YouTube).
Back in The Beatles With Records Part Twenty Five we showed a photograph of George Harrison with the Radha Krsna Temple and an Apple single they’d released (and he produced) called ‘Govinda’.
Here they are together again – this time in 1970 – and one member is holding another single of their Apple singles, ‘Hare Krishna Mantra’:
(Again, thanks to Billy Shears for sending through those images).
The topic of George Harrison brings us to model Patti Boyd, who later became his wife. Before they were married she featured in a number of photo shoots with Beatle records. Here’s another. This time Patti is holding a UK mono copy of With The Beatles, from 1963:
And we’ve just had the anniversary (on August 11) of John Lennon apologising to the American people for his “the Beatles are bigger than Jesus” comment. It led to some very odd and sad scenes of LPs and singles being publicly destroyed, these ones below live on air on radio….
Jumping ahead in time, here’s Lennon at home with what looks like an acetate or test pressing in front of him (on the bed, lower right). Impossible to tell what it might be though: 
And John Lennon again, this time in what looks like a U.S. radio station studio with DJ Scott Muni:
This image looks very much like another photo from the same day, taken at the radio station WNEW-FM in New York. John was on the publicity trail for his album Rock’n’Roll. The two men are wearing the same clothing (Lennon a tee-shirt, and Muni a shirt and light coloured knitted sweater). You can see this photo in The Beatles With Records – Part Three:
And to finish a video of Paul McCartney, performing live at the famous Amoeba Music record store in Los Angeles on Wednesday, June 27, 2007. Here Paul is literally surrounded by vinyl and CD’s in the hundreds and thousands:
Just two obvious cover shots from the posters on the wall behind him…..You will no doubt spot a lot more:
And here is the full video:
Check out all the posts in this series here.
Some Local Beatle Pressings From a Visit to Holland
As mentioned in our previous post, a recent holiday trip took us to Europe (including a first ever visit to the Netherlands) and this presented the opportunity to trawl through a few of Amsterdam’s specialty vinyl record shops – and there are quite a few of them!
Collectors will know that pressings from Holland are fairly common because once upon a time EMI had quite a large presence there and pressed a huge amount of discs (both LPs and CDs). These were not only for local consumption, but also for distribution worldwide.
So, as a travel memento, we wanted at least a couple of Beatle or Beatle-related pressings as a physical reminder of our visit to the Netherlands.
The shops we made it to in Amsterdam included Record Friend, in the city’s Niewmarket area (at St Antoniesbreestraat 64); the enormous Concerto Records (at Utrechtsestraat 52-60); and finally City Records, also in Niewmarket (at Geldersekade 100A). There are many more places to find vinyl – but we had only a limited time.
The Record Friend store is situated below street level and it’s pretty big – and a bit overwhelming when you first walk in:
But it was easy to find the Beatles section and we soon found a nice clean Dutch copy of this double LP in its gatefold cover:
We already have this LP (in Australian and US pressings), but this one is made in Holland with unusual grey and silver Parlophone labels, so it’s different. And for us it serves as a reminder of a fantastic visit to a fantastic city:
Country of origin detail on the rear cover:
Next we called in to Concerto – which is huge. The store (spread over five shops all joined together in one long line – see photo below) offers a wide selection of new and used vinyl, CDs and DVDs. Surprisingly they didn’t have a huge amount of Beatle vinyl.
So, after a lengthy browse of their many shelves we moved on to City Records.
There, in a small but very neat and clean store (fairly new and with the owner still in the process of setting up), we found three nice collectable items. We’re always on the lookout for different versions of the 1970 Apple LP John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band. We have quite a few – but to now have an original Holland pressing in the collection is a delight:
This one had the (censored) paper lyric sheet inner:
And a little surprise added bonus – the cheeky postcard insert from Lennon’s Imagine album which was meant as a rebuff to Paul McCartney’s Ram cover. Not sure how it ended up with this LP, but out it fell when we got home:
Next out of the crates at City Records was a Dutch pressing of George Harrison’s budget compilation LP The Best of George Harrison. We’ve been looking for a vinyl version of this for some time so it’s good to finally have one, pressed in Holland of course:
And here’s the final Beatle LP we found at City Records. This version of The Beatles Ballads is a really nice find. This release (which is a Beatles “Best Of” style LP also issued in the UK and Australia) is collectable because it has a front and rear cover unique to Holland and is titled De Mooiste Songs (which roughly translates as The Most Beautiful Songs):
The British and Australian covers for this have a blue border on the front cover:
And a predominantly yellow rear cover:
Here’s the Dutch label:
In Australia this came out originally on the orange and black Parlophone label:
For more on the background to the special painting done for this cover have a look here.
