‘Soldier of Love’ ‘Some Other Guy’ ‘Don’t Ever Change’ and ‘I’ll Be On My Way’ are just a few of the superb cuts found on the BBC album. One of the best post break-up canon releases.
'Don't Ever Change' was by The Crickets ,after Buddy's passing, and written by Carole King and Gerry Goffin. Both Buddy Holly & The Crickets and King-Goffin being amongst the biggest influences earlier in The Beatles' career. ruclips.net/video/uJjC0rUR_wU/видео.html
I was working at Borders Books & Music in Deerfield,IL when the BBC compilation came out. We had a midnight sale and while it was a mild gathering, it was pretty exciting. I picked it up in CD that night, came home around 2am in time for my father to show up from work. He’s a huge Beatles fans and was the person responsible for turning me into a rabid Beatles fan. I was so honored to be the one to play my Dad the Live At The BBC for him, fresh off the stands. Another great episode
In the sea of crappy music writing, you are an island of reliable, well written and delivered information. Thanks for your scholarship and talent, sir!
Live at the BBC has two things going for it. 1. That cover shot is one of the nicest ever done of the Fab Four -capturing them on the cusp of worldwide fame; and 2. I cannot get enough of “Some Other Guy”. I wish there had been a studio recording of that song. Great video again today!
Being a clandestine lofi set, I accept it for what it is - a document of their presentation with the looseness and fun they were to us, and that they were as characters. Same as the Star Club material and the Xmas flexis. No polishing needed, it's a time capsule that can immerse me back in the era it, and I, came from.
Wow this was great to watch and it was an amazing stroke of luck the story of how Margaret back in 1963 made those recordings, imagine doing some home recording back in the day and decades later your recording that YOU made becomes a thing 🎵🎶🎵
Thanks Andrew. Haven't got these in my collection yet, but will definitely get them now. In 1963 I was 10 and we didn't have a record player at all. What we had though was a 10 year old Pye valve radio that as I remember had great sound. I used to love listening to Brian Matthews show Saturday Club on Saturday morning and that was where I first heard the Beatles and like many young girls was captured by their humour as well as their music. Because I was so star struck by the Beatles I was taken to our local cinema to see A Hard Day's Night when it came out .....and in 1965/6 we got a Dansette record player. Thus began my love affair with vinyl. I'm definitely gonna get both volume 1 and 2.
The Beatles at The Beeb was played as a radio special in the US in 1982. Recorded it on am Ampex real to real recorder and then transfered to cassette. Really enjoyed that.
I remember when Live at The BBC came out. EVERYONE was screaming about how it was the opening salvo for The Beatles to kill the bootleg market. It was going to open the floodgates(Which turned out to be the trickle called Anthology). I was just thrilled to hear songs I never heard like Some Other Guy and Solider Of Love. It was just a joy to hear what was then NEW Beatles material for the masses. Whats amazing is we're coming up on The Beatles 60 year anniversary and nobody get how much unreleased material really IS still out there(The hours of BBC material, the hours upon hours of Get Back/Let it be material). Unreleased outtakes and songs just considered not up to snuff. Will we ever see a remastered and re-released Decca sessions outside of the Anthology tracks? Will we ever see the Anthology remastered in some other way than downloads? Will McCartney ever follow through on his mission to finished the third Lennon song done by him George and Ringo? You'd think with all the hype Get Back got, The Beatles would do some kind of Expanded version of Anthology that literally follows the WHOLE story and not just snippets. Release Star Club and any other early live tapes. Do an expansive retrospect on BBC and Ed Sullivan and a expand on the Ron Howard film. The Beatles are probably the only band in existence where a literal LIBRARY of everything would sell like wildfire. Why did On Air not sell as well as the original? It was treated as second class next to the original. It never got the hype the original did. It was like "Oh...yeah...and theres is this also" I mean the original BBC CDs, Yellow Submarie Songtrack and then ANTHOLOGY were not just releases....THEY WERE EVENTS. They were so hyped that by the time release day came, you were desperate to hear them. Plus on other thing changed. Streaming. You HAD to go to the shops to hear them. Now? Just download it when its available. Gee, I also remember a time when if you did that, Metaliica would come to your house and beat you up!😁
Here’s a fun dovetail between The Beatles on BBC (albiet TV and not Radio) and another beloved BBC property with a penchent for missing epsiodes whose audio survivies due to fans recording onto reel-to-reel in the 60s, Doctor Who. One specific Doctor Who serial, Season 2’s The Chase, features The Doctor, Ian, Barbara, and new companion Vicki watching a “Space-Time Visualizer.” Ian watches President Lincoln deliver the Gettysburg Address, Barbara tunes it to watch Shakespeare being premiered at The Globe, and Vicki watches “classical music,” aka The Beatles playing Ticket to Ride on Top of the Pops, much to Ian and Barbara’s amazement that pop music from their time will remain popular into future centuries. This is one of few surviving TotP Beatles clips, and is only on DVD in the UK due to copyright restrictions. This clip replaced an idea to film them in old age make-up at a 1980 reunion concert that Brian Epstien shot down, and instead allowed the DW team to use up to a minute of one of their “live” TV performances. Amusingly, there are two other Dalek serials, Season 4’s The Evil of the Daleks and Season 25’s Remembrance of the Daleks, which used Beatles music on broadcast because they take place in the 60s. Evil used Paperback Writer and Remembrance used both Do You Want to Know a Secret? and A Taste of Honey. For Evil’s CD and Animation, the audio was replaced by Hold Tight by Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich in order to use the same audio for all releases worldwide. Remembrance’s Special Edition DVD in the UK keeps the original audio while replacing it with contemporary cover versions on the US DVD.
My mum is on that album! Well, she’s in the audience of the Easy Beat radio show anyway, so wasn’t ever going to receive royalties for her appearance. On another note, I bought the CD on release day and it doesn’t have the misprint on the track listing. I also picked up the vinyl at the time too, just because it looked nice and it was affordable back then (I think it was £9.99 from Andy’s Records).
There is a 12 CD set of ALL the broadcasted Beatles BBC shows. The official BBC recordings only scratches the surface of what’s out there. This CD set is noteworthy in that it has all the songs broadcasted in all of their shows. The best feature is it has a transcription disc recordings for all of the shows for Pop Goes the Beatles are in this box set and comprise two discs I believe. The MacDonald tapes in this video is one resource for what we have of their shows. And it is unfortunately true that the BBC wiped most of the tapes, and only a few transcription discs are extent. But the Beatles had fans all over England, and these fans recorded these broadcasts. This was coupled by the prevalence in England at the time of clubs which were associated solely to record things---anything: birds chirping, trains, what have you. (A little bit like the Monty Python sketch about the club whose sole purpose was to put things on other things.) When you couple these two social phenomena---recording clubs and Beatle fans---you have individuals all over England recording these Beatle radio shows. Luckily enough, song lists for the BBC shows exist, so what the compilers of this CD box set did was find the recordings matching the song lists for all their shows from the Beatle fans and recording clubs who recorded them. This accounts for the many varying sound qualities of the songs on these discs. It is truly marvelous undertaking that we all should be grateful for. These songs are my personal favorite. The band recorded the songs usually on one take, their playing is incredibly tight (warts and all), and they were bright and fresh when they introduced the songs. It is the Holy Grail. I don’t know if this boot is currently available, but if you find one, snatch it.
I bought the Yellow Matter Custard bootleg LP in a funky head shop on the boardwalk in Ocean City, NJ in 1974; I, too, recorded the Beatles At The BEEB radio show(s) broadcast locally on Philly radio back in the ‘80s & I used to sell copies at the record store I worked at (don’t tell Apple!) the BBC recordings are essential inclusions to The Beatles catalogue; the fact that 99% of it is performed live WITHOUT SCREAMING FANS allows us to hear what a great band they truly were…then there’s all the incredible songs never released by EMI; I have a great playlist titled ‘The Beatles Lost Album’ comprised of all the non-EMI titles (it’s a GREAT album)
For me, the most impressive performance of the BBC Beatles archives was the Lennon McCartney "I'll Be On My Way". An early showcase of everything John and Paul did so well. Hooks galore. Apparently forgotten and never recorded for EMI. Never understood why. Thanks, Andrew.
@@bobcash4617 Nah, I always thought it was an A side but only a B side! Wish the Beatles had recorded it for With the Beatles but I guess that would have seemed "lazy" back then :)
I first heard I'll Be On My Way when the Beatles at the BBC material was turned into a syndicated radio show in North America in the 1980s, and I recorded it off the air from a local station that ran it. I loved the song instantly, and also wished it would get a proper issue. Eventually, it did, but it was a long wait.
