Amid all the hoopla around the new "On Air - Live at the BBC Vol. 2" release, it may have gone unnoticed to the casual fan that along with this new album comes a revamped version of the original 1994 release of "Live at the BBC Vol. 1".
The first volume, like "Live At The Hollywood Bowl" before it, was no doubt issued to create a proper legitimate collection of these recordings that had been available to hard core collectors on the bootleg market for years. The recordings were cleaned up, edited and put out as a double CD set or vinyl LP, bearing the familiar Apple label. Collectors gobbled it all up: LP, CD, and both CD and vinyl EP's, along with all the various promo items that accompanied the release. Two years later Apple would take the same approach with the massive Anthology campaign, also, no doubt, aimed at rendering all previous bootleg versions of the material obsolete. Fast forward to 2014; 20 years on from the original BBC vol. 1 release, we have the new, improved, remastered version, available on it's own, or in a double slipcase pack along with the new Vol. 2 album. Is it any different? Here are some of the differences as I have observed.
The first and obvious thing one notices before even playing the album is the new packaging that conforms to all the new releases since 09-09-09, rather than the fat double jewel case that housed the original. NO plastic. That's a thumbs up, for me. It's slimmer, the booklet is of better quality and has a slightly different layout, but the liner notes and photos are essentially still the same.
The second thing one notices before listening, is the change from sepia tone to straight black and white on the monochrome images. I prefer it, but this is purely a matter of personal preference. To me, sepia tone is reminiscent of the Old West, not London in the swinging '60's.
Sonically. the sound on the new version has more "presence" than the original. The mids and highs are definitely more prominent, bringing the vocals, guitars, and Ringo's cymbals more to the fore. The downside of this is the audible presence of tape hiss on the new version. The original was much quieter, but sounded at times like it was recorded in a closet; very "dry".
With these recordings being in mono, these differences are subtle, and only noticeable when doing a back and forth simultaneous comparison, as I did. One would be hard pressed to hear any difference listening to one after the other in it's entirety. So you have to ask yourself, "do I need this?" (probably not, if you have the existing version); "do I want this?" (of course you do! It’s new Beatles product).
So now, since 09-09-09, we have had repackaged versions of the entire core catalogue, both red and blue compilation collections, the Beatles 1 collection, Yellow Submarine Songtrack, and now Live At The BBC. That leaves the three Anthology volumes, "Let It Be - Naked", and both versions of "Love" that have yet to receive the CD repackaging treatment, so start saving, collectors.
The new 2013 release alongside its original 1994 release
———————————-
1994 – The Beatles – Live At The BBC (2013 Remaster, 2CD, 3749153)
———————————-
CD I
01. Beatle Greetings (Speech) – 0:14
02. From Us To You (Opening) – 0:30
03. Riding On A Bus (Speech) – 0:55
04. I Got A Woman – 2:48
05. Too Much Monkey Business – 2:08
06. Keep Your Hands Off My Baby – 2:31
07. I’ll Be On My Way – 1:58
08. Young Blood – 1:56
09. A Shot Of Rhythm And Blues – 2:16
10. Sure To Fall (In Love With You) – 2:08
11. Some Other Guy – 2:01
12. Thank You Girl – 2:05
13. Sha La La La La! (Speech) – 0:28
14. Baby It’s You – 2:44
15. That’s All Right (Mama) – 2:56
16. Carol – 2:36
17. What Is It, George? (Speech) – 0:31
18. Soldier Of Love – 1:59
19. A Little Rhyme (Speech) – 0:26
20. Clarabella – 2:40
21. I’m Gonna Sit Right Down And Cry (Over You) – 2:02
22. Crying, Waiting, Hoping – 2:11
23. Dear Wack! (Speech) – 0:43
24. You Really Got A Hold On Me – 2:38
25. To Know Her Is To Love Her – 2:51
26. A Taste Of Honey – 1:59
27. Long Tall Sally – 1:54
28. I Saw Her Standing There – 2:35
