Back on 16 January WogBlog posted about a mysterious new animation which had appeared overnight on YouTube on a newly-created Linda McCartney channel. He was tipped off to it by a Tweet from Paul McCartney:
The video cartoon has Paul singing a new arrangement the song “Heart of The Country” from the Ram album. So….what was this? A belated effort to promote the Ram remaster? Or the start of something new? Perhaps another of McCartney’s forrays into animation? Then a week later the same video appeared, this time with a voice-over by Elvis Costello:
Turns out it’s an advertisement for Linda McCartney Foods.The theme of the campaign is #Love Linda, and it’sthe first time in 15 years that the vegetarian brand has done television advertising. The thirty second ad shows the McCartney family in animated form and is produced by Passion Pictures, whose other work includes projects for the Beatles and the Gorillaz. It went to air for the first time on 28 January as part of a campaign to launch a new range of chilled meat free foods.
Then I get home yesterday and find an email from a PR company letting me know about “…..a new 30 minute film called Love Linda in which members of the McCartney family speak about Linda McCartney, her influence on them and how they are continuing her legacy. It also includes commentary from people who knew Linda including Elvis Costello and Chrissie Hynde. The film is a very personal look at how Linda touched the lives of people she knew, interspersed with beautiful photography of her and the McCartney family.” Here’s the three-and-a-half minute trailer:
Masses of photos sent in recently – especially from Andrey in Russia. This series is about finding photographs of the Beatles actually holding the product they sold so prolifically – either their own records or those of other artists. We also accept photographs of those close to the Beatles in the proximity of records or CDs.
Back in Part 8 and in Part 10 we identified a very early photo of the band playing on a stage that had a backdrop consisting of a black curtain with LP covers pinned to it. Turns out these were taken in 1961 at a hall with the very grand title of The Palais Ballroom in place called Aldershot in the south of England. Pete Best is still their drummer and this was the band’s first foray to the south of the country. A mere 18 people turned up for the gig! Despite that, the Beatles look to be giving the performance their all. These were the photos we had so far:
From these we were able to identify the following records:
Well, Andrey has sent a couple more photos from that same 1961 Aldershot show:
(Click on some images to see larger versions)
From these its possible to identify at least three more LPs pinned to the backdrop. From the first photo, just above Paul’s microphone you can see this one:
And in the final photo, hanging upside down at an angle just behind Pete Best and above the guitar amp:
Just below the Bobby Darin, also on an angle, is one called Sing It Again No.2. I can’t find an image of that exact disc, but did find Sing It Again No.4 which has very similar artwork:
Also in Part 8 we had a small photo which was taken in 1963 at EMI headquarters for the launch of the Please Please Me LP. The band is on a stage with lots of album covers behind them:
Here are a couple more from that same day – and much larger, too:
This one below is also a fairly early photograph. Adoring fans seeking autographs on their Beatles singles. Maybe they are copies of “From Me To You”, the first 7″ single released in the plain green Parlophone paper sleeve?
These next two show the Beatles arriving back in the UK in 1964 after their tour to America – with Ringo, George and Paul each having records under their arms. To identify just what they are though will need your help:
If you can help identify Paul and Ringo’s records (its hard with George because his are in a paper bag!) please post a comment below or email me here
Once the band started to sell some records and earn some money they purchased the latest gadgets to play records – including in their cars:
Dick James formed the music publishing company Northern Songs (with Brian Epstein, John Lennon and Paul McCartney) and became the publisher of all the Beatles songs. As the photo caption says – he kept a close eye on the fortunes of his key partners:
(That’s some letter opener he has there!)
Finally, a photo of Klaus Voormann, the man who designed the BeatlesRevolver cover art in 1966. Here he is more recently signing a copy of the CD for a fan:
As usual thanks to all those who have sent in content and further information. You can see the other parts in “The Beatles with Records” series here: Parts 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 , 6, 7 , 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 16 and 17.
COMING SOON – The Beatles with Gold Records – and believe me there are LOTS of those.
(Click on many of the images above to see larger versions)
I know Christmas is well and truly over, but one more thing on the Holidays Rule release before we move on.
This CD came out with the title Holidays Rule in the US – but for the European, UK and Australian markets we got a CD called Christmas Rules. This is because we don’t use the term “happy holidays” when talking about the Christmas break.