I was 16 when this came out and still remember the night I bought this at a "Media Play" store in Binghamton NY. I got the double vinyl. I had a couple of Beatles cassettes, sure, but all the Beatles records I grew up with were my parents. It was cool that I bought a Beatles record of my own! It was exciting bringing it home, looking at it, playing it. I loved how it felt both so new and so old at once and in multiple ways. The beautiful packaging, the crisp heavy paper of the brand new sleeves, an excellent modern execution of a classic design with vintage pictures and a literal sepia tone to the whole thing. And it was early in the Beatles' career, so seemed "old" to my teenage self, yet it was when they were very young and new. And so many of the songs were new to me, even if they were old covers. It was a strange mix of borrowed nostalgia and this-is-now 90s record buying! The sound had a similar warm quality, and thanks to your vid I realize now how much I have Margaret Ashworth to thank for that. "Good ol' Margaret"! Once again, it was a mix of then-and-now - obviously period sounds and production, but it all made you almost feel like you were listening in live on the radio too. And the sides were so long! Just put it on, let it play like a radio show. It was very cool. There were so many good songs but just to mention one, Thank You Girl - it really shows the magic they were making as a live band even as Beatlemania was closing in. The studio version of Thank You Girl is a cute but disposable track. This live take is killer, easily in the top 10 hardest-rocking songs they ever did. There are so many glimpses like this on the BBC album, moments that hint that hint at what a lot of those other great unrecorded live Beatle performances were like. Thanks for the video!
My brother and I got Live at the BBC on cassette at a garage sale when we were teenagers and I have really fond memories of him and I listening to it all the time while drawing comics together. Good times. Those are truly the moments you think nothing of at the time but become the most cherished as an adult.
I sincerely hope we get a Super Deluxe Edition of the Live at the BBC series. With volumes 1+2 included in a joint package along with brand new recordings. Heck, a live Beatles SDE would be incredible. There’s a lot of excellent Beatles performances that haven’t been officially released. They could even include some outfakes compiling various live performances to make it sound complete, as a lot of times, the mics were only picking up one or two of the Beatles. I’d love to have the 1966 Budokan Hall performance officially released.
My memory is a bit foggy, but I do remember at the time I was working 2nd shift, 2pm until 10:30 in North-east Pennsylvania, and after work I went somewhere that was going to be selling the Live at the BBC album at midnight. I listened to the album a few months ago, and it occurred to me that this was close to what the Beatles must have sounded like at their Cavern shows. Much of the material came from the sets they played live in clubs, and I imagined how it must have been to walk into a club and here this band kicking ass. The energy, the musical competence, the perfect harmonies of their live shows is captured here. It's no wonder they were the best band in Britian.
I'm going to be honest, I'd buy any Beatles music content that's being released officially for the first time. Even if it's something I already have on bootlegs. I'd be all over a Live at the BBC volume 3 😊
Yes, I would buy Volume 3 in a heartbeat! What would I like to hear on it? Anything! Story time: When I was a boy, I would often visit a local mall not too far from my home. Beside the escalator was the electronics store, which naturally sold CDs and cassettes as well. And on the exterior wall of this electronic store were cover photos from popular albums. Which album’s cover art was right beside me as I went down the escalator? Live at the BBC. So I would go down that escalator and beside me would be The Beatles, larger than life, probably 3 or 4m tall. That photo stayed there until the mall was torn down in the early 2000s.
The BBC recordings are among my favorite recordings of the Beatles. I bought the original Yellow Matter Custard back in 1971 or 72 and thought it was from the Decca audition. At the time, we US fans had no idea that the Beatles had recorded all these BBC sessions. Over the years, I bought every BBC bootleg I could get my hands on. The Great Dane box set and the multi-volume Pyramid Records releases were phenomenal. I was a graduate student in the early 80s when the original BBC radio special aired in the US. I was scheduled to teach a class at the exact time of the broadcast. I arranged for a friend to teach the class so I could record the radio show; I still have those tapes. A few years later I bought a copy of the three-LP set of the actual transcript of the show sent to radio stations. I'd love to see an official release of all the Beatles BBC material.
Live at the BBC is oneof the best Beatles discs ever! It showcases them in their element, their quick wit, with some killer live performances and oh yeah -- most of it is pure rock n roll!
I love this release. I have the collection box with volumes 1 & 2, bought in 2013. 2013 was a hard year for me, with depression. But this album helped me a lot though that time. During my depression, I did had some happy moments at times, visiting family etc. and then I remember listening to that BBC release on my iPod. And when the hard and when the depressing everydaylife during the weekdays came, it was pretty hard listening to some of the songs, making me cry, especially two particular song, «Soldier Of Love» and «Beautiful Dreamer». But the album did help me through it. I love it.
I have immense love for the BBC album. It was actually the first Beatles album I ever heard, when I was about 12. Of course I knew very little about music at that time and I actually thought the album was sort of a "greatest hits" compilation, and that The Beatles' studio recordings (and therefore all 60s pop) actually had that poorer very raw sound quality. these were the first version I ever heard of songs like A Hard Day's Night, I Feel Fine or even some of the covers originally featured in the studio album like Roll Over Beethoven and such. I remember my reaction when I got to hear the actual studio version of some songs. I was blown away by the quality (duh) but at the same time I thought the studio versions lacked a lot of the energy and freshness of the BBC versions. You Really Got a Hold On Me and Slow Down to this day sound WAY more entertaining in their BBC incarnations than on the official studio ones...
It's worth noting that Live at the BBC was the first release following the 1989 final legal settlement between the individual Beatles, Apple, and EMI which gave Apple strict oversight over what went out under the Beatles banner. No more unapproved things like Love Songs, Rock and Roll Music, Reel Music, etc. Approval of the four Apple principals was now required. The BBC project was the ideal shakedown cruise for this new arrangement, given it was uncontroversial and everyone agreed that it should go forward (unlike the Anthology, which was still being negotiated among the principals at that point).
I was in London on business the day vol 1 was released. It's impossible to describe the anticipation and excitement of that day. Keen, and rich, Americans flew into London just to get it as soon as it was released. The perfect dish before the main course, the Anthology.
I used to listen to the Beatles on the radio in the Sixties, and so was very pleased when Live At The BBC came out. My fat-box CD edition has got the error on the Disc 2 contents corrected, and just has the regular title. I bought the second live double CD both as a separate item, and was then lucky enough to find a new copy of the slipcased pair. I also have the 4 track EP and Kevin Howlett’s The Beatles 1962-1970 BBC Archive book enclosed in the replica tape box. I’ve checked through my cassette tape library and found two The Beatles At The Beeb cassettes that I recorded in December 1982, and five John Lennon 1940-1980 cassettes recorded in 1981. Luckily, I keep all of my cassettes in proper storage and still have a Sony WM-D6C Pro Walkman to play them on. Thanks for another great video.
I always thought the official BBC release was Apple's response to the massive (and professional looking), 9 CD bootleg boxset that was extremely popular. The sound quality was far greater than previous bootlegs. And if fans were willing to pay top dollar for a 9 CD set, surely they would spend a fraction of that cost for an official release? As you stated, this was all before the success of the Anthology series.
I'll never forget receiving this on CD as a gift from my grandma along with a vintage book of Beatles trivia. Watching the Peter Jackson Get Back documentary encouraged me to dig this set back out.
At 5:10 to 5:20, you mention "medium wave" and "long wave" radio. "Medium Wave" is the same frequency band as AM Radio, in many countries it encompasses the frequencies from 540 kHz to 1700 kHz. In the US, depending on the power output and atmospheric conditions, an AM station can reach large parts of the country. In 2005, a New Orleans, Louisiana radio station, WWL-AM, became the lifeline for New Orleans and surrounding areas after Hurricane Katrina. "Long Wave" is a broadcast band below the AM band, with frequencies between 153 kHz and 279 kHz. It's widely used in Europe, but unheard of here in the US.
A bit of a non sequitur. AM does not equal MW in that respect. Yes, the frequency bands you state for MW and LW are correct, but they're both Amplitude Modulated: AM. This is as opposed to Frequency Modulation which was transmitted on VHF (but again the frequencies and modulation system are distinct entities that happen to be used together but don't necessarily have to be).
@@markboulton954 You are correct. I was writing from a US perspective, where "AM" and "FM" are the default, if unofficial, names used by the general public in the US. It is true that LW also uses Amplitude Modulation, but here in the US, LW radio isn't a thing.... unless you're a ham operator with an LW tuner getting some massively freaky DX tropo!
The highlight of this album for me is “I’ll Be On My Way” a gorgeous ballad that I had no idea was given away to another band, but the Beatles did their own take anyway. I also had no idea a good portion of this was from Longwave recordings! As a radio Dx’er that puts such a smile on my face. I wonder if it was on 198kHz, the current Radio 4 frequency? Longwave is much more stable and can travel further than mediumwave frequencies.
Hello Andrew great video. You mention the special programmes on Radio 1,but I remember on Tommy Vance's Friday night rockshow over a few weeks he played 3 tracks each time. The songs which stood out then were nothin' shakin', Memphis, Tennessee and I'm gonna sit right down and cry over you. I have the cd and I love some other guy. It is so raw and the guitars have a great edginess. A lot of the post 1963 shows are poor,hard day's night is bad for one. There are some great rock n roll covers by the Beatles and I think Ringo shows what a great rock n roll drummer he is.
I listened to my mom’s Beatles records in the 70s and 80s, but didn’t buy my own until the early 90s when I left home, so “Live at the BBC” was only the 3rd Beatles purchase I made after the Red & Blue albums. Then I went full catalog. I know several notable artists had official “At the Beeb” releases well before this (Hendrix, Syd Barrett, and Queen come to mind), but after the Beatles released theirs, everyone else followed suit in short order, although it took another decade for the Stones.
This one grew on me over time. Wasn’t wild about it when it first came out. Later I came to appreciate the raw energy and live feel of it. Now I’d say it’s in medium rotation on my Beatles music listening. Thanks!!