29. The Honeymoon Song – 1:40
30. Johnny B. Goode – 2:51
31. Memphis, Tennessee – 2:16
32. Lucille – 1:50
33. Can’t Buy Me Love – 2:08
34. From Fluff To You (Speech) – 0:28
35. Till There Was You – 2:17
CD II
01. Crinsk Dee Night (Speech) – 1:09
02. A Hard Day’s Night – 2:44
03. Have A Banana! (Speech) – 0:14
04. I Wanna Be Your Man – 2:10
05. Just A Rumour (Speech) – 0:20
06. Roll Over Beethoven – 2:17
07. All My Loving – 2:07
08. Things We Said Today – 2:18
09. She’s A Woman – 3:19
10. Sweet Little Sixteen – 2:21
11. 1822! (Speech) – 0:10
12. Lonesome Tears In My Eyes – 2:36
13. Nothin’ Shakin’ – 3:00
14. The Hippy Hippy Shake – 1:50
15. Glad All Over – 1:53
16. I Just Don’t Understand – 2:48
17. So How Come (No One Loves Me) – 1:55
18. I Feel Fine – 2:16
19. I’m A Loser – 2:33
20. Everybody’s Trying To Be My Baby – 2:23
21. Rock And Roll Music – 2:02
22. Ticket To Ride – 2:59
23. Dizzy Miss Lizzy – 2:44
24. Medley: Kansas City / Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! – 2:39
25. Set Fire To That Lot! (Speech) – 0:28
26. Matchbox – 1:58
27. I Forgot To Remember To Forget – 2:06
28. Love These Goon Shows! (Speech) – 0:28
29. I Got To Find My Baby – 1:58
30. Ooh! My Soul – 1:38
31. Ooh! My Arms (Speech) – 0:36
32. Don’t Ever Change – 2:05
33. Slow Down – 2:38
34. Honey Don’t – 2:13
35. Love Me Do – 2:29
36. From Us To You (Closing) – 0:38
The Beatles confirm tracklisting for On Air – Live At The BBC Volume 2
The Beatles have confirmed details of their anticipated On Air – Live At The BBC Volume 2 collection. The album will be released Monday, November 11 in 2CD and 180-gram vinyl packages with a 48-page booklet. On Air’s 63 tracks include 37 previously unreleased performances and 23 previously unreleased recordings of in-studio banter and conversation between the band’s members and their BBC radio hosts.
The Beatles have confirmed details of their anticipated On Air – Live At The BBC Volume 2 collection.
The album will be released Monday, November 11 in 2CD and 180-gram vinyl packages with a 48-page booklet. On Air’s 63 tracks include 37 previously unreleased performances and 23 previously unreleased recordings of in-studio banter and conversation between the band’s members and their BBC radio hosts.
Paul McCartney said, “There’s a lot of energy and spirit. We are going for it, not holding back at all, trying to put in the best performance of our lifetimes.”
------------------------------------------------
The Beatles – On Air – Live at the BBC Volume 2
———————————-
2013 – The Beatles – On Air – Live At The BBC Volume 2 (2013, 2CD, 3749169)
———————————-
CD I
01. And Here We Are Again – 0:15
02. Words Of Love – 1:56
03. How About It, Gorgeous? – 0:37
04. Do You Want to Know a Secret? – 1:48
05. Lucille – 2:29
06. Hey, Paul… – 0:21
07. Anna (Go to Him) – 2:50
08. Hello! – 0:19
09. Please Please Me – 1:55
10. Misery – 1:50
11. I’m Talking About You – 1:52
12. A Real Treat – 0:37
13. Boys – 2:29
14. Absolutely Fab – 0:27
15. Chains – 2:15
16. Ask Me Why – 1:54
17. Till There Was You – 2:16
18. Lend Me Your Comb – 1:47
19. Lower 5E – 0:23
20. Hippy Hippy Shake – 1:46
21. Roll Over Beethoven – 2:22
22. There’s a Place – 1:49
23. Bumper Bundle – 0:49
24. P.S. I Love You – 1:59
25. Please Mr. Postman – 2:16
26. Beautiful Dreamer – 1:46
27. Devil In Her Heart – 2:22
28. The 49 Weeks – 0:17
29. Sure to Fall (in Love with You) – 2:21
30. Never Mind, Eh? – 0:34
31. Twist and Shout – 2:25
32. Bye, Bye – 0:24
Bonus Tracks:
33. John – Pop Profile (Bonus interview track) – 8:22
34. George – Pop Profile (Bonus interview track) – 8:06
CD II
01. I Saw Her Standing There – 2:36
02. Glad All Over – 1:52
03. Lift Lid Again – 0:37
04. I’ll Get You – 2:02
05. She Loves You – 2:15
06. Memphis Tennessee – 2:16
07. Happy Birthday Dear Saturday Club – 0:34
08. Now Hush, Hush – 0:24
09. From Me to You – 1:51
10. Money (That’s What I Want) – 2:43
11. I Want To Hold Your Hand – 2:23
12. Brian Bathtubes – 0:59
13. This Boy – 2:16
14. If I Wasn’t In America – 0:45
15. I Got a Woman – 2:36
16. Long Tall Sally – 1:58
