Just released is '1+' - 27 no.1's on CD; DVD for/to go with the same no.1's; and 23 more vids on another DVD. And I just found this: http://beatlesradio.com/
When I was growing up you couldn't hear The Beatles on the radio or on TV, as it cost too much to even do a brief clip. So I didn't really get to know the music until the mid 90s when I got stuff out from libraries. The logic was apparently to keep the music special in some way, but it just meant it vanished.
I wouldn't get 1+ for the sole reason that IMO all of their best work isn't on it. Also already owning all of the albums on vinyl is another good reason for not getting it.
It's everywhere now - loads on YouTube; all the official archive stuff(At the BBC and Anthology) There's a great doc film on George Harrison. There's the first vol. of Mark Lewisohn's history of the Beatles (part 1, the only one out so far, only goes up to 1963).
I agree - I've got the vinyls, got the remastered CDs, etc. But I bought 1+ - not for the CD, but for the videos.
I find it strange the Paul & Ringo are not associated more, at least in public, but having watched a few interviews on You Tube with them both together I get the feeling that Ringo is not all that keen on his former Beatle mate as Paul seems to contradict almost all of what Ringo says in answers to question. I still don't believe that the true story of the Beatles from beginning to end has been told I know what has been printed many times over, like from the same hymn sheet, but Mal Evans version seemed to have vanished after his death.
That may well be because Macca bought Mal's notebooks from his widow (when she was strapped for cash).
It didn't cost any more to play Beatles records on the radio than it did anyone else's, they were obviously played all the time, they were the most popular band in the world for years.
Oh ok I swear I heard something like that, maybe it was just on tv then. If not on radio it must have been tv where even playing a brief clip cost a lot of money. I suppose with radio I was just listening to stations which didn't play older pop stuff anyway. TV reaches out to a broader audience in a way perhaps as you might hear a kind of music by chance you might not otherwise hear.
Before they became famous (before Love Me Do), they regularly appeared live at lunchtimes on Radio Bandbox (title?). We used to listen to them in our sixth-form room. It was immediately obvious that they were very, very good.
Ta Stanley, I did search a little but didn't see your explanation just that it was a real insider account, which will now probably never see the light of day. But another oddity concerning Paul was his reluctance to pay out for the rights to their early music, absurd as it may seem, but ownership belonged to Dick James I believe and not The Beatles or Lennon McCartney. So when the songs, Please Please Me and others amongst them, came up for sale McCartney was outbid by Michael Jackson, we are talking millions, but McCartney was wealthy enough to go above Jackson's bid as it was before his ill fated marriage to Heather. And if the remaining Beatles had got together they could have bid jointly and owned the songs between them, not sure what has happened to the ownership since Michael Jackson's death. As for The Beatles as a group it will be hard for todays younger folk to understand the impact these four lads had on the youth of the day as up to that point Elvis and all the other American stuff flooded our country. Ok we had Cliff, Adam Faith, Joe Brown, Billy Fury and many others but they didn't have much of an impact in the USA whereas the Americans ran the music show. The Beatles changed all that during 1964 when after a lack lustre start with Love Me Do in 1963 every record they made from then hit the No.1 spot around the world and Beatlemania was born. And for us teenagers it opened a floodgate to many other British artist reversing the American trend as Britain ruled the music world for a while, but it was music for us not something we listened to because our parents did or because it was American rock n roll, but because it was ours and it was exciting. But it was more than just music, we had our fashion to follow, if you look at pictures of the youth in 1963 many lads wore suits, especially Hull's fishermen, but from then on we had our own type of clothing and habits, coffee bars and the like. Then Punk changed the landscape yet again big time in Britain but by then this guy was becoming an old timer nearing 30 so it wasn't my scene as I stuck to the Beatle era, and still do for much of my music listening.
The Beatles were stitched up regarding crap royalty rates and lost millions through poor decisions by Epstein. Though, to be fair, it was all new then on their level and there was nothing previous to go by. The Stones lost out through similar things. Of course a tax rate of over 80% on earnings and 92% on top savings when they were at their peak didn't help.. The one who was a smart operator was Dave Clark. Worth reading about how he made sure he was the one making money and ensuring it continued to roll in.
I think I read somewhere where he bought up the rights to a lot of old black & white tv footage of the era so has a monopoly of the music scene for show in the future, clever guy although Mike Smith was my favourite in the group, sinced died I believe.
He got hold of the rights to ReadySteady Go and then tracked down clips all over Europe as most of the tapes here had been recorded over. He won't allow a lot of them to be released and restricts availibility of others and, because his group,weren't on RSG, inserts clips of them into the ones he has put together. However, he made his money by making a deal to produce their recordings and rented the studio and kept control of the master recordings. No one realised at the time the power it would give him. Members of the Beatles and Stones have commented on how they admired him for his foresight and wished they could have done the same..
The funny part of this Castro is that Clem Cattini the 'gun for hire' session drummer at the time apparently played drums on the first couple of DC5 records! (Well according to many of the studio insiders I spoke to who were around at that time) though this wasn't unusual in that period and Dave Clark didn't have an issue with it!