I remember last year getting the CD and then the cassette version at Christmas. Best tracks for me are definitely 'Keep Your Hands Off My Baby', 'Some Other Guy' and 'I'll Follow The Sub' from the EP. I didn't know it had such a great reception, so glad it did though because that gave them the thumbs-up for the Anthology project.
The BBC recordings are probably my favorite of The Beatles. The spirit, energy and innocence of the “on the cusp of fame” Beatles is so infectious. I have a multi CD set and I play them on occasion, but the original Live at the BBC set has great nostalgic value. Count me in as disapproving the removal of the sepia from the packaging. Losing the crossfades were helpful for uploading to my iPhone but otherwise I prefer the original release.
I will buy a Volume 3 definitely, because I enjoy Live At The BBC and On Air that much. Changing from sepia to b/w for the reissue of Vol. 1 wasn‘t a real step forward. The colourful picture of On Air is my favourite now. Thank you for your high quality videos 👍🏻🍀
Just catching this video now. Yes, it was such a huge deal when the first BBC set came out. For me, it was like being a little kid again and I couldn't wait for Christmas to get the CD. I hadn't collected bootlegs of the material (yet), so it was like opening a giant batch of unheard Beatles performances (and wonderful, witty chat). A treasure trove! I'd love to see all of it released. Maybe like a lot of fans, The Beatles are like distant friends, so gifted and funny, and I relish any chance for their company. -Jason (Spy Vibe)
Best of the BBC are Lord Reith's Versions, most updated, but love to hear the other aretists, like Gerry & The Pacemakers, etc, from the 11 Pop Goes The Beatles shows
I revisited the Live At The BBC albums last week and was struck again by their musicality, the breadth of repertoire and sense of fun. A band discovering this new world of entertainment and having fun with it before it became jaded to them. Ringo's playing on I'm Gonna Sit Right Down And Cry Over You gives us a beautiful insight into his playing and what it was that made the other three want him in the band. The only mystery I can't fathom is on volume 2, who is playing the electric piano on Dizzy Miss Lizzy. There's obviously 2 guitars, bass, drums and Lennon usually took the electric piano duties live. It doesn't sound like an overdub. So who is it?
This record brings back lots of good memories. I was only 11 years old and I remember the impact it had on Beatles fans here in Brazil. Radio programs played those songs for hours on end to leverage the release of Live At BBC, with comments made by fan clubs, musicians and lots Of Beatles fans all over the country. My dad bought the CD for me in December 1994 during our holidays. Good times!!! Thank you for another great video, my friend!!! ✌️😀
My second favorite Beatles album; I love it! You can really hear the club band here: the extensive repertoire, the sometimes funny covers, the intimate singing, the confidence. They were such a tight performing unit.
When volume 2 came out, Apple or EMI sent me a 14 track sampler CD. I’ve no idea why, maybe I’d bought something directly from them not long before and they had my address. Pretty cool anyway. When ‘The Beeb’s Lost Beatles Tapes’ was aired, I taped all episodes, and later put those on CD, which I still have. I always liked the version of Tie Me Kangaroo Down Sport they did with Rolf Harris, but I doubt that will see official release given his later convictions.
I had so many bootlegs that many of these tracks I already had, but many were in deplorable condition. I got 50 bootlegs, including “Yellow Matter Custard”, and $300 for a Butcher Cover (pretty wrinkled and with a small patch of paper loss). My sources for bootlegs came from the classified ad section of Rolling Stone in the 70s.
Beatles at the Beeb was syndicated here in the US as well, I had never heard about their work for radio and remember trying to record as much of it as I could. I have a couple of bootlegs and my original CDs from 1994, some of their best work. The breadth & depth of their repertoire was astounding!👍👍
I was 12 when the album was released and I immediately fell in love with 'Keep Your Hands Off My Baby'. It's one of the most lo-fi recordings of all their BBC material and I still hope and pray that someday a better version will surface.
I remember being gifted the album twice in Christmas, first the 1994 version in 2011 and then the 2013 version 3 years later (if my memory is correct). I eventually kept the 2013 one.
I was also glued to the "Beatles At The Beeb" radio broadcast when it aired in the US in 1982, and taped it directly off the radio. I was already familiar with the Deccagone coloured vinyl 45s, but hadn't bought more than one or two of them. I religiously listened to those cassettes for years, and transferred them to CD in 2002, and then to mp3 files a decade later. Unfortunately, they were destroyed in a winter rainflood (unfortunate because they contained 1982 narration and interviews by BBC figures who worked with the band 20 years earlier). I was initially unimpressed with the official release, because of the cross-fading and alternate sequencing to what I was accustomed to. But now I've embraced them, because that's all there is left.
It's a pity,a real pity that The Beatles didn't record for the BBC after 1965 indeed until the end of their career because it would be interesting to hear songs from Revolver onwards as BBC versions.
BBC 2 broadcast a show in 1979 with these songs and I recorded it so was a massive fan for years before the issued it as a album.. For me it's the real Beatles ...
I've had the CD in my car for over two months now 😄😄. I hadn't listened to it for many years, and really believe this is the Beatles at their best. Playing live, full of energy... John's vocals are great, George's solos (!!!) The whole band 🙌🙌🙌 plus their wit in the interviews. Great album. I had no idea there was a second one... And the bootlegs 1963... Thanks fot the video!! 🙂👍👍 Greetings from Peru 🙂
Superb Andrew! I still have my cassette recordings from those radio one 1988 pop goes the Beatles shows, it was the first time I had heard anything from them at the BBC.. Thx again for sharing 👍👍
I enjoy occasionally listening to both volumes of Live At The BBC. They're a well recorded look at the Beatles live sound, under more controlled conditions.
I asked my Dad to buy me this for my birthday when it came out, and he was surprised that I wanted it on vinyl rather than CD. I told him I thought the LP version would be more collectable. I'm glad I was right for once!
The Beeb's Lost Beatles Tapes was a great series. I recorded them all and still have them. A third volume of BBC recordings may have limited appeal given that there are likely very few, if any, new songs to be heard. A big selling point of the first album was the number of songs on it that they never recorded for an album with EMI.
I grew up with the BBC album and always loved it. In fact, it's possibly the first beatles CD I ever sat down with and listened to. I was surprised and happy to see it remastered in 2013. Vol. 2 I think fits nicely with Vol. 1. I also have the iTunes Bootleg Recordings album. I see that basically as a material drop, which is what it is. The studio stuff is great but I found the BBC selections a bit tedious. George Martin really did pick the best for Vol. 1.
I made a complete timeline playlist of the entire history of The Beatles and these releases were the toughest to get into chronological order. They jump all over the place on both releases.
Had that album in my house growing up. I always feel like I was chipping away at it -- when I was little, there were a lot of songs I just skipped over, "Honeymoon Song" or "Soldier of Love". There were a lot of duds on that double album, as perceived by my much younger self. It wasn't until many years later I really actually liked those tracks.
For me, it is part of my days of university, nice time that now lives in my heart. I have the CD, I didin’t know about the BBC sessions until they appeared. I was study in the South of my country, Chile, and I was a friend of the brother of EMI’s general manager in Chile. I can say I was the first in buy the álbum at least in South Chile. I remember being waiting for my friend on his music shop on a rainy day. He arrived with a big box marked with EMI.. he opened and gave me the first CD “you are the first” he said. This álbum and The Antology (also the related EP’s),are part of the soundtrack of my 90’s. Than you very much for your video! 😀👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼❤️
As a Beatles fan and also as I work transferring to digital old tapes from my country's national symphonic orchestra (Uruguay, 1950-1990), I'm fascinated with all the insight you brought about how the BBC tapes were almost miraculously conserved and also how fans had such an important role in all this. Great video, as usual. I'm sorry I'm 7 months late for it. I'm subscribed now.
I first heard the BBC tracks in mid-1982 on a special aired on a Washington, D.C., FM station, and instantly fell in love with "Soldier Of Love" (later that year, Marshall Crenshaw -- who played John Lennon in a 1979 touring production of "Beatlemania" -- included a version on his fine debut album), as well as "I'll Be On My Way." So when an "official" CD version was issued, I just had to own, as I did Vol. 2 in 2013. Wonderful stuff. 😃
I have been able to experience both volumes of Live at the BBC through Spotify. As someone who is an absolute sucker of Beatles performing live, it was a treasure trove hearing it for the first time through my headphones.
Your channel has filled in so many of the questions I've had about Beatles history and provided answers that you really can't find anywhere else... cheers! The BBC live CDs were always my favorite... I thought it was the Beatles at their rawest and rockingest
Live At The BBC is one of my favorite Beatles albums. I just think it captures a spontaneous spirit that they had, so early. the banter and conversation between numbers is so much fun to listen to.
Thanks Andrew fir the heads up on mono cables. I got a set and my mono box never sounded better!! I've too many memories of the bbc sessions....thank you on both!!
One of the last great album art for The Beatles. Did not know that the reissue did not include cross fades or added tracks! This was an exciting moment seeing a new Beatles release. By the way, brilliant intro/outro to the video!
I tape recorded the original radio transmissions in the 1980s of the Lost Beatles tapes and it was such a joy to listen. Their humour on interview can’t be matched. Musically, I loved “a shot of rhythm and blues” (which I recently learned to sing and play on acoustic) and a host of others like Lucille, Chuck Berry covers galore and so much else.