17. If I Fell – 2:09
18. A Hard Job Writing Them – 1:19
19. And I Love Her – 2:20
20. Oh, Can’t We? Yes We Can – 0:20
21. You Can’t Do That – 2:32
22. Honey Don’t – 2:24
23. I’ll Follow the Sun – 1:51
24. Green With Black Shutters – 0:56
25. Kansas City/Hey-Hey-Hey-Hey! – 2:43
26. That’s What We’re Here For – 0:24
27. I Feel Fine (studio out-take) – 3:29
Bonus Tracks:
28. Paul – Pop Profile (Bonus interview track) – 7:50
29. Ringo – Pop Profile (Bonus interview track) – 8:04
The return of the Fab Four at the Beeb and live – now with added Beatle wit…
You’ll be wanting to know about the music, of course. We’ll get to that. But first it’s necessary to identify and celebrate the work of the secret hero of the second selection of recordings made by the Beatles at the BBC, released almost 20 years after its predecessor, which represented the first legitimate issue of the material taped for the old Light Programme between 1962 and 1965.
That hero is the great Brian Matthew, still functioning with seemingly effortless geniality every Saturday morning on Radio 2 at the age of 85, whose interviews with all four Beatles – John and George in November 1965, Paul and Ringo in May 1966, with about eight minutes devoted to each — were transferred to seven-inch 33rpm discs by the BBC’s transcription service and sent out for use by stations around the world as part of a series titled Pop Profiles.
A sympathetic and amused but never sycophantic interviewer, familiar to the Fabs from their many encounters during sessions for Saturday Club and Easy Beat, Matthew caught them at a wonderful moment, between the release of Rubber Soul and the sessions for Revolver. They had the big houses and the Rolls Royces, but the edge of their curiosity about the world remained sharp as they began to accelerate away from their origins.
John is as forthcoming and unguarded as he remained to the end of his life. “It’s in what they call the stockbroker area,” he says with an air of mild embarrassment when Matthew asks him about the house in which he lives with Cynthia and the young Julian. “I didn’t care where it was as long as it was somewhere quite quiet. I wanted to live in London but I wouldn’t risk it until it’s really quietened down. I only realise how big it is when I go home again to Liverpool or visit relations.”
It doesn’t take much effort to detect prophetic undertones in these exchanges. When Matthew asks George about his reputation as “the silent Beatle”, Harrison tells him: “I got fed up before the others with all these questions like, ‘What colour teeth have you got?’ … I shut up until someone asks me something worth answering.”
Paul talks about discovering other kinds of music. “Indian music,” he says. “Whenever you got on an Indian channel, fiddling through the radio, I always used to just turn it off. But George got this big Indian kick. He’s dead keen on it, you know? We’ve been round to his house a couple of times and he plays it to you. It’s so boring! No, no… it’s good, you hear millions of things that I never realised were in it.” He’s asked what he thinks he might do when the group ceases to exist. “Like the others,” he says, “I don’t like doing nothing.”
He can’t have meant Ringo. What does the drummer do when they’re not working? “Sit around most of the time. Don’t do anything. Play records.” He gets bored on long holidays. “I like to sit at home doing nothing. Because if you do want to do something, it’s right there.”
Volume Two contains more talk than its predecessor, and by linking the 39 songs on these two discs with snippets of dialogue from Saturday Club, Easy Beat, From Us to You, (the original) Top Gear and Pop Go The Beatles, the compilers attempt to replicate the mood and flow of those shows, showing us how the group broke through the barriers of formality hitherto erected between performers and audience. They send up the two posh-voiced professional actors, Lee Peters and Rodney Burke, who present the early programmes, while establishing a different and more relaxed rapport with Matthew.