Here’s what they both look like, beginning with the US version which comes in a sparkly, metallic, dark red and white gatefold cover:
And in the UK/EU/Australia it is called Christmas Rules and comes in a bright red, matt finish gatefold:
The 8-page booklet (above) for both the US and the Australian/European versions appears to be the same. There is an odd website address on the rear of the booklet though. In large type at the bottom of the page of both versions it says: SEARCH PARTY, and then gives this address in smaller type: searchpartymusic.com
This is strange because it’s the website for a Boston-based wedding and functions band. Not sure what’s going on with that….
Both Holidays Rule and Christmas Rules come with the non-strings version of the “The Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire)”. To get the strings version you need to download the iTunes version.
On December 13 the WogBlog site featured a video of a brand new Paul McCartney song performed for the first time at the big fundraiser concert for Hurricane Sandy held at Madison Square Garden. Paul called out former Nirvana members Dave Grohl, Krist Noveselic and Pat Smear to back him on a brand new and rocking song called “Cut Me Some Slack”:
Turns out the song will also feature in a new, feature-length documentary and album directed and coordinated by Dave Grohl called “Sound City”:
It’s about the legendary recording studios called Sound City, in the Los Angeles San Fernando Valley, which was (as the press release says): “….home to countless legends, capturing their magic on two-inch tape, decade after decade. It was witness to history. It was rock and roll hallowed ground. And it was our best-kept secret.”
“Sound City was state-of-the-art when it opened in 1969. It soon became known for churning out one rock and roll classic after another. Featuring a legendary, one-of-a-kind Neve recording console, and arguably the best tracking room in America, many of the seminal albums of the ‘70’s, ‘80’s and ‘90’s were put on tape within these walls: classics by Fleetwood Mac, Neil Young, Tom Petty, Metallica, Nirvana… The list is staggering.”
I have posted very rarely on Wings in this blog, but of course collecting records and CDs by (or related to) the Beatles and Paul McCartney means that the band is well-and-truly included. During a recent visit to Canberra (the capital of Australia) I came across a second-hand shop I’d not visited before in the city’s downtown area. They mostly specialise in CDs, DVDs and games, but on the floor there was a large amount of unsorted vinyl where I found a small but interesting addition to the collection.
I already have a German pressing of the Wings single “Good Night Tonight” (1979). It’s the 12″ full version (7 minutes 15 seconds) of the song, on a green EMI Electrola/Odeon label:
As you can see, the cover is not in great shape but the vinyl is in mint condition. Anyway, in the Canberra store I found the Australian release of this same disc. It came out here with an orange Parlophone label:
The two releases have pretty much identical exterior artwork throughout with the only real difference being the colour of the inner sleeves. The German inner sleeve is made from thin paper and is printed in black and white:
While the Australian inner sleeve is made of thicker cardboard and is more deep blue in colour:
I also have the 7″ 45rpm edited version (4 minutes 18 seconds) of “Good Night Tonight” on an Australian black and silver Parlophone label:
It’s nice to have the orange Parlophone version, and at the cost of just A$3.00, a small but worthwhile addition to the collection.
Since the last instalment we’ve been swamped with some great content – enough for at least two or three more posts featuring the Beatles (or people close to them) photographed or filmed with records or CDs – either their own or those of other artists.
This first one comes from beatlesblogger.com reader Ariel, who sent in this great YouTube clip of John Lennon and Yoko Ono strolling past a crowd of reporters and photographers:
The footage was clearly taken in 1970 when John and Yoko were publicising this Plastic Ono Band album:
The footage comes from a 1977 film by French film-maker Gérard Courant, whose website says of the film: “The year punk music exploded, Courant gave his most avant-garde outburst by relating for the first time the shattering experiences that took place in the second half of the 20th century…with the rock culture that clamored that same idea of rupture…”. Lennon and Ono can also be seen publicising the same LP in Part Five and also in Part Two.
Staying with John Lennon for a moment here’s an image sent in by Andrey in Russia of the Lennon’s in New York – holding court with assembled media and hangers-on in their apartment in February, 1972 in Greenwich Village:
There’s obviously a record you can see sitting there at the foot of the bed:
But what and who is it? I was having real trouble identifying this one. Well, thanks to Andrey’s Russian-speaking friends we’ve been able to find that LP. He asked one of the Beatles.ru forums for some help. Which artist could it be? Andrey says he got the answer in about ten minutes:
The Power Pop website says that the group Soup was from Wisconsin in the USA and the members were Doug Yankus, Rob Griffith and David Faas . The band released a self-titled album in 1970, however what we can see here is the bands second LP, The Album Soup, from 1971. How it came to the attention of John Lennon, and what he thought of it we’ll probably never know.