The local rock station in New York City aired the Beatles at the Beeb radio show in 1982 in May I believe. I of course taped it and listened to it many times. It was great hearing all those unfamiliar songs. Soldier Of Love was incredible. Why had they not officially recorded that one? I loved Don’t Ever Change and thought it was a duet between John and Paul and only much later realized it was a rare Paul and George harmony vocal throughout. So much great stuff. I especially loved the BBC version of This Boy and was disappointed it wasn’t on the 1994 album but glad it came out on the 2013 one. I haven’t yet collected the full BBC recordings. Just some extra shows here and there. I would happily buy a third official release and even happier spring for an official however many cd box of the complete recordings done up right with Kevin Howlett annotating everything. Thanks again for your videos. Always look forward to them. I’ve bought a number of albums recently based on your recommendations and they have been great.
Great that was, Andrew! In 1994 a did the same, here in Brazil. I remember that when the record sales man received the cds I was there outside the store, I got the first one. I still have it. In the same year I bought a 9 cd box set with the bbc sessions of the beatles, an Italian issue. I herad them restlessly. Those were the days. Thank you, Andrew!
I love both "Live At The BBC" volumes. There is a burst of energy to the performances and the 1964 and 1965 performances are actually superior, to me, than the actual concert recordings, including the Hollywood Bowl. I would most definitely buy a Vol. 3 if it were to happen. Even more great performances are out there! I've always considering the cover songs on both volumes to be as close as we'll ever get to hearing a glimpse of what the Beatles were like during their days at the Cavern on in Hamburg.
I wish there was someway, either in a boxed set or radio special, that we get to hear the complete Margaret Ashworth recordings. These sound fantastic and what good are they if no one gets to hear them?
Hello Andrew. How lovely to feature the live at the BBC albums. I bought the first one in a record shop on a trip to Coventry for a great price of £6.99 on vinyl must be in 1995 at earliest. Carrying it around the town and getting it home back to Devon unscathed was a challenge. I played this album a few times and love it. The second one I bought in the first week of release on vinyl, I think I have played it twice and is mint. Really interesting video, looking forward to the next one
Another fine documentation of a fantastic Beatles' release. My introduction to the Beatles BBC material was a copy of THE BEATLES BROADCASTS in 1981. The album was a fine mixture of established Beatles' hits, plus covers that I'd never heard before. Most of them turned up on EMI/Apple's releases. These recordings, while I don't listen to very often, do offer the listener to hear the early Beatles live, with out the saturation of screams from the audience.
First time I heard the Live at the BBC was during an early morning Beatles program in my country back in mid 90s when I was still in 5th grade. At first I thought it was just some regular Beatles program and then I was shocked to hear them bantering in between songs and then they sang "Soldier of Love" which is a song I've never heard of before! Clearly it was John singing, but it was a song that I was not familiar with, I hurriedly recorded it on cassette, but unfortunately I was only able to record 2 songs and from that point on my passion to collect Beatles releases was solidified, it took nearly 10 years for me to get my copies of nearly all the Beatles albums in cassette minus the Yellow Submarine album. The cassettes were produced by a record label called Aquarius from Indonesia, they have a fairly decent sound quality, but for some reason, side B of my Abbey Road cassette had a recording error on it. The recording speed from the beginning of side B ran at a slower speed and it sounded a 45 record playing at 33 1/3 speed. It took me nearly 10 more years to properly acquire the 2009 CD remasters along with the 1999 Yellow Submarine Song Track album and the Let It Be Naked album.
Another fascinating clip... I ordered the 1st BBC double LP vinyl version and vol 2 in New Zealand. The record shop guy thought I was "old school" for not getting the CD version. The record shop has long gone and now CDs are "old school" and VINYL'S BACK BABY !.🤩👍.... Now I'm cool again😎lol.
Besides all of the commercially available BBC material, I picked up a 10 CD volume set pressed in Japan. Billed as The Beatles Complete BBC Sessions (each complete with inner sleeve liner notes). I've also found the box titled, The BBC Archives 1962-1970 by Kevin Howlett to be a great resource. I agree with you that every time I play any of the BBC disc I too break out in a big smile. Thanks
Thanks again Andrew for another great presentation. I remember recording the Beatles at the Beeb on my portable cassette player whilst camping at Wilson's Promontory in Victoria, Australia. I was going away that weekend but took my stereo cassette recorder and ran it on batteries to record the show. I particularly liked the Chuck Berry numbers. I also bought bootlegs of BBC shows -The best being the Fab 4 Radio Active 9 CD set with complete recordings of Saturday Club and other shows. I have the official BBC recordings on vinyl and CD and would be happy to buy any further official releases of BBC recordings. It would also be good if Apple released some of the numerous live performances that are widely available on RUclips and elsewhere.
I was working for HMV at the time of this release, and I remember the initial shipment sold out on the day of release.Possibly the morning of release. Everybody in our shop, was gobsmacked, at how popular this release was at the time.As it wasn't exactly a 'Greatest Hits' or 'Best of'.(Something the record companies were famous for around the Christmas period) but old BBC recordings that many didn't know existed, unless you were a die hard Beatles fan.Which I was, but still didn't have in my collection. I believe there was a press release out to the stores at least, but it soon became very clear, from the offset, that EMI had massively, underestimated the sales of this album, and the popularity The Beatles still commanded. They had evidently not pressed nearly enough to satisfy demand.We were told that EMI were offering their staff overtime at all their record plants, so more copies could copied, and rushed out.Almost overnight. If memory serves for a period time, (I can't remember exactly) we had none, and neither had any of the other stores.It seemed everybody, and their Granny wanted a copy! We also had the cd's playing continuously in the shop after we finally got more stock in, so sadly, need less to say in the end, it became to be regarded as a bit of pariah by our staff. But it proved once a again, that even 20 odd years plus after their last official release, the Fab Four still had the pull! I rediscovered 'The Beatles at the Beeb' again with Richard Skinner as the presenter? and it is quite special. Great stories behind the BBC recordings with one in particular that blew my mind! Great podcast as per usual Andrew.
Excellent job to understand well the how and why of this collection. In 1989 I was able to get hold of a three-disc box set from "The Swingin' Pig" label entitled "From Us to you", quite impressive and I was able to enjoy it 5 years before the official version came out (which I also bought). As a curiosity there are some songs that sound much better in the unofficial edition of 1989 I also have the two EPs and of course, the vinyl edition of Paneta Agostini. Greetings from Spain.
I agree. It always brings a smile to my face. Cutting out all the recordings of their 'official' Parlophone material there's a really good album of additional Beatle BBC recordings here which in some cases are far superior to the covers recorded for their first two albums and Beatles for Sale. My fave has always 'I forgot to remember to forget' sung by George. I don't really know why except they all sound so happy and confident. The last non-original they ever recorded for the Beeb.
I remember buying live at the BBC on a double CD set the first day it came out during 94. The release date they came out at that time was December 4, 1994, in my hometown of Santa Cruz. The central coast of California and I also bought the EP CD of baby, it’s you that came out in late February 1995. I sort of made a mistake with getting the double cassette of live at the BBC. I still have that double cassette one in my possession, and it’s still sealed up!!
Led Zeppelin and Jimi Hendrix BBC Sessions were great, but The Beatles albums are abdolutely outstanding. In 1995, I had two Maxell cassettes with them. Delightful. Thank you for bringing back these wonderful memories to me, Andrew. Best wishes
![Twenty One Pilots - The Line (from Arcane Season 2) [Official Audio]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/XCz7WUotXs8/mqdefault.jpg)
‘Soldier of Love’ ‘Some Other Guy’ ‘Don’t Ever Change’ and ‘I’ll Be On My Way’ are just a few of the superb cuts found on the BBC album. One of the best post break-up canon releases.
I agree...those are some of my fav's too....
'Don't Ever Change' was by The Crickets ,after Buddy's passing, and written by Carole King and Gerry Goffin. Both Buddy Holly & The Crickets and King-Goffin being amongst the biggest influences earlier in The Beatles' career. ruclips.net/video/uJjC0rUR_wU/видео.html
Agree. My other faves are the Honeymoon Song, A Shot of Rythm and Blues
lonesome tears in my eyes is my favorite track on this.
I was working at Borders Books & Music in Deerfield,IL when the BBC compilation came out. We had a midnight sale and while it was a mild gathering, it was pretty exciting. I picked it up in CD that night, came home around 2am in time for my father to show up from work. He’s a huge Beatles fans and was the person responsible for turning me into a rabid Beatles fan. I was so honored to be the one to play my Dad the Live At The BBC for him, fresh off the stands. Another great episode
Good times, Angel!
Thanks! Also my favorites from the set are Shot Of Rhythm & Blues and Keep Your Hands Off My Baby
In the sea of crappy music writing, you are an island of reliable, well written and delivered information. Thanks for your scholarship and talent, sir!
Thank you, Sir!
Wow thank you Margret for having the foresight to capture this period of history.
Live at the BBC has two things going for it. 1. That cover shot is one of the nicest ever done of the Fab Four -capturing them on the cusp of worldwide fame; and 2. I cannot get enough of “Some Other Guy”. I wish there had been a studio recording of that song. Great video again today!