“What happened to our request, Brian Bathtubes?” Lennon inquires while reading out letters from fans. “Yeah, we sent it in about two weeks ago and you haven’t played it,” says George. “Have you done?” says Matthew. When John and Paul play a dead bat to the DJ’s inquiry about their rumoured plans to write a musical, George breaks in to announce that he and Ringo are planning to paint Buckingham Palace. What colour? “Green, with black shutters.” Not exactly the last word in wit, but they weren’t playing by the conventional rules of decorum.
And the stuff between the jokes? The earliest piece of music here is a version of “Misery” recorded in Manchester in March 1962, three months ahead of their first session at Abbey Road. It’s from a weekly programme called Teenagers’ Turn – Here We Go, an appearance that followed a successful BBC audition. Interestingly, the performance is already greeted with squeals from the live audience at the Playhouse Theatre.
Mostly taped at the height of Beatlemania, these straightforward, unvarnished performances are what they would have sounded like if you could have heard them beneath the screaming. This is the unit formed by countless sessions in the Star Club and the Cavern, hacking their way through the cover versions – “Kansas City”, “Memphis, Tennessee”, “Long Tall Sally”, “Talkin’ About You” — that formed the core repertoire of working groups at the time, as well as a handful of selections that show the kind of music fans they were: three items learnt from Carl Perkins’ records (“Lend Me Your Comb”, “Sure to Fall” and “Glad All Over”) plus a pair of girl-group songs, “Devil In Her Heart” and “Boys”, unearthed on the B-sides of singles by the Donays and the Shirelles. Their own B-sides are also among the highlights, including “PS I Love You”, “I’ll Get You”, “You Can’t Do That” and “This Boy”.
The sound in the various BBC theatres and studios isn’t of the quality achieved under EMI’s auspices, but on some of the rockers, like “Hippy Hippy Shake” and “Twist and Shout”, Paul’s bass guitar and Ringo’s kick drum come through with unusual clarity and oomph. Unlike their Abbey Road counterparts, the BBC’s engineers could set their levels without worrying about whether a sudden spike in the low frequencies would make the stylus jump out of the groove.
Richard Williams
Q&A
Kevin Howlett is a radio producer and author who has written three books about the Beatles at the BBC and, with Mike Heatley, researched and compiled On the Air — Live at the BBC Volume Two
What were the sources of this material for this volume?
When I did the original research for The Beatles at the Beeb on Radio 1 many years ago, I discovered that the official archive in Broadcasting House contained just one of the 53 programmes they’d recorded. So I had to look in other places. Fortunately some of the sessions from 1964 and 1965 had been preserved on transcription discs, sent abroad as part of the BBC’s mission to disseminate British culture to the Empire. Others are from the collection of Bernie Andrews, who produced Saturday Club and Top Gear. And some songs have come from people who taped them off the radio.
Have audio restoration techniques evolved greatly since the first volume, almost 20 years ago?
They really have. The object is to make the tracks sound as good as possible, so we repaired drop-outs by inserting notes and generally ironing out the tape blemishes. We’ve also remastered the first volume and you’ll hear a great improvement in sound quality there, too.
Are you envisaging a Volume Three in another 20 years’ time?
I don’t think so. I think these two volumes have all the essentials. But maybe someone, somewhere will pop up saying, “Oh, yes, I taped that, and I’ve got it in the attic.”
INTERVIEW: RICHARD WILLIAMS
Below are the original Live at the BBC CD covers:
------------------
Notes
Box set containing the two volumes of The Beatles "Live At The BBC".Vol. 1: "The Beatles Live At The BBC" remastered, originally released in 1994.
1-1. Recorded 3 October 1963 at NEMS Enterprises, London. Transmitted on 3 November 1963 "The Public Ear".
1-2. Recorded 28 February 1964 in Number One Studio, BBC Piccadilly Theatre, London. Transmitted on Easter, Whitsun and August Bank Holidays 1964 shows "From Us To You Say The Beatles".
1-3, 2-9, 2-18 to 2-20. Recorded 17 November 1964 at BBC Playhouse Theatre, London. Transmitted on 26 November 1964 "Top Gear".