Continuing on the Lennon theme – this time with Yoko and a gentleman named Kristofer Englehardt, author of the book “The Beatles Undercover“, holding a copy of her solo LP from 1971 called Fly:
In Part Six there’s a terrific photo of George Harrison in the back of a limo holding up a copy of his All Things Must Pass LP. Here’s another good one from around the same time:
Could it be that this photo below was taken on the same day and location? It looks very much like the same shirt George is wearing above. Perhaps he’s playing one of the sides from All Things Must Pass on his record player at home?
One final shot of George taken in 1972 according to the caption, this time with his triple LP from 1971 The Concert for Bangladesh:
When you are Paul McCartney, just getting into a building you are visiting can have it’s challenges. The photo below shows the type of crush which can eventuate when everyone wants a photograph or an album signed – including one fan bravely holding up a copy of the 1988 Russian release Снова в СССР:
Here he is again – this time with fans thrusting forward copies of (amongst other things) Help! and Tug of War (you can see the cover of Tug of War at the very bottom right-hand side of the photo):
One other final shot of Paul holding a 45 single, this time with Ringo and John. It is what is reported as a test acetate recording (printed in limited quantities and used by the band and engineers for checking the quality and the mix) – it is supposedly of a song from Sgt Pepper:
There’s another photo from the studio on the same day below – from a different angle with George also in attendance and more acetates lined up on the piano:
One final photo for this instalment – again of the Beatles as a group and possibly arriving in Rome. I say that because the gentleman in the light coloured jacket, moustache and glasses (who is a fellow named Alf Bicknell – the Beatles chauffeur between 1964-1966) is holding a copy of the Italian version of A Hard Day’s Night. You can tell it’s the Italian cover of the LP because the large type across the top saying “The BEATLES” is distinctively different to the standard UK release:
Thanks to all those who have sent in content and further information. You can see the other parts in “The Beatles with Records” series here: Parts 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 , 6, 7 , 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 15, 16 and 17.
Firstly, it was prompted when last week Neville, a beatlesblog.com reader, sent in a scan of an original ticket stub from one of the concerts given by the Beatles in 1964 in Sydney, Australia at a venue called The Stadium….
Neville wrote: “This is not a particularly fancy ticket and is definitely used. They tore off the end of it at the door as you went in. This is 1964. Sending you this is giving away my age, I was 19 at the time….I can recall the concert fairly well although some details are a little bit sketchy now. Suffice to say that the Beatles performance was much shorter than today’s concerts, only about 45 mins max perhaps and about 15 songs only I think. And despite the claims about the deafening screams, you could still actually hear the songs (just). However that might have been because we knew them all at the time. It was mostly from “Please Please Me” and a few of the singles. It really was a very exciting performance and you got carried away by the crowd reaction!”
“There were a couple of support acts as well. The one I remember the most was Johnny Devlin who was then a fairly wild rocker and wore skin-tight black leather pants which the girls seemed to like…”
“The remarkable thing about the Stadium was that is was built as a boxing venue and the audience surrounded the stage (ring) which was in the middle of the building. For concerts they had a revolving platform on the stage so that no matter where you sat, at some stage the performers would be facing you. This must have been a bit disconcerting for the acts. The acoustics weren’t that great, neither were the seats, just being wooden benches. Anyway, concerts there just seemed to have an atmosphere all their own.”
Thanks for the scan. Neville got talking to a friend recently who’d also been at a Sydney Stadium Beatles concert (at a different performance though – the band played three shows there on 18, 19 and 20 June), and he confirmed that the performance of the Beatles was short – only about 30 to 45 minutes. He also reminded Neville that another act was Sounds Incorporated, who performed instrumental material only. Also on the bill were Alan Field, Johnny Chester, and a band called The Phantoms.