Yeah. Some Other Guy is a monster. Wish it could be cleaned up and reissued
That location is a stop on Richard Porter’s London Beatles tour. When I took it in 2007, the BBC Paris had become an LA Tan.
“Some other guy” was actually used as the first three notes of the John Lennon solo hit “instant Karma.”
@@michaelrochester48 I never made that connection, but I heard it in my head the second I read this.
Agreed, 'Some Other Guy' would have made more sense than 'Mister Moonlight' on the Beatles For Sale L.P.
Being a clandestine lofi set, I accept it for what it is - a document of their presentation with the looseness and fun they were to us, and that they were as characters.
Same as the Star Club material and the Xmas flexis. No polishing needed, it's a time capsule that can immerse me back in the era it, and I, came from.
Wow this was great to watch and it was an amazing stroke of luck the story of how Margaret back in 1963 made those recordings, imagine doing some home recording back in the day and decades later your recording that YOU made becomes a thing 🎵🎶🎵
Thanks Andrew. Haven't got these in my collection yet, but will definitely get them now. In 1963 I was 10 and we didn't have a record player at all. What we had though was a 10 year old Pye valve radio that as I remember had great sound. I used to love listening to Brian Matthews show Saturday Club on Saturday morning and that was where I first heard the Beatles and like many young girls was captured by their humour as well as their music. Because I was so star struck by the Beatles I was taken to our local cinema to see A Hard Day's Night when it came out .....and in 1965/6 we got a Dansette record player. Thus began my love affair with vinyl. I'm definitely gonna get both volume 1 and 2.
The Beatles at The Beeb was played as a radio special in the US in 1982. Recorded it on am Ampex real to real recorder and then transfered to cassette. Really enjoyed that.
I remember when Live at The BBC came out. EVERYONE was screaming about how it was the opening salvo for The Beatles to kill the bootleg market. It was going to open the floodgates(Which turned out to be the trickle called Anthology). I was just thrilled to hear songs I never heard like Some Other Guy and Solider Of Love. It was just a joy to hear what was then NEW Beatles material for the masses.
Whats amazing is we're coming up on The Beatles 60 year anniversary and nobody get how much unreleased material really IS still out there(The hours of BBC material, the hours upon hours of Get Back/Let it be material). Unreleased outtakes and songs just considered not up to snuff. Will we ever see a remastered and re-released Decca sessions outside of the Anthology tracks? Will we ever see the Anthology remastered in some other way than downloads? Will McCartney ever follow through on his mission to finished the third Lennon song done by him George and Ringo?
You'd think with all the hype Get Back got, The Beatles would do some kind of Expanded version of Anthology that literally follows the WHOLE story and not just snippets. Release Star Club and any other early live tapes. Do an expansive retrospect on BBC and Ed Sullivan and a expand on the Ron Howard film.
The Beatles are probably the only band in existence where a literal LIBRARY of everything would sell like wildfire. Why did On Air not sell as well as the original? It was treated as second class next to the original. It never got the hype the original did. It was like "Oh...yeah...and theres is this also" I mean the original BBC CDs, Yellow Submarie Songtrack and then ANTHOLOGY were not just releases....THEY WERE EVENTS. They were so hyped that by the time release day came, you were desperate to hear them.
Plus on other thing changed. Streaming. You HAD to go to the shops to hear them. Now? Just download it when its available. Gee, I also remember a time when if you did that, Metaliica would come to your house and beat you up!😁
Here’s a fun dovetail between The Beatles on BBC (albiet TV and not Radio) and another beloved BBC property with a penchent for missing epsiodes whose audio survivies due to fans recording onto reel-to-reel in the 60s, Doctor Who.
One specific Doctor Who serial, Season 2’s The Chase, features The Doctor, Ian, Barbara, and new companion Vicki watching a “Space-Time Visualizer.” Ian watches President Lincoln deliver the Gettysburg Address, Barbara tunes it to watch Shakespeare being premiered at The Globe, and Vicki watches “classical music,” aka The Beatles playing Ticket to Ride on Top of the Pops, much to Ian and Barbara’s amazement that pop music from their time will remain popular into future centuries. This is one of few surviving TotP Beatles clips, and is only on DVD in the UK due to copyright restrictions. This clip replaced an idea to film them in old age make-up at a 1980 reunion concert that Brian Epstien shot down, and instead allowed the DW team to use up to a minute of one of their “live” TV performances.
Amusingly, there are two other Dalek serials, Season 4’s The Evil of the Daleks and Season 25’s Remembrance of the Daleks, which used Beatles music on broadcast because they take place in the 60s. Evil used Paperback Writer and Remembrance used both Do You Want to Know a Secret? and A Taste of Honey. For Evil’s CD and Animation, the audio was replaced by Hold Tight by Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich in order to use the same audio for all releases worldwide. Remembrance’s Special Edition DVD in the UK keeps the original audio while replacing it with contemporary cover versions on the US DVD.
Canada leads the world in the most units sold of the "Beatles Live at the BBC." I bought both the CD and LP version when it first came out.
My mum is on that album! Well, she’s in the audience of the Easy Beat radio show anyway, so wasn’t ever going to receive royalties for her appearance. On another note, I bought the CD on release day and it doesn’t have the misprint on the track listing. I also picked up the vinyl at the time too, just because it looked nice and it was affordable back then (I think it was £9.99 from Andy’s Records).
Great story, Clive.
There is a 12 CD set of ALL the broadcasted Beatles BBC shows. The official BBC recordings only scratches the surface of what’s out there. This CD set is noteworthy in that it has all the songs broadcasted in all of their shows. The best feature is it has a transcription disc recordings for all of the shows for Pop Goes the Beatles are in this box set and comprise two discs I believe. The MacDonald tapes in this video is one resource for what we have of their shows. And it is unfortunately true that the BBC wiped most of the tapes, and only a few transcription discs are extent. But the Beatles had fans all over England, and these fans recorded these broadcasts. This was coupled by the prevalence in England at the time of clubs which were associated solely to record things---anything: birds chirping, trains, what have you. (A little bit like the Monty Python sketch about the club whose sole purpose was to put things on other things.) When you couple these two social phenomena---recording clubs and Beatle fans---you have individuals all over England recording these Beatle radio shows. Luckily enough, song lists for the BBC shows exist, so what the compilers of this CD box set did was find the recordings matching the song lists for all their shows from the Beatle fans and recording clubs who recorded them. This accounts for the many varying sound qualities of the songs on these discs. It is truly marvelous undertaking that we all should be grateful for. These songs are my personal favorite. The band recorded the songs usually on one take, their playing is incredibly tight (warts and all), and they were bright and fresh when they introduced the songs. It is the Holy Grail. I don’t know if this boot is currently available, but if you find one, snatch it.
I bought the Yellow Matter Custard bootleg LP in a funky head shop on the boardwalk in Ocean City, NJ in 1974; I, too, recorded the Beatles At The BEEB radio show(s) broadcast locally on Philly radio back in the ‘80s & I used to sell copies at the record store I worked at (don’t tell Apple!) the BBC recordings are essential inclusions to The Beatles catalogue; the fact that 99% of it is performed live WITHOUT SCREAMING FANS allows us to hear what a great band they truly were…then there’s all the incredible songs never released by EMI; I have a great playlist titled ‘The Beatles Lost Album’ comprised of all the non-EMI titles (it’s a GREAT album)
For me, the most impressive performance of the BBC Beatles archives was the Lennon McCartney "I'll Be On My Way". An early showcase of everything John and Paul did so well. Hooks galore. Apparently forgotten and never recorded for EMI. Never understood why. Thanks, Andrew.
Because they gave it to Billy J. Kramer and the Dakotas... even though it was only on the B-side, the A-side being Do You Want to know a Secret?
@@OperationPhantom Thanks - did not know. My bad.
@@bobcash4617 Nah, I always thought it was an A side but only a B side! Wish the Beatles had recorded it for With the Beatles but I guess that would have seemed "lazy" back then :)
@@OperationPhantom It's certainly a better song than "Little Child" or "Hold Me Tight". But I think it would've fit perfectly on Beatles for Sale.
I first heard I'll Be On My Way when the Beatles at the BBC material was turned into a syndicated radio show in North America in the 1980s, and I recorded it off the air from a local station that ran it. I loved the song instantly, and also wished it would get a proper issue. Eventually, it did, but it was a long wait.
I’d love a Volume 3 release because we don’t have official BBC versions of „The Night Before“ and „I Should Have Known Better“ yet.
I was 16 when this came out and still remember the night I bought this at a "Media Play" store in Binghamton NY. I got the double vinyl. I had a couple of Beatles cassettes, sure, but all the Beatles records I grew up with were my parents. It was cool that I bought a Beatles record of my own! It was exciting bringing it home, looking at it, playing it.
I loved how it felt both so new and so old at once and in multiple ways. The beautiful packaging, the crisp heavy paper of the brand new sleeves, an excellent modern execution of a classic design with vintage pictures and a literal sepia tone to the whole thing. And it was early in the Beatles' career, so seemed "old" to my teenage self, yet it was when they were very young and new. And so many of the songs were new to me, even if they were old covers. It was a strange mix of borrowed nostalgia and this-is-now 90s record buying!