1-4, 1-27. Recorded 16 July 1963 at BBC Paris Theatre, London. Transmitted on 13 August 1963 "Pop Go The Beatles".
1-5. Recorded 3 September 1963 in Studio Two, Aeolian Hall, London. Transmitted on 10 September 1963 "Pop Go The Beatles".
1-6. Recorded 22 January 1963 at BBC Playhouse Theatre, London. Transmitted on 26 January 1963 "Saturday Club".
1-7. Recorded 4 April 1963 at BBC Paris Theatre, London. Transmitted on 24 June 1963 "Side By Side".
1-8, 1-13, 1-14, 2-28, 2-29. Recorded 1 June 1963 at BBC Paris Theatre, London. Transmitted on 11 June 1963 "Pop Go The Beatles".
1-9, 2-30 to 2-32. Recorded 1 August 1963 at BBC Playhouse Theatre, Manchester. Transmitted on 27 August 1963 "Pop Go The Beatles".
1-10. Recorded 1 June 1963 at BBC Paris Theatre, London. Transmitted on 18 June 1963 "Pop Go The Beatles".
1-11, 1-12. Recorded 19 June 1963 at BBC Playhouse Theatre, London. Transmitted on 23 June 1963 "Easy Beat".
1-15 to 1-20. Recorded 2 July 1963 in Studio Five, BBC Maida Vale, London. Transmitted on 16 July 1963 "Pop Go The Beatles".
1-21, 1-22, 1-25, 1-29, 2-24. Recorded 16 July 1963 at BBC Paris Theatre, London. Transmitted on 6 August 1963 "Pop Go The Beatles".
1-23, 1-24. Recorded 30 July 1963 at BBC Playhouse Theatre, London. Transmitted on 24 August 1963 "Saturday Club".
1-26, 2-10 to 2-13, 2-17, 2-35. Recorded 10 July 1963 in Studio Two, Aeolian Hall, London. Transmitted on 23 July 1963 "Pop Go The Beatles".
1-28. Recorded 16 October 1963 at BBC Playhouse Theatre, London. Transmitted on 20 October 1963 "Easy Beat".
1-30. Recorded 7 January 1964 at BBC Playhouse Theatre, London. Transmitted on 15 February 1964 "Saturday Club".
1-26, 2-14, 2-25, 2-26. Recorded 10 July 1963 in Studio Two, Aeolian Hall, London. Transmitted on 30 July 1963 "Pop Go The Beatles".
1-32. Recorded 7 September 1963 at BBC Playhouse Theatre, London. Transmitted on 5 October 1963 "Saturday Club".
1-33 to 1-35, 2-3 to 2-7. Recorded 28 February 1964 in Number One Studio, BBC Piccadilly Theatre, London. Transmitted on 30 March 1964 "From Us To You Say The Beatles".
2-1, 2-2, 2-8. Recorded 14 July 1964 in Studio S2, Broadcasting House, London. Transmitted on 16 July 1964 "Top Gear".
2-15, 2-16, 2-33. Recorded 16 July 1963 at BBC Paris Theatre, London. Transmitted on 20 August 1963 "Pop Go The Beatles".
2-21. Recorded 25 November 1964 in Studio One, Aeolian Hall, London. Transmitted on 26 December 1964 "Saturday Club".
2-22, 2-23. Recorded 26 May 1965 in Number One Studio, BBC Piccadilly Theatre, London. Transmitted on 7 June 1965 "The Beatles Invite You To Take A Ticket To Ride".
2-27. Recorded 1 May 1964 at BBC Paris Theatre, London. Transmitted on 18 May 1964 "From Us To You Say The Beatles".
2-34. Recorded 1 August 1963 at BBC Playhouse Theatre, Manchester. Transmitted on 3 September 1963 "Pop Go The Beatles".
2-36. Recorded 28 February 1964 in Number One Studio, BBC Piccadilly Theatre, London.
Vol. 2: "On Air - The Beatles Live At The BBC Volume 2".
3-1. Recorded 10 July 1963 in Studio Two, Aeolian Hall, London. Transmitted on 23 July 1963 "Pop Go The Beatles".
3-2. Recorded 16 July 1963 at BBC Paris Theatre, London. Transmitted on 20 August 1963 "Pop Go The Beatles".
