Harry And His Box Set (V1, 2, 7, 10, 12, 15, 14 update.)

[slane]

Anyone know the story of '1964 Alan Freeman Introduces The Beatles' from 1964?
Must been before 'Top Of The Pops', came out?

That was the first time The Beatles were on a Transcription Service disc. It was around May 1964 although the disc didn't expire until 1968 so probably was heard a few times in other countries. The Beatles are on one side and Julie Dawn on the other. I think this must have got such a good response that they decided to create a special show (Top Of The Pops) after that. They hadn't ever done rock stuff prior to that, only jazz and classical and light pop like Frank Ifield. The From Us To You disc was re-issued in 1972 as a one-sided disc (goodbye Julie Dawn!) and the BBC pressed their own copy from the stamper to put in Sound Archives and it got played a few times during the 70s in the UK (and actually that is the copy you hear here).

What about PGTB #5?

I was always under the impression that the 4 songs in better quality (Carol, Soldier, Comb, Clarabella) were from a Transcription disc. They certainly sound like it.

Is this fake?

[Doug]

Yes, that's a bootleg.

[Lord Reith]

Yeah, that little disc is a beauty but it's a fake. It was one of the very first boots I bought and of course being a stupid kid I thought it was an actual real BBC disc and not a boot. But that disc actually came out originally with this label:

fbtb 4.jpg (93.85 KiB) Viewed 1830 times

fbtb1.jpg (75.82 KiB) Viewed 1830 times

and as you can see they got the songwriter credit wrong for Clarabella. But then just after that disc came out, Mark lewisohn published his BBC catalogue in Beatles Monthly Book and so they re-issued it with info taken from that article. They mocked up a Transcription service label but there was never any actual label like that. I don't know where they got the crouching lion but it was probably from someone's heraldry or something! A very nice fake though, and in fact about ten years ago, the record store Beano's were fooled enough to auction off one of these boots as an actual bona fide TS disc, and it fetched an absolutely ridiculous price (upwards of 500 pounds if I recall).

A few years back the late owner of Revolver Records in New York told me the story behind this disc. Apparently it was done by two guys who owned a record stall in the UK. My own investigations lead me to believe this may have been sourced from a real BBC acetate that might have come their way. Back in the 40s and 50s the BBC used to record to acetate disc before they switched to tape in 1955, but the equipment was still there right up until the late 60s and was often used to cut reference copies of songs (the discs didn't hold very much) for producers or sound guys. They look like this:

bbc acetate.jpg (201.41 KiB) Viewed 1830 times

but if you see one in a junk shop be wary because the surface layer is nitrocellulose (aka "guncotton") and after 70 years its flash point can become as low as 30 degrees C. They also tend to flake and the flakes are extremely inflammable. There's a funny story about a cleaning lady who found some of the "swarf" or the fluffy coils of nitrocellulose that came off the discs as they were being cut. Normally it would be safely disposed of but she decided to collect it and take it home as stuffing for some cushions she was making. Luckily someone noticed and intervened. She had literally filled her sitting room with these nice comfy incendiary guncotton cushions.

[Egg_Crisis]

They used to make snooker balls out of gun cotton. They exploded if two of them collided too forcefully.

[Lord Reith]

They used to make snooker balls out of gun cotton. They exploded if two of them collided too forcefully.

Yes, I saw that recently on James Burke's series "Connections"! How mad is that? It would certainly have livened up a game of billiards.

[slane]

Yeah, that little disc is a beauty but it's a fake. It was one of the very first boots I bought and of course being a stupid kid I thought it was an actual real BBC disc and not a boot. But that disc actually came out originally with this label:

fbtb 4.jpg

fbtb1.jpg

and as you can see they got the songwriter credit wrong for Clarabella. But then just after that disc came out, Mark lewisohn published his BBC catalogue in Beatles Monthly Book and so they re-issued it with info taken from that article. They mocked up a Transcription service label but there was never any actual label like that. I don't know where they got the crouching lion but it was probably from someone's heraldry or something! A very nice fake though, and in fact about ten years ago, the record store Beano's were fooled enough to auction off one of these boots as an actual bona fide TS disc, and it fetched an absolutely ridiculous price (upwards of 500 pounds if I recall).

A few years back the late owner of Revolver Records in New York told me the story behind this disc. Apparently it was done by two guys who owned a record stall in the UK. My own investigations lead me to believe this may have been sourced from a real BBC acetate that might have come their way. Back in the 40s and 50s the BBC used to record to acetate disc before they switched to tape in 1955, but the equipment was still there right up until the late 60s and was often used to cut reference copies of songs (the discs didn't hold very much) for producers or sound guys. They look like this:

bbc acetate.jpg

but if you see one in a junk shop be wary because the surface layer is nitrocellulose (aka "guncotton") and after 70 years its flash point can become as low as 30 degrees C. They also tend to flake and the flakes are extremely inflammable. There's a funny story about a cleaning lady who found some of the "swarf" or the fluffy coils of nitrocellulose that came off the discs as they were being cut. Normally it would be safely disposed of but she decided to collect it and take it home as stuffing for some cushions she was making. Luckily someone noticed and intervened. She had literally filled her sitting room with these nice comfy incendiary guncotton cushions.

Thanks for the info. I'm aware that the Four By The Beatles disc was a boot, but not the 'BBC' disc (the image I posted had a price of, I think, £600 !).

For some reason I've had it in my head all this time that these 4 tracks were sourced from vinyl on the 1982 radio show and on the official releases. And that the source was a transcription disc (and they do kind of sound that way to me, particularly Lend Me Your Comb which has a certain 'scratchiness' going on underneath it). What is the 'master' source for these 4 songs then?

[Lord Reith]

For some reason I've had it in my head all this time that these 4 tracks were sourced from vinyl on the 1982 radio show and on the official releases. And that the source was a transcription disc (and they do kind of sound that way to me, particularly Lend Me Your Comb which has a certain 'scratchiness' going on underneath it). What is the 'master' source for these 4 songs then?

The BBC has a tape copy of the bootleg in its sound archive. It was probably put there by deejay Tommy Vance who played two songs from it a couple of days after John's murder. That's the copy they used for all subsequent programmes.

As to who owns the original source acetate, who knows.

[Lord Reith]

This is an updated version of Volume 10. There are several new additions: the opening track is a Radio Newsreel by Reg Abbiss describing their return from Sweden, which many people consider to be the beginning of Beatlemania. Although this trip happened after Easybeat was taped it makes a good start to this volume I think. Later on there are some TV announcements of them appearing on the Royal Variety show, which led into the filmed version of the Peter Woods interview. Here the radio version of that interview is used but I have removed the intrusive music in the background. Also new is a brief description of the Hamburg scene by George for a programme called Mach Schau Wacker.

Also bundled with this update is a new stereo remix of the Swedish radio show, by virtue of it being the only other bespoke radio programme they ever recorded. Long regarded as one of their best performances, and given the personal stamp of approval by John Lennon.

The front cover is also updated.

https://tinyurl.com/exp-march-10

[TELEGRAM SAM]

Superb again. Thank you. Sweden `63 also a big thank you. Thank you for all your hard work preparing all of these upgrades.

[robbmacc]

Thank you for including Sweden! I've always incorporated it into your collections.