The sound had a similar warm quality, and thanks to your vid I realize now how much I have Margaret Ashworth to thank for that. "Good ol' Margaret"! Once again, it was a mix of then-and-now - obviously period sounds and production, but it all made you almost feel like you were listening in live on the radio too. And the sides were so long! Just put it on, let it play like a radio show. It was very cool.
There were so many good songs but just to mention one, Thank You Girl - it really shows the magic they were making as a live band even as Beatlemania was closing in. The studio version of Thank You Girl is a cute but disposable track. This live take is killer, easily in the top 10 hardest-rocking songs they ever did. There are so many glimpses like this on the BBC album, moments that hint that hint at what a lot of those other great unrecorded live Beatle performances were like.
Thanks for the video!
My brother and I got Live at the BBC on cassette at a garage sale when we were teenagers and I have really fond memories of him and I listening to it all the time while drawing comics together. Good times. Those are truly the moments you think nothing of at the time but become the most cherished as an adult.
I sincerely hope we get a Super Deluxe Edition of the Live at the BBC series. With volumes 1+2 included in a joint package along with brand new recordings. Heck, a live Beatles SDE would be incredible. There’s a lot of excellent Beatles performances that haven’t been officially released. They could even include some outfakes compiling various live performances to make it sound complete, as a lot of times, the mics were only picking up one or two of the Beatles.
I’d love to have the 1966 Budokan Hall performance officially released.
My memory is a bit foggy, but I do remember at the time I was working 2nd shift, 2pm until 10:30 in North-east Pennsylvania, and after work I went somewhere that was going to be selling the Live at the BBC album at midnight. I listened to the album a few months ago, and it occurred to me that this was close to what the Beatles must have sounded like at their Cavern shows. Much of the material came from the sets they played live in clubs, and I imagined how it must have been to walk into a club and here this band kicking ass. The energy, the musical competence, the perfect harmonies of their live shows is captured here. It's no wonder they were the best band in Britian.
I'm going to be honest, I'd buy any Beatles music content that's being released officially for the first time. Even if it's something I already have on bootlegs. I'd be all over a Live at the BBC volume 3 😊
Here, Here!
Yes, I would buy Volume 3 in a heartbeat! What would I like to hear on it? Anything!
Story time: When I was a boy, I would often visit a local mall not too far from my home. Beside the escalator was the electronics store, which naturally sold CDs and cassettes as well. And on the exterior wall of this electronic store were cover photos from popular albums. Which album’s cover art was right beside me as I went down the escalator? Live at the BBC. So I would go down that escalator and beside me would be The Beatles, larger than life, probably 3 or 4m tall. That photo stayed there until the mall was torn down in the early 2000s.
The BBC recordings are among my favorite recordings of the Beatles. I bought the original Yellow Matter Custard back in 1971 or 72 and thought it was from the Decca audition. At the time, we US fans had no idea that the Beatles had recorded all these BBC sessions. Over the years, I bought every BBC bootleg I could get my hands on. The Great Dane box set and the multi-volume Pyramid Records releases were phenomenal. I was a graduate student in the early 80s when the original BBC radio special aired in the US. I was scheduled to teach a class at the exact time of the broadcast. I arranged for a friend to teach the class so I could record the radio show; I still have those tapes. A few years later I bought a copy of the three-LP set of the actual transcript of the show sent to radio stations. I'd love to see an official release of all the Beatles BBC material.
Live at the BBC is oneof the best Beatles discs ever! It showcases them in their element, their quick wit, with some killer live performances and oh yeah -- most of it is pure rock n roll!
I love this release. I have the collection box with volumes 1 & 2, bought in 2013.
2013 was a hard year for me, with depression. But this album helped me a lot though that time. During my depression, I did had some happy moments at times, visiting family etc. and then I remember listening to that BBC release on my iPod. And when the hard and when the depressing everydaylife during the weekdays came, it was pretty hard listening to some of the songs, making me cry, especially two particular song, «Soldier Of Love» and «Beautiful Dreamer». But the album did help me through it. I love it.
I have immense love for the BBC album. It was actually the first Beatles album I ever heard, when I was about 12. Of course I knew very little about music at that time and I actually thought the album was sort of a "greatest hits" compilation, and that The Beatles' studio recordings (and therefore all 60s pop) actually had that poorer very raw sound quality. these were the first version I ever heard of songs like A Hard Day's Night, I Feel Fine or even some of the covers originally featured in the studio album like Roll Over Beethoven and such.
I remember my reaction when I got to hear the actual studio version of some songs. I was blown away by the quality (duh) but at the same time I thought the studio versions lacked a lot of the energy and freshness of the BBC versions. You Really Got a Hold On Me and Slow Down to this day sound WAY more entertaining in their BBC incarnations than on the official studio ones...
It's worth noting that Live at the BBC was the first release following the 1989 final legal settlement between the individual Beatles, Apple, and EMI which gave Apple strict oversight over what went out under the Beatles banner. No more unapproved things like Love Songs, Rock and Roll Music, Reel Music, etc. Approval of the four Apple principals was now required. The BBC project was the ideal shakedown cruise for this new arrangement, given it was uncontroversial and everyone agreed that it should go forward (unlike the Anthology, which was still being negotiated among the principals at that point).
I was in London on business the day vol 1 was released. It's impossible to describe the anticipation and excitement of that day. Keen, and rich, Americans flew into London just to get it as soon as it was released. The perfect dish before the main course, the Anthology.
I used to listen to the Beatles on the radio in the Sixties, and so was very pleased when Live At The BBC came out. My fat-box CD edition has got the error on the Disc 2 contents corrected, and just has the regular title. I bought the second live double CD both as a separate item, and was then lucky enough to find a new copy of the slipcased pair. I also have the 4 track EP and Kevin Howlett’s The Beatles 1962-1970 BBC Archive book enclosed in the replica tape box.
I’ve checked through my cassette tape library and found two The Beatles At The Beeb cassettes that I recorded in December 1982, and five John Lennon 1940-1980 cassettes recorded in 1981. Luckily, I keep all of my cassettes in proper storage and still have a Sony WM-D6C Pro Walkman to play them on. Thanks for another great video.
Glad you enjoyed it, Andrew!
I always thought the official BBC release was Apple's response to the massive (and professional looking), 9 CD bootleg boxset that was extremely popular. The sound quality was far greater than previous bootlegs. And if fans were willing to pay top dollar for a 9 CD set, surely they would spend a fraction of that cost for an official release? As you stated, this was all before the success of the Anthology series.
can you do a video explaining the origin of “Past Masters”?
Good thing about the BBC recordings is that they had official versions of Some Other Guy and How Do You Do It
I'll never forget receiving this on CD as a gift from my grandma along with a vintage book of Beatles trivia. Watching the Peter Jackson Get Back documentary encouraged me to dig this set back out.
I got this CD for Christmas in 1994, so in my mind this is a Christmas record - I have it on vinyl now and spin it every Christmas morning
At 5:10 to 5:20, you mention "medium wave" and "long wave" radio.
"Medium Wave" is the same frequency band as AM Radio, in many countries it encompasses the frequencies from 540 kHz to 1700 kHz. In the US, depending on the power output and atmospheric conditions, an AM station can reach large parts of the country. In 2005, a New Orleans, Louisiana radio station, WWL-AM, became the lifeline for New Orleans and surrounding areas after Hurricane Katrina.
"Long Wave" is a broadcast band below the AM band, with frequencies between 153 kHz and 279 kHz. It's widely used in Europe, but unheard of here in the US.
A bit of a non sequitur. AM does not equal MW in that respect. Yes, the frequency bands you state for MW and LW are correct, but they're both Amplitude Modulated: AM. This is as opposed to Frequency Modulation which was transmitted on VHF (but again the frequencies and modulation system are distinct entities that happen to be used together but don't necessarily have to be).
@@markboulton954 You are correct. I was writing from a US perspective, where "AM" and "FM" are the default, if unofficial, names used by the general public in the US. It is true that LW also uses Amplitude Modulation, but here in the US, LW radio isn't a thing.... unless you're a ham operator with an LW tuner getting some massively freaky DX tropo!
The highlight of this album for me is “I’ll Be On My Way” a gorgeous ballad that I had no idea was given away to another band, but the Beatles did their own take anyway. I also had no idea a good portion of this was from Longwave recordings! As a radio Dx’er that puts such a smile on my face. I wonder if it was on 198kHz, the current Radio 4 frequency? Longwave is much more stable and can travel further than mediumwave frequencies.
Would definitely have a volume 3. Ever since I acquired Yellow Matter Custard in the early 70's, these sessions remain as favorites.
Hello Andrew great video. You mention the special programmes on Radio 1,but I remember on Tommy Vance's Friday night rockshow over a few weeks he played 3 tracks each time. The songs which stood out then were nothin' shakin', Memphis, Tennessee and I'm gonna sit right down and cry over you. I have the cd and I love some other guy. It is so raw and the guitars have a great edginess. A lot of the post 1963 shows are poor,hard day's night is bad for one. There are some great rock n roll covers by the Beatles and I think Ringo shows what a great rock n roll drummer he is.
Thanks David. Tommy Vance was great!