3-3, 3-4, 3-17, 3-25. Recorded 10 July 1963 in Studio Two, Aeolian Hall, London. Transmitted on 30 July 1963 "Pop Go The Beatles".
3-5. Recorded 3 September 1963 in Studio Two, Aeolian Hall, London. Transmitted on 17 September 1963 "Pop Go The Beatles".
3-6, 3-8, 3-12 to 3-15, 3-23, 3-24. Recorded 17 June 1963 in Studio Five, BBC Maida Vale, London. Transmitted on 25 June 1963 "Pop Go The Beatles".
3-7. Recorded 1 August 1963 at BBC Playhouse Theatre, Manchester. Transmitted on 27 August 1963 "Pop Go The Beatles".
3-9. Recorded 16 July 1963 at BBC Paris Theatre, London. Transmitted on 13 August 1963 "Pop Go The Beatles".
3-10. Recorded 6 March 1963 at BBC Playhouse Theatre, Manchester. Transmitted on 12 March 1963 "Here We Go".
3-11. Transmitted live on 16 March 1963 from Studio 3A, Broadcasting House, London. "Saturday Club".
3-16. Recorded 3 September 1963 in Studio Two, Aeolian Hall, London. Transmitted on 24 September 1963 "Pop Go The Beatles".
3-18. Recorded 2 July 1963 in Studio Five, BBC Maida Vale, London. Transmitted on 16 July 1963 "Pop Go The Beatles".
3-19, 3-20. Recorded 3 September 1963 in Studio Two, Aeolian Hall, London. Transmitted on 10 September 1963 "Pop Go The Beatles".
3-21, 3-22. Recorded 1 August 1963 at BBC Playhouse Theatre, Manchester. Transmitted on 3 September 1963 "Pop Go The Beatles".
3-26. Recorded 22 January 1963 at BBC Playhouse Theatre, London. Transmitted on 26 January 1963 "Saturday Club".
3-27 to 3-30, 3-32. Recorded 3 September 1963 in Studio Two, Aeolian Hall, London. Transmitted on 24 September 1963 "Pop Go The Beatles".
3-31. Recorded 16 July 1963 at BBC Paris Theatre, London. Transmitted on 6 August 1963 "Pop Go The Beatles".
3-33, 3-34. Recorded 30 November 1965 in NEMS Office, London. "Pop Profile" BBC Transcription Service.
4-1, 4-4 to 4-7. Recorded 7 September 1963 at BBC Playhouse Theatre, London. Transmitted on 5 October 1963 "Saturday Club".
4-2, 4-3. Recorded 30 July 1963 at BBC Playhouse Theatre, London. Transmitted on 24 August 1963 "Saturday Club".
4-8, 4-9. Recorded 16 October 1963 at BBC Playhouse Theatre, London. Transmitted on 20 October 1963 "Easy Beat".
4-10, 4-11. Recorded 18 December 1963 at BBC Paris Theatre, London. Transmitted on 28 December 1963 "From Us To You Say The Beatles".
4-12, 4-13. Recorded 17 December 1963 at BBC Playhouse Theatre, London. Transmitted on 21 December 1963 "Saturday Club".
4-14. Recorded 7 January 1964 at BBC Playhouse Theatre, London. Transmitted on 15 February 1964 "Saturday Club".
4-15. Recorded 31 March 1964 at BBC Playhouse Theatre, London. Transmitted on 4 April 1964 "Saturday Club".
4-16 to 4-19, 4-21. Recorded 14 July 1964 in Studio S2, Broadcasting House, London. Transmitted on 16 July 1964 "Top Gear".
4-20. Recorded 28 February 1964 in Number One Studio, BBC Piccadilly Theatre, London. Transmitted on 30 March 1964 "From Us To You Say The Beatles".
4-22, 4-23, 4-26. Recorded 17 November 1964 at BBC Playhouse Theatre, London. Transmitted on 26 November 1964 "Top Gear".
4-24. Recorded circa May or June 1965. "Top Of The Pops" BBC Transcription Service.
4-25. Recorded 25 November 1964 in Studio Two, Aeolian Hall, London. Transmitted on 26 December 1964 "Saturday Club".
4-27. Recorded 17 November 1964 at BBC Playhouse Theatre, London. Undubbed version. The overdubbed version was transmitted on 26 November 1964 "Top Gear".
