New discovery - Beatles performing live in UK. At Stowe School April 4th '63

[musigny23]

I thought it sounded better than it did before. Not as distorted.

I'm glad it didn't get buried, but it's still stupid restricting access to the library. 99 out of a hundred fans would listen to this once and never again. It's only the likes of us who are truly interested in it and most of us are prevented from hearing it. What harm would putting it online do, aside from selling afew hundred cds for some company in Japan? Zero harm to The Beatles brand, zero profit loss, zero effect on anyone or anything.

I expected the actual recording played on a good system in person would sound decent in the context of audience recordings from the 60s when heard from the master tape rather than multi generation copies that are often the way such tapes get circulated.

This seems like it would be received like the Hamburg Star Club recordings. I don't know the sales number but those have maintained a place in fan collections. I think interest would extend greater than 5000 hard cores. It's a shame they show so must disinterest and distain for those fans.

[stereoman33]

I put all the audio from both broadcasts together and got almost 7 minutes of the tape. Still quite a bit of talking over it, but I was able to merge some narration-less parts into it.

thank you so much for this...this will tie me over nicely, until i ever get a chance to travel to the uk from Australia
and make an appointment to go their library to hear it...which will probably never happen!

[Lord Reith]

The Star Club albums were an epic flop, and that was in the middle of the huge Beatles revival in the mid-late 70s!

I keep repeating myself, but there is no sense in the powers that be treating this stuff like gold dust. If you recall, a couple of years ago I previewed a tape also lost for 60 years: the first Ringo BBC broadcast. Made freely available, and yet are there hundreds of bootlegs of it? No. 12 inch singles? No. Coloured vinyl box sets with 100 page deluxe booklets? No. In fact, is there even ONE boot of it? Probably not. Not on youtube except in edited form, and mentioned I think once on Steve Hoffman Music Forums, and nowhere else.

No one CARES about this stuff. It's freak fodder. Just release it all. The world will not come to an end.

[WOA76]

The Star Club albums were an epic flop, and that was in the middle of the huge Beatles revival in the mid-late 70s!

I keep repeating myself, but there is no sense in the powers that be treating this stuff like gold dust. If you recall, a couple of years ago I previewed a tape also lost for 60 years: the first Ringo BBC broadcast. Made freely available, and yet are there hundreds of bootlegs of it? No. 12 inch singles? No. Coloured vinyl box sets with 100 page deluxe booklets? No. In fact, is there even ONE boot of it? Probably not. Not on youtube except in edited form, and mentioned I think once on Steve Hoffman Music Forums, and nowhere else.

No one CARES about this stuff. It's freak fodder. Just release it all. The world will not come to an end.

A lot of people are pissed the Beatles Bootleg 1963 was ONLY on iTunes but put this stuff out on FLAC and iTunes as cost Record and CD are maybe a factor I think

just my 2 cents I worked at the record shop and ran a used shop for years so its just my view

Also I wish they put out Beatles' Bootleg 1964 MAD not sure why they did as Beach Boy and Bob Dyiln did


the Star Clubs from what Ted told me were nearly falling apart from still in all those years
for me the none Beatles recordings are my favorite

the cluld owner created Star Club Records in late 1962 or early 1963 sucks Beatles weren't there when the system was installed......there are few recordings live recording from Star Club I know cause Ted told me there 3 records with live stuff
Star-Club Records
https://www.discogs.com/label/43272-Star-Club-Records

this put out alot LIVE stuff
https://www.discogs.com/label/5410-Ariola

lot of this had mixed artists I guess make buy other record have full recording

Kingsize Taylor and The Dominos
https://www.discogs.com/release/3365739 ... -Star-Club

Kingsize Taylor and The Dominos
https://www.discogs.com/release/6528707 ... -Hamburg-2

[Kwai Chang]

I used to see a 1959 VW Bus with Tie-dyed curtains and Flower-Power stickers everywhere.
On the back bumper was a large Steal Your Face that said "DRIVER CARRIES NO DEAD TAPES!!!"
KC

[Egg_Crisis]

...because if you can hear it, someone's going to figure out a way to record it.

Well the database entry links directly to the mp3 file, but with the link starting with hxxp://soundserver.bl.uk:81/
So if the link only works if you're at British Library, if they've moved with the times maybe they allow 'researchers' to connect to the British Library wifi using their own laptops?

[Yellowsubmarine]

Can anybody in the UK please try to get the tape?

Or it's not possible?

[Lord Reith]

...because if you can hear it, someone's going to figure out a way to record it.

Well the database entry links directly to the mp3 file, but with the link starting with hxxp://soundserver.bl.uk:81/
So if the link only works if you're at British Library, if they've moved with the times maybe they allow 'researchers' to connect to the British Library wifi using their own laptops?

Who knows but we better not discuss that stuff. This is a public forum.

[Lord Reith]

Btw for anyone in the UK the audio is also available at the British Library Reading Rooms in Yorkshire, as well as St Pancras in London. In both locations you just turn up and search for the item in the sound catalogue (some people are searching in the book catalogues and complaining they can't find it) and then just press play. No need to book an appointment.

[fabwill]

A very mixed decision.

Positives:
Not sold to Apple/McCartney for burial.
Unedited, unprocessed "raw" transfer.
possible to hear even if under very limited specific circumstances.

Negatives:
Very limited and restricted access.
Can't (as of yet) possess and own a hard copy format version or digital file version for personal listening anytime.

Hopefully it will change. Does the Library possess other similar recordings that a dedicated fan base would want to liberate? Has it happened there before? If this is the first of this type for them, they may not realize how determined fans can be to get a copy which would be good.

I'd really like to know how this decision was reached. What options were considered, who had input, whom did he consult with?

Also worth considering the positives and negatives for the original tape owner of his options with the tape:

Get it aired on the BBC and follow the official route
a) Gets knowledge of it pretty widely known (as Lord Reith has said elsewhere, there was no press interest in his first Ringo BBC session)
b) Gets it into the British Library where it can theoretically be heard by the 1.6m a year visitors to the Library.
c) The recorder's name is permanently attached to a Beatles recording in the British Library. I'll be honest, if it was me, that would be a consideration.
d) I think there have been odd occasions in the past where McCartney has met sellers (the Quarrymen acetate?) Maybe he was hoping for something like that.

Put it up on youtube
a) a few thousand people listen to it, but for the majority, perhaps not more than 5 minutes of it
b) the recorder's name can't necessarily be attached to it - you'd probably want your name _not_ to be attached to it

The official route has meant that the other Stowe tape has also come to light - there's no reason to think that would have happened otherwise as it hadn't for the previous 60 years. I don't imagine many people will listen the whole way through but if even a fraction of those Library visitors do listen to some of it, the overall listenership could be way in excess of the youtube route. For me, that and the publicity that led to another tape coming to light (and maybe more people scouring their lofts?) means I think he did the right thing.