I listened to my mom’s Beatles records in the 70s and 80s, but didn’t buy my own until the early 90s when I left home, so “Live at the BBC” was only the 3rd Beatles purchase I made after the Red & Blue albums. Then I went full catalog. I know several notable artists had official “At the Beeb” releases well before this (Hendrix, Syd Barrett, and Queen come to mind), but after the Beatles released theirs, everyone else followed suit in short order, although it took another decade for the Stones.
This one grew on me over time. Wasn’t wild about it when it first came out. Later I came to appreciate the raw energy and live feel of it. Now I’d say it’s in medium rotation on my Beatles music listening. Thanks!!
I remember last year getting the CD and then the cassette version at Christmas. Best tracks for me are definitely 'Keep Your Hands Off My Baby', 'Some Other Guy' and 'I'll Follow The Sub' from the EP. I didn't know it had such a great reception, so glad it did though because that gave them the thumbs-up for the Anthology project.
Love "Keep your hands...".....
The BBC recordings are probably my favorite of The Beatles. The spirit, energy and innocence of the “on the cusp of fame” Beatles is so infectious. I have a multi CD set and I play them on occasion, but the original Live at the BBC set has great nostalgic value.
Count me in as disapproving the removal of the sepia from the packaging. Losing the crossfades were helpful for uploading to my iPhone but otherwise I prefer the original release.
Live at the BBC 2, its one of my fav. Beatles CD's/Apple download. I got the CD the year it was released, and LOVED it...
I will buy a Volume 3 definitely, because I enjoy Live At The BBC and On Air that much. Changing from sepia to b/w for the reissue of Vol. 1 wasn‘t a real step forward. The colourful picture of On Air is my favourite now. Thank you for your high quality videos 👍🏻🍀
Thanks for watching, Karsten!
Just catching this video now. Yes, it was such a huge deal when the first BBC set came out. For me, it was like being a little kid again and I couldn't wait for Christmas to get the CD. I hadn't collected bootlegs of the material (yet), so it was like opening a giant batch of unheard Beatles performances (and wonderful, witty chat). A treasure trove! I'd love to see all of it released. Maybe like a lot of fans, The Beatles are like distant friends, so gifted and funny, and I relish any chance for their company. -Jason (Spy Vibe)
Best of the BBC are Lord Reith's Versions, most updated, but love to hear the other aretists, like Gerry & The Pacemakers, etc, from the 11 Pop Goes The Beatles shows
I revisited the Live At The BBC albums last week and was struck again by their musicality, the breadth of repertoire and sense of fun. A band discovering this new world of entertainment and having fun with it before it became jaded to them.
Ringo's playing on I'm Gonna Sit Right Down And Cry Over You gives us a beautiful insight into his playing and what it was that made the other three want him in the band.
The only mystery I can't fathom is on volume 2, who is playing the electric piano on Dizzy Miss Lizzy. There's obviously 2 guitars, bass, drums and Lennon usually took the electric piano duties live. It doesn't sound like an overdub. So who is it?
I bought the vinyl version in 1994, still have it. I'll give a listen later today. Thanks.
This record brings back lots of good memories. I was only 11 years old and I remember the impact it had on Beatles fans here in Brazil. Radio programs played those songs for hours on end to leverage the release of Live At BBC, with comments made by fan clubs, musicians and lots Of Beatles fans all over the country.
My dad bought the CD for me in December 1994 during our holidays. Good times!!!
Thank you for another great video, my friend!!! ✌️😀
Good times indeed, my friend!!
My second favorite Beatles album; I love it! You can really hear the club band here: the extensive repertoire, the sometimes funny covers, the intimate singing, the confidence. They were such a tight performing unit.
When volume 2 came out, Apple or EMI sent me a 14 track sampler CD. I’ve no idea why, maybe I’d bought something directly from them not long before and they had my address. Pretty cool anyway. When ‘The Beeb’s Lost Beatles Tapes’ was aired, I taped all episodes, and later put those on CD, which I still have. I always liked the version of Tie Me Kangaroo Down Sport they did with Rolf Harris, but I doubt that will see official release given his later convictions.
I had so many bootlegs that many of these tracks I already had, but many were in deplorable condition. I got 50 bootlegs, including “Yellow Matter Custard”, and $300 for a Butcher Cover (pretty wrinkled and with a small patch of paper loss). My sources for bootlegs came from the classified ad section of Rolling Stone in the 70s.
Beatles at the Beeb was syndicated here in the US as well, I had never heard about their work for radio and remember trying to record as much of it as I could. I have a couple of bootlegs and my original CDs from 1994, some of their best work. The breadth & depth of their repertoire was astounding!👍👍
I was 12 when the album was released and I immediately fell in love with 'Keep Your Hands Off My Baby'. It's one of the most lo-fi recordings of all their BBC material and I still hope and pray that someday a better version will surface.
I remember being gifted the album twice in Christmas, first the 1994 version in 2011 and then the 2013 version 3 years later (if my memory is correct). I eventually kept the 2013 one.
I was also glued to the "Beatles At The Beeb" radio broadcast when it aired in the US in 1982, and taped it directly off the radio. I was already familiar with the Deccagone coloured vinyl 45s, but hadn't bought more than one or two of them. I religiously listened to those cassettes for years, and transferred them to CD in 2002, and then to mp3 files a decade later. Unfortunately, they were destroyed in a winter rainflood (unfortunate because they contained 1982 narration and interviews by BBC figures who worked with the band 20 years earlier). I was initially unimpressed with the official release, because of the cross-fading and alternate sequencing to what I was accustomed to. But now I've embraced them, because that's all there is left.
It's a pity,a real pity that The Beatles didn't record for the BBC after 1965 indeed until the end of their career because it would be interesting to hear songs from Revolver onwards as BBC versions.
BBC 2 broadcast a show in 1979 with these songs and I recorded it so was a massive fan for years before the issued it as a album.. For me it's the real Beatles ...
I've had the CD in my car for over two months now 😄😄. I hadn't listened to it for many years, and really believe this is the Beatles at their best. Playing live, full of energy... John's vocals are great, George's solos (!!!) The whole band 🙌🙌🙌 plus their wit in the interviews. Great album. I had no idea there was a second one... And the bootlegs 1963... Thanks fot the video!! 🙂👍👍 Greetings from Peru 🙂
I love the nostalgic intros and outros! Great production work.
Thanks Shane!
Superb Andrew! I still have my cassette recordings from those radio one 1988 pop goes the Beatles shows, it was the first time I had heard anything from them at the BBC.. Thx again for sharing 👍👍
I enjoy occasionally listening to both volumes of Live At The BBC. They're a well recorded look at the Beatles live sound, under more controlled conditions.
This was a real eye opener. Thank you Ms. Asworth.
I remember getting it for Christmas from my parents. Thanks, Mom and Dad!
I asked my Dad to buy me this for my birthday when it came out, and he was surprised that I wanted it on vinyl rather than CD. I told him I thought the LP version would be more collectable. I'm glad I was right for once!
Great video once again!
Thank you!
The Beeb's Lost Beatles Tapes was a great series. I recorded them all and still have them. A third volume of BBC recordings may have limited appeal given that there are likely very few, if any, new songs to be heard. A big selling point of the first album was the number of songs on it that they never recorded for an album with EMI.
I grew up with the BBC album and always loved it. In fact, it's possibly the first beatles CD I ever sat down with and listened to. I was surprised and happy to see it remastered in 2013. Vol. 2 I think fits nicely with Vol. 1. I also have the iTunes Bootleg Recordings album. I see that basically as a material drop, which is what it is. The studio stuff is great but I found the BBC selections a bit tedious. George Martin really did pick the best for Vol. 1.
Had this one on cassette as a stocking filler that xmas. Happy memories so have a soft spot for this release!
I made a complete timeline playlist of the entire history of The Beatles and these releases were the toughest to get into chronological order. They jump all over the place on both releases.
Had that album in my house growing up. I always feel like I was chipping away at it -- when I was little, there were a lot of songs I just skipped over, "Honeymoon Song" or "Soldier of Love". There were a lot of duds on that double album, as perceived by my much younger self. It wasn't until many years later I really actually liked those tracks.
For me, it is part of my days of university, nice time that now lives in my heart. I have the CD, I didin’t know about the BBC sessions until they appeared. I was study in the South of my country, Chile, and I was a friend of the brother of EMI’s general manager in Chile. I can say I was the first in buy the álbum at least in South Chile. I remember being waiting for my friend on his music shop on a rainy day. He arrived with a big box marked with EMI.. he opened and gave me the first CD “you are the first” he said. This álbum and The Antology (also the related EP’s),are part of the soundtrack of my 90’s. Than you very much for your video! 😀👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼❤️
Good times, Heman!
As a Beatles fan and also as I work transferring to digital old tapes from my country's national symphonic orchestra (Uruguay, 1950-1990), I'm fascinated with all the insight you brought about how the BBC tapes were almost miraculously conserved and also how fans had such an important role in all this. Great video, as usual. I'm sorry I'm 7 months late for it. I'm subscribed now.
Thanks for watching, Gabriel.
Thanks!
Apart from the studio albums, this is my favorite Beatles album. Volume 2 is pretty nice as well.