4-28, 4-29. Recorded 2 May 1966 at BBC Playhouse Theatre, London. "Pop Profile" BBC Transcription Service.
Source: https://www.discogs.com/Beatles-Live-At-The-BBC-The-Collection-Vol-1-2/release/5102759
More info here:
http://losslessrock.net/the-beatles-live-at-the-bbc-the-collection-box-set-4cd-2013-flac/
Historical information on the Live at the BBC recordings from Wikipedia:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Live_at_the_BBC_(Beatles_album)
Live at the BBC is a 1994 compilation album featuring performances by the Beatles that were originally broadcast on various BBC Light Programme radio shows from 1963 to 1965. The mono album, available in multiple formats but most commonly as a two-CD set, consists of 56 songs and 13 tracks of dialogue; 30 of the songs had never been issued previously by the Beatles. It was the first official release by the Beatles of previously unreleased performances since The Beatles at the Hollywood Bowl in 1977 and the first containing previously unreleased songs since their final studio album, Let It Be, in 1970.
Although the songs were recorded ahead of broadcast, allowing for retakes and occasional overdubbing, they are essentially "live in studio" performances. Most of the songs are cover versions of material from the late 1950s and early 1960s, reflecting the stage set they developed before Beatlemania. Before the album's release, comprehensive collections of the Beatles' BBC performances had become available on bootlegs.
A remastered repackaging of the album was released on 11 November 2013 on the occasion of the release of On Air – Live at the BBC Volume 2, a second volume of BBC Radio broadcasts.[1] The two volumes were also released as a double set.
History
Recording
The Beatles performed for 52 BBC Radio programmes, beginning with an appearance on the series Teenager's Turn—Here We Go, recorded on 7 March 1962, and ending with the special The Beatles Invite You to Take a Ticket to Ride, recorded on 26 May 1965. 47 of their BBC appearances occurred in 1963 and 1964, including 10 on Saturday Club and 15 on their own weekly series Pop Go the Beatles, which began in June 1963.[2] As the Beatles had not accumulated many original songs by this time, the majority of their BBC performances consisted of cover versions, drawing on the repertoire that they had developed for their early stage act. In total, 275 performances of 88 different songs were broadcast, of which 36 songs never appeared on their studio albums.[3]
Several of the programmes aired live, but most were recorded days (or occasionally weeks) ahead of the broadcast date.[2] The BBC's studio facilities were not as advanced as those at Abbey Road, offering only monaural recording (no multitracking) and basic overdubbing; few retakes of songs could be attempted owing to time limitations.[3] It was not the BBC's practice to archive either the session tapes or the shows' master tapes, owing to storage space and contractual restrictions.[4]
Earlier collections and presentations
The first collection of Beatles BBC performances was the bootleg album Yellow Matter Custard, issued in 1971, consisting of 14 songs that were probably off-air home recordings made during the original radio broadcasts.[5] Some additional performances with similar "tinny" sound appeared on other bootlegs in the following years; then in 1980, the bootleg The Beatles Broadcasts was released featuring 18 BBC songs with superior sound quality.[5]
To commemorate the 20th anniversary of their first BBC appearance, the BBC (nicknamed "the Beeb") aired the two-hour radio special "The Beatles at the Beeb" in 1982, featuring a mix of BBC performances and interviews (the show was expanded to three hours when syndicated to other countries).[6] The more comprehensive series The Beeb's Lost Beatles Tapes was broadcast by BBC Radio 1 in 1988 as 14 half-hour episodes. When gathering material for that series, only a small number of original tapes were found; many more performances were obtained from vinyl recordings of the programmes that the BBC Transcription Department had made to distribute to BBC stations around the world.[4]
By that time, a 13-album bootleg series had appeared under the title The Beatles at the Beeb, featuring many previously unavailable performances.[5] This was surpassed in 1993 by The Complete BBC Sessions, a nine-CD box set released by Great Dane in Italy, where copyright protection for the broadcasts had expired;[7] the set contained performances from 44 of the Beatles' 52 BBC appearances, including many complete shows.[8]
Compilation and release