The owner of City Records was very helpful. Realising these albums had to make the very l-o-n-g journey back to Australia, he offered to put the LPs into a sturdy cardboard mailer to help protect them more fully. A kind gesture very much appreciated.
Next time – what happened on our visit to France……
Beatles With Records – Part Twenty Seven
Well, it’s been quite a while since we had a Beatles With Records post. In between time quite a number of new photographs have been found and submitted by keen Beatles Blog readers – especially Billy Shears, Lammert, and Andrey.
It’s going to be a reasonably big one. So, where to begin? Probably roughly chronologically would be best, starting with Dick Rowe, the Decca A&R man credited (wrongly as it turns out) with rejecting the Beatles at their audition for Decca Records in January, 1962:
Some of the albums on his wall include A Taste of Tijuana by The Mexicans:
Lulu’s Something to Shout About:
The Fortunes:
And Marianne Faithful’s North Country Maid:
But here’s the band that Decca missed out on:
It is a very youthful looking group on the front cover of the pop magazine Teen Screen. Notice the big “scoop”: WHY THE BEATLES ARE BREAKING UP!…..
There’s a bunch of records on the wall behind them, but they’re holding up with pride a copy of their then-new LP Please Please Me:
You can see a slightly larger and clearer image of that front cover photo in The Beatles with Records Part Two.
And here is the band out promoting that same album:
The Beatles were soon to star in their first full-length movie A Hard Day’s Night, and from that film comes these screenshots of one of their co-stars, Wilfrid Bramble. Bramble played Paul McCartney’s grandfather, “a clean old man” who none-the-less is taking a rather keen interest in this very sexy record cover:
George Shearing’s White Satin LP came out in 1960….
In previous posts we’ve had photographs of various members of the band actually playing records. Here’s another, this time George with an unidentified stack of 45’s:
The Beatles were big in France, and there were unique covers produced in that country for their LPs, EPs and singles. Here they are stuck in a lift and signing a copy of the French EP Eight Days a Week:
The Eight Days a Week EP (from 1965) above also featured in The Beatles With Records Part Five.
Onto the Beatles solo now and another interesting photo. These two were taken at John and Yoko’s historic “Bed-In For Peace” in Amsterdam on 30 March, 1969. Clearly the album on the bed is an early pressing of Unfinished Music No.2: Life with the Lions, which was to be released just two months later in May, 1969:
Sticking with John Lennon and his album Rock ‘n’ Roll from 1975. It has a brilliant cover image taken way back in the Beatles Hamburg days by this man, photographer Jürgen Vollmer:
Jumping ahead now to the year 1990, and a charity album called Nobody’s Child: Romanian Angel Appeal. This compilation contained two Beatle-related tracks. One is by the Traveling Wilburys (“Nobody’s Child”), and the other a duet by Paul Simon and George Harrison of the Simon composition “Homeward Bound”. It was recorded during a performance on Saturday Night Live in 1976. George and his wife Olivia got behind publicising the release and here are two different photographs of them holding copies of the vinyl edition: 
Next a 1992 launch party for Ringo Starr’s Time Takes Time CD. Ringo does’t look all that pleased about the lady thrusting a Russian pressing of the Beatles LP Help! into his hands for him to sign….
(Turns out that lady is the famous TV sex therapist Dr. Ruth Westheimer. Quite a few readers have contacted us and identified her – so thanks).
You can read all about the many variations for the Russia-only LP Dr Ruth has here.
And lastly here’s Paul McCartney holding a copy of the CD booklet for his 2006 classical music release, Ecce Cor Meum (Behold My Heart) [see also The Beatles With Records Part Seventeen]:
If you are interested in seeing more of the Beatles With Records check out the past twenty six instalments. More soon!
