To all of you out there following comments from the usual fans here and there (they are always the same actually), always trying to make negative comments against one label or in favor of another (from the one they are pals to), please always try to verify by yourselves what others are telling you. Do your own reviews if possible, compare the tapes and recordings and make your own judgment. This very quick review done thanks to the input of a friend here (A-Caceres), was born yesterday and I want to share it in its own thread, especially after knowing that Core collections like the “Band on the Run Lagos Tapes”, where many thought that the version provided by one label it was to be “the one” to have, turned out to be the “not to have one” by doing an A/B review, with actual facts and fair comments for both labels.
Some fans didn’t knew that THE BEATLES COMPLETE SHEA STADIUM AUDIO TAPE (CORE material) released in 2007 by HMC, is actually a copy from a third-generation tape, incomplete and with sound problems not heard on the original master tapes; and that the first generation copy was released by Misterclaudel, bought directly from the winner of the auction, with a longer and better-sounding tape.
Three Scotch Recording tapes were auctioned more than ten years ago, containing the whole Mono recording of the She Stadium concert, including the opening acts. HMC got a copy “under the table”, from someone who made a dub of a dub of this tape before it went to auction. After the buyer, a private collector in Asia found out about HMC releasing it (once the auction ended), it went mad and reached the Japanese bootlegers and sold a direct transfer of the master tape (First Generation copy) and that’s the version MC put on sale a few months or weeks after HMC.
A picture of the three Scotch tapes was released with MC’s press release and also included within the booklet for the box set they did.
CORE collection with capital letters. It was verified many years ago, when the two labels release it. The reviews were posted on trusted places like Beatles Unlimited magazine when they did an A/B of both releases. Of course you're not going to read that at the places and from people who thinks the Japanese steals all the stuff.
Here is a super quick A/B of the Shea tape released by the two labels. I’m going to use only the Intro or Start of the tape and the end of the whole tape.(Just imagine if we do and A/B for the whole concert!)
I’m using HMC’s The Beatles And The Great Concert At Shea! (2 CD set) vs Misterclaudel’s Shea Stadium Box set (3 CD+ DVDs) as I don’t have in hand their previous version of 2 CDs but it’s the same source as far as we know.
Misterclaudel: INTRODUCTION (KING CURTIS- CD 1 TRACK 01) 5:07
This track is EXCLUSIVE to the Japanese release. It is actually the tape at the very start of the concert, adjusting instruments, we can hear how they set up the stage, King Curtis doing some kind of soundcheck/riffs of their instruments, the crowd screaming in the background, un audible talk from people adjusting the equipment, adjusting the levels of the recording etc.
HMC: INTRODUCTION & NATIONAL ANTHEM by KING CURTIS (CD 1 TRACK 14): 2:10
Misterclaudel: MORE WARM UP SOUNDCHECK/NATIONAL ANTHEM , INTRODUCTION AND NATIONAL ANTHEM (CD 1 TRACK 02): 2:31
HMC start almost directly with “Good Evening Ladies and Gentlemen” and then King Curtis doing the National Anthem.
MC starts with more tape adjustment, then Curtis doing warm up soundcheck with guitar and drum test, then a brief soundcheck for “The National Anthem” and at the same time the announcer is doing some vocal warm-up saying “Ladies and Gentlemen”; then they all stop, a brief pause and then the concert officially starts at the same point where the HMC tape starts.
So just by the introduction, HMC version is missing FIVE MINUTES AND 28 second of the original tape.
HMC: THE BEATLES “I’M DOWN” (CD 1 TRACK 13) 3:24
Misterclaudel: THE BEATLES “I’M DOWN” (CD 2 TRACK 14) 3:29
Both labels start the track at a very different point (HMC starts with the full chat from Paul while MC start almost directly with the song minus three seconds), so, we have alienated both to start and end the song at the same time (both runs at a different speed, HMC is slower than MC) and this is the main difference:
At 3:14 on HMC, you can hear a weird noise/ failure on the tape not heard with MC. HMC’s version fades out completely at 3:22.
The MC tape does not have any noise/failure on the tape, there is NO fade-out at 3:22, just the opposite, the crowd start to scream very loud again while we hear pops and clicks from people on the stage turning-off the microphones and adjusting things, the screams continue and the tape ends with fade out THIRTY TWO SECONDS after the tape ended with HMC.
If THAT’S not enough for many of you (and remember that I only did the review for two tracks), the sound quality on the Misterclaudel release is by far superior in all ways.
Take for example the same track, “I’M DOWN”:
With HMC, there is a failure in their tape exactly at 00:28 seconds (while Paul sang the words “ lies” and “ thinking I can't see”) that makes the sound goes down and muffled, while on the MC release, the sound is continuously perfect. Just to give you one tiny detail that nobody is going to tell you (at least here) about the Misterclaudel releases.
HERE IS AN AUDIO SAMPLE, first is the HMC source and second is MC.
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To all of fans out there that do have their own criteria and not follow the negativity, try also to seek for another of their titles with some stuff not on any other release or label, Revolver Deep Cuts box sets, that I found out last year while digging the Revolver sessions for a review using Masterjedi’s “Complete Recordings” and I noticed that a brief but unique studio material (not talking about demixes, isolations, Rockband intros, AI or Atmos files) was not even used for “The Complete Recording Sessions” series but is available with MC;, and is very weird as this release is maybe two years of old and the “Complete Sessions” is continuously been updated.
Complete ATMP remix now released
