Various Artists - NME Poll Winners' Concert, Empire Pool, London, Britain, 5-1-1966

I've already posted the NME Poll Winners' Concerts from 1964 and 1965. Here's the only other one known to be exist in the public sphere, the 1966 one.

This is arguably one of the greatest concerts of all time, just in terms of sheer star power. The last three acts were the Who, the Rolling Stones, and the Beatles, for crying out loud! That was probably the one and only time those three acts appeared on stage in a row like that.

Unfortunately though... we're missing most of the good stuff, including all of those three performances! So sorry. And worse, of the remaining concert, we are missing half of that too. This concert was at least two hours long. So, to broadcast it on TV, it was split it two, and the two parts were shown on TV a week apart. It's pretty clear to me that only the second part survives, because all of the first part is missing. 

Here are all the musical acts that played in the first part: the Overlanders, Small Faces, the Spencer Davis Group, Roy Orbison, the Walker Brothers, the Yardbirds, the Seekers, the Alan Price Set, the Shadows, and Cliff Richard. If you add all those acts together, plus the ones we do have below (Sounds Incorporated, the Fortunes, Herman's Hermits, Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich, the Yardbirds, Crispian St. Peters, Alan Price Set, and Dusty Springfield), plus the three acts finishing the second set (the Who, the Rolling Stones, and the Beatles), it's hard to argue this was the greatest collection of rock music talent ever on one stage in the 1960s. It's such a shame we don't have all of it!

Of course, the greatest loss is not getting to hear the Beatles' set. This would turn out to be the very last concert the Beatles performed in Britain, excepting the unannounced performance on top of Abbey Roads Studios in 1969. We do know the songs they played though: "I Feel Fine," "If I Needed Someone," "Day Tripper," "Nowhere Man," and "I'm Down."

To further frustrate you, these NME concerts continued until 1971. I couldn't find many details about the concerts after 1966. However, we know a bit more about the 1967 and 1968 concerts, because setlist.fm gives a list of the performers for each of those years.  

Here's a list of the known performers for the 1967 concert (in alphabetical order): Alan Price Set, Cat Stevens, Cliff Richard, Cream, Dusty Springfield, Geno Washington and the Ram Jam Band, Lulu, Small Faces, the Beach Boys, the Dubliners, the Move, the Spencer Davis Group, the Troggs. 

And here are the known performers for the 1968 concert (also in alphabetical order): Amen Corner, Cliff Richard, Don Partridge, Dusty Springfield, Love Affair, Lulu, Procol Harum, Scott Walker, Status Quo, the Association, the Herd, the Move, the Paper Dolls, and the Rolling Stones. 

Man, what incredible concerts those would be to hear! Unfortunately though, no known recordings of any of the concerts after 1966 exist. I strongly suspect they weren't broadcast on TV, but I don't know for sure. Let's hope that the remainder of the 1966 concert and all of the 1967 to 1971 concerts are sitting in some vault and will be released to the public one day. 

Now, let's get to why we don't have the recordings of the Beatles and the Rolling Stones. Apparently, there was a big argument backstage. The popular version is that both Mick Jagger of the Stones and John Lennon of the Beatles argued that they were the biggest band in the world, and thus demanded to go on last. However, it appears this wasn't true. In fact, most of the members of the Beatles and the Stones were friends with each other. 

I found what appears to be the more accurate story at The Paul McCartney Project website. It has an impressive webpage dedicated to this concert, with lots of photos and text. You can find that here:

https://www.the-paulmccartney-project.com/concert/1966-05-01/

That webpage includes an excerpt from a book that extensively quotes Maurice Kinn, who was the owner of NME at the time. Here's what Kinn claims happened: 

"Halfway through the Stones' set, the four Beatles arrived at the foot of the stairs to the stage, with their guitars in hand. I told them they were 25 minutes early, but Lennon insisted that they were going on. I said they couldn't and John shouted, 'Didn't you hear me the first time? We're going on now, or we're not going on at all.' In a rapidly convened huddle with Brian Epstein, I outlined my dilemma, that I had promised the Stones, in writing, that the Beatles should not follow them immediately onto the stage. I had arranged for the awards presentation to come between the two acts and explained to Brian that if the Beatles did not come on at the previously arranged time, I would be left with no option but to send MC Jimmy Savile on stage to explain to 10,000 NME readers that the Beatles were in the stadium but they weren’t going to play. I explained to him very clearly what would happen then. There would be a riot! Half of Wembley would be destroyed and Wembley and the NME would both sue Epstein. Brian conveyed this to the Beatles and John exploded! He gave me abuse like you've never heard before in all of your life. You could hear him all over the backstage area. He said, 'We'll never play for you again!' But he knew that he had no choice. Fifteen minutes later, the Beatles went on stage, collected their awards and played the show."

So it seems it's true there was an argument involving Lennon, but not Jagger. Jagger was performing on stage at the time and was probably totally oblivious about the conflict going on nearby. While I think Lennon is one of the greatest musicians of all time, he could be an asshole sometimes, and it looks like this was one of those times. Probably the Beatles were sick and tired of giving concerts by this time, and Lennon had lost all patience and just wanted to get this obligation over with.

