Move over, Ms L!

Hi all, wondering why you are looking at this jumbled up page? This is due to the fact that Facebook didn't like our url since it starts with wog, so we have been forced to move the blog. This was some time ago, and we have placed a script which would automatically send you to our new location. Obviously, this hasn't worked for all of you, since we have just finished moderating some of your comments which appeared on this site recently, and not on our new (and improved!) site. So what we're saying is head on over to our new site, and update your bookmarks!

Monday 22 February 2016

Live Atlantic City 1964

Due out in March. But is it really from Atlantic City?

The Livewire label is releasing what they call a "classic live performance: FM radio broadcast from The Convention Hall, Atlantic City, New Jersey. August 30th 1964".
Back in August 2014, for the 50th anniversary of this concert, local radio station KOOL-98.3 FM announced that they were going to air this concert. Dave Coskey, president of the Longport media company, reported that staff had discovered the recording in the radio station's archives as they worked to commemorate the concert anniversary. He said . "It's a 50 year old tape, it certainly doesn't sound pristine, but we think the historic value of it outweighs the technical quality," Coskey said. "I sat down and listened to it from start to finish. I thought it was especially cool, I'd always heard about the Beatles in Convention Hall, this is going to be as close as you can get to seeing it."

When the broadcast was aired, Beatles collectors soon heard that what they in fact played, was an old vinyl 1970's bootleg called "Live At Whiskey Flats" - pops, clicks and all. That album contains what most collectors consider to be a concert at the Philadelphia Convention Hall, which took place several days after Atlantic City.

When a collector wrote to Coskey in the aftermath of the broadcast, about this disappointment, he received this reply:

Thanks for your note. I’m sorry that you’re “disappointed”. The recording that we have was marked “Atlantic City August 1964” – which is why we said that “we believe” this to be the recording from Atlantic City. We initially promoted the concert as an opportunity to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Atlantic City show. We purchased the live Beatles concert from the Hollywood Bowl and planed to air that because it was the same set list and seemed like a good way to celebrate the anniversary. When we found this concert recording we thought the historic value of a live recording was a better way of celebrating the anniversary. Again, sorry that you were disappointed. 

The new release is available to pre-order from Amazon, both in the UK and Germany. Release date is March 11. It remains to be heard if this is the real deal, but we sincerely doubt it is.

Contents:
  1. Twist and Shout
  2. You Can't Do That
  3. All My Loving
  4. She Loves You
  5. Things We Said Today
  6. Roll Over Beethoven
  7. Can't Buy Me Love
  8. If I Fell
  9. I Want to Hold Your Hand
  10. Boys
  11. A Hard Day's Night
  12. Long Tall Sally

Links:
Amazon UK
Amazon Germany

If you visit those Amazon sites, you'll also see advertisements for a pair of Beatles BBC CDs, "Live on Air 1963", volumes 1 and 2. The outfit releasing these is Reel to Reel. Volume 1 was released on 4 Dec. 2015, and Volume 2 is due out on March 25.

Live on Air 1963 - Volume One. Reel to reel. Already released.

Live on Air 1963 - Volume Two. Reel to reel. Due out March 25.
It seems everyone can release Beatles CDs in the EU countries these days without getting hassle from Apple Corps Ltd. or Universal Music.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Well, if they are planning on releasing the Philly gig as Atlantic City, I wonder if they'll use the more recent upgrade of that show or the decades old standard version which they broadcast earlier?

tab3 said...

Agree, the CD is not the Atlantic City concert but the Philly show. I have a very old home-made cassette of what is supposed to be the AC show. I have not listened to it for a while but once maybe twice during the performance a woman breaks in and states a radio station ID, I believe I recall it was WIBG, a Philly station involved in the Philly concert, so this was the Philly show. I bought the CD above and if you listen very closely to the comments and banter among the Beatles and the audience on both recordings, the two recordings are EXACTLY the same.