This was part of the Beatles’ very first world tour, June 1964. RingoStarr missed the first leg of the Australian concerts due to severe tonsilitis (the band went first to Adelaide in South Australia, then to Melbourne in Victoria before the Sydney shows, then to New Zealand, and back to Australia for two shows in Brisbane in Queensland before jetting back to England). Ringo re-joined the group in Melbourne and Neville says he was definitely on stage for the Sydney concerts. Until then his place was taken by the then little-known drummer Johnny Nicol.
2014 of course will be the 50th anniversary of the tour and two museums here are teaming up for a large exhibition. The Powerhouse Museum in Sydney and the Melbourne Arts Centre will next year launch a “Beatles Down Under” exhibit featuring collectables, documents, memorabilia, photographs and sounds from the time. It centres around the personal archives of the Australian tour promotor at the time, Ken Brodziak, and will be on show at the Powerhouse in 2013, and then move to the Arts Centre Melbourne in 2014.
The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC Radio) broadcast a lengthy interview with Peter Cox (curator at the Powerhouse) and rock historian Glenn A. Baker (author of the book “The Beatles Down Under”). Here’s a short extract. The interviewer is Rod Quinn:
You can click here to listen to the entire interview.
The final reason for this post is the book simply called “The Beatles in Australia”. It was originally released in 2005, but seems to be still available as it remains on the New Holland book publishers website.
As you can see from the cover image above this book features many unique images, mostly taken during the Adelaide leg of the Beatles Australian tour where drummer Jimmy Nicol was standing in for an ill Ringo Starr. Most of the images in the book had never been published previously. They were taken by Brian Cooter and Rosemary Blackwell and were purchased by the author, Mark Hayward through Christie’s and Sothebys.
Below is part of a transcript, included in the book, from the Beatles first press conference in Australia held on Thursday, 11 June 1964 in Kings Cross, Sydney:
Interviewer: Have you written any songs with Australian themes?
John: We never write any themes about anything. We just write the same rubbish all the time.
Interviewer: Do you play the kind of music you want to play or music people want to hear?
John: No, we’ve been playing the same music for five or six years, just rock n roll, we just happen to write it
Interviewer: Well what do you think made the difference that suddenly pushed you above all the other groups?
George: We got a record contract.
It is evidence of typical Beatle banter – clever, unassuming, disarming. There are some really great photos in this book, including the arrival of the band in Adelaide where they were greeted by a crowd estimated to be 350,000 people. If you know Adelaide (even today) that is a huge turnout of fans:
George with the local press and media:
And at the concerts:
I’m still trying to track down the exact exhibition dates for the Sydney Powerhouse and Melbourne Arts Centre. More soon.
We’ve really been enjoying the newly-released BBC-Arena documentary “Produced by George Martin“. And it has been getting some very good reviews too. You might recall a little while ago we gave away a copy of the DVD to a lucky Beatlesblog reader, Eric Leon in France.
The DVD and BluRay contain the extensive documentary, plus over 50 minutes of extended interviews with Martin, Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr and many others. But it is not just Sir George’s work with the Beatles which is featured. “Produced by George Martin” is a history of Parlophone Records, which is a division of the huge recording conglomerate known as EMI. George Martin was the boss of Parlophone and so alongside the Beatles (by far his most famous signing) he was responsible for recording some of the top hit-makers in Britain (and the world) including Cilla Black, Peter Sellers, Spike Milligan, Rolf Harris, Gerry and the Pacemakers, Billy J. Kramer, Matt Monro, Shirley Bassey, and of course Wings. Many who see the doco will be wondering if there’s a way to get hold of some of the great music and comedy featured which Martin produced. There is – it’s a six CD box set of his work that came out way back in 2001. Interestingly, although it was released more than ten years before this latest documentary, it carries a very similar title to this year’s DVD and BluRay: “Produced by George Martin – 50 Years in Recording”:
Each CD set is individually numbered (mine is 08750) and comes in a fold-out, long-box length holdings which holds the six CD’s and a book. Here’s the rear cover and some of the inside fold-out panels:
The CD’s themselves contain tracks that date back to Sir George’s earliest work, beginning in 1955 and then traversing his entire career up to his post-Parlophone days recording acts like America, Jeff Beck, Jimmy Webb and John McLaughlin. Whoever designed the set decided to give each CD an authentic and historic Parlophone label. It’s a design idea that the Beatles themselves decided to copy in the their latest series of remastered re-issues of their own work, both for the 2009 CD remasters (mono and stereo), and for the LP box set which has only just been released:
Glued inside the fold-out package is a 35 page book, with liner notes by Mark Lewisohn (who will be well-known to Beatles fans as the band’s most knowledgable and respected biographer). In it Lewisohn details the background to Sir George’s life and the multitude of artists and styles he produced over a 45-year span in the business:
For those who were not able to fork out the considerable outlay for the full 6 CD box set, EMI/Parlophone also produced a “Highlights” single CD version containing 24 tracks:
And there was also a promo CD produced. It came in a simple cardboard slipcase with a further reduced selection of material (14 tracks). This would have been sent to radio stations, and reviewers at magazines and newspapers to promote the box set:
This 2001 box set from 2001 forms a great companion to the filmed “Produced by George Martin” DVD and BluRay documentary released in 2012.