I first heard the BBC tracks in mid-1982 on a special aired on a Washington, D.C., FM station, and instantly fell in love with "Soldier Of Love" (later that year, Marshall Crenshaw -- who played John Lennon in a 1979 touring production of "Beatlemania" -- included a version on his fine debut album), as well as "I'll Be On My Way." So when an "official" CD version was issued, I just had to own, as I did Vol. 2 in 2013. Wonderful stuff. 😃
I have been able to experience both volumes of Live at the BBC through Spotify. As someone who is an absolute sucker of Beatles performing live, it was a treasure trove hearing it for the first time through my headphones.
Your channel has filled in so many of the questions I've had about Beatles history and provided answers that you really can't find anywhere else... cheers! The BBC live CDs were always my favorite... I thought it was the Beatles at their rawest and rockingest
Live at the BBC was my first CD. I got it when I was 13 and listened to it non-stop for months. Revolver was my second CD.
Live At The BBC is one of my favorite Beatles albums. I just think it captures a spontaneous spirit that they had, so early. the banter and conversation between numbers is so much fun to listen to.
Thanks Andrew fir the heads up on mono cables. I got a set and my mono box never sounded better!! I've too many memories of the bbc sessions....thank you on both!!
Glad to be of help, Seamus!
One of the last great album art for The Beatles. Did not know that the reissue did not include cross fades or added tracks! This was an exciting moment seeing a new Beatles release. By the way, brilliant intro/outro to the video!
I tape recorded the original radio transmissions in the 1980s of the Lost Beatles tapes and it was such a joy to listen. Their humour on interview can’t be matched. Musically, I loved “a shot of rhythm and blues” (which I recently learned to sing and play on acoustic) and a host of others like Lucille, Chuck Berry covers galore and so much else.
The local rock station in New York City aired the Beatles at the Beeb radio show in 1982 in May I believe. I of course taped it and listened to it many times. It was great hearing all those unfamiliar songs. Soldier Of Love was incredible. Why had they not officially recorded that one? I loved Don’t Ever Change and thought it was a duet between John and Paul and only much later realized it was a rare Paul and George harmony vocal throughout. So much great stuff. I especially loved the BBC version of This Boy and was disappointed it wasn’t on the 1994 album but glad it came out on the 2013 one. I haven’t yet collected the full BBC recordings. Just some extra shows here and there. I would happily buy a third official release and even happier spring for an official however many cd box of the complete recordings done up right with Kevin Howlett annotating everything. Thanks again for your videos. Always look forward to them. I’ve bought a number of albums recently based on your recommendations and they have been great.
Thanks for watching, Michael.
You brought back a great memory of waiting in line at Best Buy, everyone was Elated and couldn't wait to get their copy.
Great that was, Andrew! In 1994 a did the same, here in Brazil. I remember that when the record sales man received the cds I was there outside the store, I got the first one. I still have it. In the same year I bought a 9 cd box set with the bbc sessions of the beatles, an Italian issue. I herad them restlessly. Those were the days. Thank you, Andrew!
I love both "Live At The BBC" volumes. There is a burst of energy to the performances and the 1964 and 1965 performances are actually superior, to me, than the actual concert recordings, including the Hollywood Bowl. I would most definitely buy a Vol. 3 if it were to happen. Even more great performances are out there!
I've always considering the cover songs on both volumes to be as close as we'll ever get to hearing a glimpse of what the Beatles were like during their days at the Cavern on in Hamburg.
It's a shame volume 2 didn't include the last few unreleased songs, regardless of sound quality.
I wish there was someway, either in a boxed set or radio special, that we get to hear the complete Margaret Ashworth recordings. These sound fantastic and what good are they if no one gets to hear them?
Hello Andrew. How lovely to feature the live at the BBC albums. I bought the first one in a record shop on a trip to Coventry for a great price of £6.99 on vinyl must be in 1995 at earliest. Carrying it around the town and getting it home back to Devon unscathed was a challenge. I played this album a few times and love it. The second one I bought in the first week of release on vinyl, I think I have played it twice and is mint. Really interesting video, looking forward to the next one
Thanks for watching, lots more to come!
Another fine documentation of a fantastic Beatles' release. My introduction to the Beatles BBC material was a copy of THE BEATLES BROADCASTS in 1981. The album was a fine mixture of established Beatles' hits, plus covers that I'd never heard before. Most of them turned up on EMI/Apple's releases. These recordings, while I don't listen to very often, do offer the listener to hear the early Beatles live, with out the saturation of screams from the audience.
First time I heard the Live at the BBC was during an early morning Beatles program in my country back in mid 90s when I was still in 5th grade. At first I thought it was just some regular Beatles program and then I was shocked to hear them bantering in between songs and then they sang "Soldier of Love" which is a song I've never heard of before! Clearly it was John singing, but it was a song that I was not familiar with, I hurriedly recorded it on cassette, but unfortunately I was only able to record 2 songs and from that point on my passion to collect Beatles releases was solidified, it took nearly 10 years for me to get my copies of nearly all the Beatles albums in cassette minus the Yellow Submarine album. The cassettes were produced by a record label called Aquarius from Indonesia, they have a fairly decent sound quality, but for some reason, side B of my Abbey Road cassette had a recording error on it. The recording speed from the beginning of side B ran at a slower speed and it sounded a 45 record playing at 33 1/3 speed. It took me nearly 10 more years to properly acquire the 2009 CD remasters along with the 1999 Yellow Submarine Song Track album and the Let It Be Naked album.
Another fascinating clip... I ordered the 1st BBC double LP vinyl version and vol 2 in New Zealand. The record shop guy thought I was "old school" for not getting the CD version. The record shop has long gone and now CDs are "old school" and VINYL'S BACK BABY !.🤩👍.... Now I'm cool again😎lol.
Besides all of the commercially available BBC material, I picked up a 10 CD volume set pressed in Japan. Billed as The Beatles Complete BBC Sessions (each complete with inner sleeve liner notes). I've also found the box titled, The BBC Archives 1962-1970 by Kevin Howlett to be a great resource. I agree with you that every time I play any of the BBC disc I too break out in a big smile. Thanks
Thanks again Andrew for another great presentation. I remember recording the Beatles at the Beeb on my portable cassette player whilst camping at Wilson's Promontory in Victoria, Australia. I was going away that weekend but took my stereo cassette recorder and ran it on batteries to record the show.
I particularly liked the Chuck Berry numbers. I also bought bootlegs of BBC shows -The best being the Fab 4 Radio Active 9 CD set with complete recordings of Saturday Club and other shows.
I have the official BBC recordings on vinyl and CD and would be happy to buy any further official releases of BBC recordings. It would also be good if Apple released some of the numerous live performances that are widely available on RUclips and elsewhere.
I was working for HMV at the time of this release, and I remember the initial shipment sold out on the day of release.Possibly the morning of release.
Everybody in our shop, was gobsmacked, at how popular this release was at the time.As it wasn't exactly a 'Greatest Hits' or 'Best of'.(Something the record companies were famous for around the Christmas period) but old BBC recordings that many didn't know existed, unless you were a die hard Beatles fan.Which I was, but still didn't have in my collection. I believe there was a press release out to the stores at least, but it soon became very clear, from the offset, that EMI had massively, underestimated the sales of this album, and the popularity The Beatles still commanded.
They had evidently not pressed nearly enough to satisfy demand.We were told that EMI were offering their staff overtime at all their record plants, so more copies could copied, and rushed out.Almost overnight. If memory serves for a period time, (I can't remember exactly) we had none, and neither had any of the other stores.It seemed everybody, and their Granny wanted a copy! We also had the cd's playing continuously in the shop after we finally got more stock in, so sadly, need less to say in the end, it became to be regarded as a bit of pariah by our staff. But it proved once a again, that even 20 odd years plus after their last official release, the Fab Four still had the pull!
I rediscovered 'The Beatles at the Beeb' again with Richard Skinner as the presenter? and it is quite special. Great stories behind the BBC recordings with one in particular that blew my mind! Great podcast as per usual Andrew.
Excellent job to understand well the how and why of this collection.
In 1989 I was able to get hold of a three-disc box set from "The Swingin' Pig" label entitled "From Us to you", quite impressive and I was able to enjoy it 5 years before the official version came out (which I also bought). As a curiosity there are some songs that sound much better in the unofficial edition of 1989
I also have the two EPs and of course, the vinyl edition of Paneta Agostini.
Greetings from Spain.
I agree. It always brings a smile to my face. Cutting out all the recordings of their 'official' Parlophone material there's a really good album of additional Beatle BBC recordings here which in some cases are far superior to the covers recorded for their first two albums and Beatles for Sale. My fave has always 'I forgot to remember to forget' sung by George. I don't really know why except they all sound so happy and confident. The last non-original they ever recorded for the Beeb.
I remember buying live at the BBC on a double CD set the first day it came out during 94. The release date they came out at that time was December 4, 1994, in my hometown of Santa Cruz. The central coast of California and I also bought the EP CD of baby, it’s you that came out in late February 1995. I sort of made a mistake with getting the double cassette of live at the BBC. I still have that double cassette one in my possession, and it’s still sealed up!!
I bought the CD and was blown away. Bought the vinyl and you now have me diving in to see if it has a barcode on it!
Led Zeppelin and Jimi Hendrix BBC Sessions were great, but The Beatles albums are abdolutely outstanding. In 1995, I had two Maxell cassettes with them. Delightful. Thank you for bringing back these wonderful memories to me, Andrew. Best wishes
You’re welcome, Dmitry.