Early Years 1962-64 (Unicorn Records UC-163)
I’m Gonna Sit Right Down ( Star Club, Hamburg, Germany 31 / 12 / 1962 ) / Where Have You Been All My Life ( Star Club, Hamburg, Germany 31 / 12 / 1962 ) / Red Hot ( Star Club, Hamburg, Germany 31 / 12 / 1962 ) / A Taste Of Honey ( Star Club, Hamburg, Germany 31 / 12 / 1962 ) / I Wanna Hold Your Hand ( BBC Saturday Club 17 / 12 / 1963 ) / If I Fell ( BBC Top Gear 14 / 07 / 1964 ) / Roll Over Beethoven ( BBC Saturday Club 17 / 12 / 1963 ) / Winter Gardens, Bournemouth ( CBS Coverage 16 / 11 / 1963 ) / Winter Gardens, Bournemouth ( Jack Parr Show, Edited, 16 / 11 / 1963 ) / Juke Box Jury ( Source #1 – 07 / 12 / 1963 ) / Juke Box Jury ( Source #2 – 07 / 12 / 1963 ) / Dateline ( Dibbs Mather interview, Gaumont theatre, Doncaster, 10 / 12 / 1963 ) / Beatles Come To Town ( Pathe news, ABC Ardwick, Manchester 20 / 11 / 1963 ) / Pop Gear ( ABC Ardwick, Manchester 20 / 11 / 1963 ) / Interview ( Kings Hall, Belfast, Ireland 02 / 11 / 1964 ) [ 61:56 ]
Further mining the bits and pieces that appear on the internet during the celebrations following the Beatles 50th year, Unicorn Records thematically produced disks continue to arrive every so often. They are a great way to collect the minutiae of the Fabs career on silver disk without going to the hassle of tracking these things down, indexing them together specifically and then filing them away under a generic number to an unmarked CDR. The argument could be made for the former process but these are not previously released pieces that have been rehashed from another silver CDs, these have been chosen, and pressed together specifically for your collection.
The collection here is of 4 live concert tracks, 3 BBC studio tracks and the rest are essentially ‘Beatlemania’ promotion snippets covering concerts or Beatle appearances – great for those of us who collect interviews and other paraphernalia.
I’m Gonna Sit Right Down ( Star Club, Hamburg, Germany 31 / 12 / 1962 ) / Where Have You Been All My Life ( Star Club, Hamburg, Germany 31 / 12 / 1962 ) / Red Hot ( Star Club, Hamburg, Germany 31 / 12 / 1962 ) / A Taste Of Honey ( Star Club, Hamburg, Germany 31 / 12 / 1962 ) – these first 4 items are remasters and reconstructed upgrades produced by those great people from the internet who made a great job of such things. As anyone who is even remotely interested in Beatlegs will know these recordings have circulated for years generally in horrid quality but now that a few collectors have loosened their grips on their lower generation tapes our audio-technicians have tinkered with several bastardized versions of the songs to complete a frankenstein version of said tracks. They do sound great though and will do until a better source for the Star Club tapes become available.
I Wanna Hold Your Hand ( BBC Saturday Club 17 / 12 / 1963 ) / If I Fell ( BBC Top Gear 14 / 07 / 1964 ) / Roll Over Beethoven ( BBC Saturday Club 17 / 12 / 1963 ) – 3 new upgrades that appeared in August 2012 on YouTube by an Austrian company going by the name of “Parlogram”. These tracks sound better than any of the previous releases of the BEEB tapes official or otherwise. Speculation was that “Parlogram”, a rock memorabilia company, may have unearthed an unreported private reel and put the songs up on to the internet to afford themselves some publicity. There is still a little A.M. hiss on the tapes during the spoken word introductions but as for the music itself it sounds brilliant and full of life although there are a couple of dropouts and a cut at 1:16 of “Roll Over Beethoven”. ( Note, the original print of the back sleeve suggested that “If I Fell” came from Saturday Club on the 17th of December, 1963. Later pressings rectified this issue. )
Winter Gardens, Bournemouth ( CBS Coverage 16 / 11 / 1963 ) / Winter Gardens, Bournemouth ( Jack Parr Show, Edited, 16 / 11 / 1963 ) – These two reports feature no live music but the CBS segment features interviews with all four Beatles discussing the brevity of fame, the ‘Mersey sound’ and success with Josh Darcer while the sociological posturing is pinned together by Alexender Kendrick. The Jack Parr section is a shows opening salvo but loses all it’s meaning without it’s visual aids.
Juke Box Jury ( Source #1 07 / 12 / 1963 ) / Juke Box Jury ( Source #2 07 / 12 / 1963 ) – Two different sources for the Beatles ‘Juke Box Jury’. One from a BBC radio broadcast featuring an interview with original JBJ presenter David Jacobs with a little BBC restoration. The next one a crackly home recording straight from a reel to reel tape. Clear enough to make out what it being said but lacking in quality compared to the former. What it lacks in fidelity, it makes up for in length at nearly 10 minutes.
Dateline ( Dibbs Mather interview, Gaumont theatre, Doncaster, 10 / 12 / 1963 ) – A transcription disk interview that is apparently better quality and longer than previous incarnations. Very good quality and runs over 16 minutes in length.
Beatles Come To Town ( Pathe news, ABC Ardwick, Manchester 20 / 11 / 1963 ) / Pop Gear ( Pathe News, ABC Ardwick, Manchester, 20 / 11 / 1963 ) – Parts one and two of a Pathe newsreel that was put on to the internet in mid 2012 featuring snippets of the band playing at the ABC theatre in Ardwick, Manchester, U.K. – all of it, because it was professionally recorded, sounds fantastic so if you can’t afford the $ or £ required to download the film from Pathe’s website, this is the next best thing. The full report is edited down to include brief parts of the full broadcasts but it’s only missing scenes behind the day to day workings at the theatre.
Interview ( Kings Hall, Belfast, Ireland 02 / 11 / 1964 ) – A very short snippet of a radio interview held on the second day of the Beatles tour in Ireland. Lasting all of 1 minute and 8 seconds, it’s a strange little interview that resembles a group of friends, taking a walk along the road, trying to avoid traffic and ridiculing each other. A brief oddity but it at least has the Beatles in a slightly less formal mood than some of their televised appearances.