OK. So I didn’t know this was out until I stumbled across it in my local newsagent store yesterday while looking for something else. Turns out it’s been out since October…
That’s the front cover of a special edition of “Mojo” the British music magazine. Clearly timed to co-ordinate with the release of the digitally remastered BeatlesMagical Mystery Tour DVD and BluRay sets, this is a very good collection of articles and sometimes eye-poppingly good photographs – many of which I have not seen before. There’s a section called Unseen Photos, featuring snaps by Henry Grossman of the Beatles homes and parties, many of which have never seen the light of day:
This 132 page special focusses on the period 1967 and where the band was at at the time. It combines, amongst other things, archival features on the albums Rubber Soul, Revolver, Sgt. Pepper and of course Magical Mystery Tour:
There’s a whole section on the influence of Indian music at the time, quite a coincidence with the passing just last week of master musician Ravi Shankar who played such a key role in the sound of the band at the time. And of course this period saw the Beatles play their last live concert at Candlestick Park in San Francisco. The magazine features a lengthy transcript of a press conference given in Los Angeles – again the last they would give as a touring band.
If you can get yourself a copy of this special edition of Mojo I think it’s worth it. Very well put together and lots to interest the avid collector or those only occasionally interested in the band and the late 1960s era. Here’s the magazine’s rear cover:
POSTSCRIPT: I’ve had a couple of readers contact me about a special, limited edition cover to this magazine. After a bit of research I understand that there were only 1000 copies of an alternate “Walrus” cover produced and these were only available via online order. So, those people who got them have a bit of a collectors item:
In Label Variations Part Eight an unusual New Zealand Parlophone label version of John Lennon’s “Imagine” was featured.
I’ve stumbled across another from NZ – this time Lennon’s anguished drug withdrawal song “Cold Turkey“, performed by the Plastic Ono Band. It’s definitely original and as you can see pretty beat up, but interesting I guess – especially for one particular reason which will be revealed later:
It is in it’s original New Zealand Parlophone bag – very faded, but the rear side is interesting with it’s groovy “Young Internationals” advertisement for Air New Zealand (only $397.50 one-way to Singapore or Hong Kong!):
The main point of interest though is the black and yellow Parlophone label:
The printing on the A-side is kind of faded and difficult to read because the silver-coloured lettering does not stand out well on the black background. Like the UK edition, this 45 rpm single carries the catalogue number APPLES 1001, and as in other markets around the world the flip-side is the Yoko Ono song “Don’t Worry Kyoko (Mummy’s Only Looking for Her Hand in the Snow)”. However, this New Zealand pressing has a spelling mistake. It clearly says “Don’t Worry Kajoko”, and it has no sub-title printed on the label:
Some people quite like collecting label printing mistakes and so this makes it interesting as well. The spelling should be “Don’t Worry Kyoko….”:
Here are some other label variations from around the world, starting with Australia:
These images following aren’t from my collection but gleaned from the web. Here are two different variations from Brazil:
The original UK version looked like this:
And the US and Canadian versions:
Here’s one variation from Germany, followed by one from the Netherlands:
And since posting this I’ve been contacted by Claude Defer in France with two French variations. He says: “In France, we have 2 types of labels : the first one has «Cold Turkey» on the white part of the apple and the second one has «Cold Turkey» on the green part of the apple. The first one was probably a misprint and the second one fixed it.”:
Also, Andrey in Russia sent another France variation which is very similar to the one above, just a greener Apple:
If you have any other label variations you would like to share please email me.
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