An official Beatles BBC album was being planned as early as 1982,[9] and it was reported that "EMI was preparing an album" of the BBC material by late 1991.[10] To supplement the archive he had partially rebuilt for The Beeb's Lost Beatles Tapes, BBC Radio producer Kevin Howlett sought out additional sources, such as tapes kept by people involved in the original sessions; others had contacted him after the series aired to inform him of their own home recordings of additional broadcasts.[4] Remaining gaps were filled by recordings taken from available bootlegs.[7]
From the available recordings, the tracks for Live at the BBC were selected by longtime Beatles producer George Martin. Martin's selection criteria included both the quality of the sound and of the Beatles' performance.[4] Of particular interest were the 36 songs that the Beatles never performed on their official releases, of which 30 were selected for the album. Three of the six omitted were from 1962 (none of the 1962 recordings were judged to be of commercial sound quality): Roy Orbison's "Dream Baby (How Long Must I Dream)", the Coasters' arrangement of "Bésame Mucho" and Joe Brown's "A Picture of You", all with Pete Best on drums. Two others, from early 1963, also were omitted for substandard sound: the Gerry Goffin–Jack Keller adaptation of Stephen Foster's "Beautiful Dreamer" and Chuck Berry's "I'm Talking About You". The reason for the omission of the final song of the six, Carl Perkins' "Lend Me Your Comb" from July 1963, was not clear as it had very good sound quality, and it was speculated that it was held back for inclusion on a later release;[4] the song was indeed issued the following year on Anthology 1. It was also later included on 2013's On Air – Live at the BBC Volume 2, as are "Beautiful Dreamer" and "I'm Talking About You".
The selected songs included "I'll Be on My Way", the only Lennon–McCartney composition that the Beatles recorded for the BBC with no available studio version. The Buddy Holly-style ballad was their first composition to be "given away" without the Beatles attempting to record it for their own release. The song was given to Billy J. Kramer, another artist managed by Brian Epstein recording for Parlophone, who released it in the United Kingdom as the B-side of a cover version of "Do You Want to Know a Secret".[11]
In all, 56 songs were chosen for the album, along with some banter among the group and the hosts. Abbey Road engineer Peter Mew used audio manipulation software to reduce noise, repair minor drop-outs and equalise to a more consistent sound from one track to the next.[4] The resulting sound quality was considered generally better than the best equivalent bootlegged versions available at the time, although a small number of tracks were noted as exceptions.[7]
Live at the BBC was released on 30 November 1994 in the UK (Apple/Parlophone PCSP 726), and on 6 December 1994 in the United States (Apple/Capitol CDP 7243-8-31796-2-6). The track listing on the back of the CD case inadvertently included the word "Top" at the start of the song title "So How Come (No One Loves Me)"; the listing was corrected for the 2001 reissue. When "Baby It's You" was released as a single in March 1995, it contained three other BBC songs that were not included in the album, two of which would eventually be found on volume two.
2013 remaster
The 11 November 2013 remastered reissue features a number of minor changes. The reissue includes two additional speech tracks, "What is it, George?" (track 17 on disc 1), and "Ringo? Yep!" (track 3 on disc 2), and one additional song, the closing version of "From Us To You" at the end of disc 2. The opening version of “From Us To You” has announcer speech over the music, which was not present in the original version. The reissue removes the crossfades between tracks, providing clean starts and endings for each track except one, the crowd noise between Some Other Guy and Thank You Girl. The speech track "Have a Banana!" from the original version was not separable from "A Hard Day's Night", so the song and speech were merged into a single track, though the last few seconds where Ringo is actually offered a banana was cut out.
Live at the BBC debuted at number 1 on the Canadian charts,[16] peaked at number 3 on the US Billboard 200 album chart[17] and reached number 1 on the UK Albums Chart.[18] The album sold an estimated 8 million copies worldwide during its first year of release.[19]
A reviewer for Time said that the collection contained "few buried treasures", but "as a time capsule, the set is invaluable".[20] Another reviewer described it as "worth hearing" even though the album is a "quaint memento" in which The Beatles sound "scruffy and fairly tame".[21] Anthony DeCurtis, writing for Rolling Stone, was more enthusiastic, calling the album "an exhilarating portrait of a band in the process of shaping its own voice and vision" while noting the "irresistible" spirit and energy of the performances.[22]
The album received a Grammy nomination for Best Historical Album.[citation needed]