Be that as it may, the Beatles didn't even allow the cameras to roll when they took the stage, due to the conflict mentioned above. I'm not sure how it came to be that the Who and the Rolling Stones also didn't allowing their performances to be broadcast either, but that's what happened. 

So anyway, while we can lament all the missing music, what we're left with is still pretty damn impressive. And we're lucky to have anything at all, since very few live recordings from 1966 survive. As for the sound quality, it's reasonably good, but not great. Consider this was probably recorded off a TV in 1966, so one has to lower one's standards a bit. I tried to improve it, but there wasn't much I could do, since I couldn't successfully separate the vocals from the instruments, or the instruments from each other. In the end, I just kept it the same. 

In case you're curious about who won the poll awards this year, there's a list at the NME website, which you can see here:

https://www.nme.com/nme-awards/awards-history/1966-606221

Also, note that I found a review for this concert from NME, thanks to the Paul McCartney Project website mentioned above. I included an image of it in the download file. It has comments about all the performances, including all the missing ones.

This album is one hour long. 

01 talk (Sounds Incorporated)
02 In the Hall of the Mountain King [Instrumental] (Sounds Incorporated)
03 Zorba's Dance [Instrumental] (Sounds Incorporated)
04 talk (Fortunes)
05 This Golden Ring (Fortunes)
06 You've Got Your Troubles (Fortunes)
07 talk (Herman's Hermits)
08 A Must to Avoid (Herman's Hermits)
09 You Won't Be Leaving (Herman's Hermits)
10 talk (Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich)
11 You Make It Move (Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich)
12 Hold Tight (Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich)
13 talk (Yardbirds)
14 Train Kept A-Rollin' (Yardbirds)
15 Shapes of Things (Yardbirds)
16 talk (Crispian St. Peters)
17 Send Me Some Lovin' (Crispian St. Peters)
18 The Pied Piper (Crispian St. Peters)
19 talk (Alan Price Set)
20 Baby Workout (Alan Price Set)
21 I Put a Spell on You (Alan Price Set)
22 talk (Dusty Springfield)
23 In the Middle of Nowhere (Dusty Springfield)
24 You Don't Have to Say You Love Me (Dusty Springfield)
25 talk (Dusty Springfield)
26 Shake (Dusty Springfield)
27 talk (Beatles & emcee)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/L5VqhUHF

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/GvbEFGJxuHwyVLp/file

The cover photo is from this exact concert. Sorry if it's misleading to have a photo of the Beatles but no actual Beatles music on the album. At least we do have the recording of the Beatles accepting their awards. This photo was in black and white, but I colorized it with the use of the Kolorize program.

Various Artists - NME Poll Winners' Concert, Empire Pool, London, Britain, 4-26-1964

NME stands for "New Musical Express," a popular music magazine in Britain. In 2022, I posted a 1965 NME Poll Winners' Concert. Recently, I mentioned I have the 1964 and 1966 concerts as well. That led to a commenter requesting that I post them sooner rather than later. So let's start with this one from 1964.

NME began their yearly music polls, and resulting poll winner's concerts, in 1953. Apparently, the concerts continued until 1971. Since then, the polls and awards have continued, but with more conventional awards ceremonies. Usually, the concerts were broadcast on TV in Britain. However, it seems all the concerts from 1963 and earlier are either lost or otherwise unavailable to the public. (That missing material includes the Beatles performing in the 1963 concert.) Luckily, though, we have versions of the 1964 to 1966 concerts.

In 1964, the Beatles were arguably the biggest stars in the history of popular music. They sold one-fifth of all the music in the world that year, a feat that nobody else has come close to in the years since. So, naturally, they were the big stars of this concert, and were the closing act. By contrast, the Rolling Stones had had a few hits, and were already stars, but they had yet to become superstars. 

This show is basically a "who's who" of the best known British Invasion bands in 1964. Most of these acts would be left behind in a year or two, because musical trends were changing fast back then. But of course a few would thrive and grow even more popular.

I found an account of this concert at the Beatles Bible website. Here's the link:

https://www.beatlesbible.com/1964/04/26/live-nme-poll-winners-all-star-concert-2/

It quotes from a book written by Derek Taylor, who was the main press officer for the Beatles at the time. Here's the quote from Taylor:

"At the end of my first week with NEMS, on the Sunday, I went with [Beatles manager] Brian [Epstein] to Wembley Pool for the New Musical Express Poll-Winners' Award Concert, which comprised two shows. The afternoon show was the main event, with the Beatles topping a bill that included the Rolling Stones, Gerry and the Pacemakers, the Searchers, Billy J. Kramer and the Dakotas, Manfred Mann, Brian Poole and the Tremeloes, Cliff Richard and the Shadows, the Dave Clark Five, the Swinging Blue Jeans, the Hollies, Freddie and the Dreamers, Joe Brown and his Bruvvers, Kathy Kirby, Jet Harris, Big Dee Irwin and the Joe Loss Orchestra. Stars of the evening show – which featured several Epstein acts including Tommy Quickly, the Fourmost, Sounds Incorporated, and (again) Billy J. Kramer – were the Stones. Everyone used Vox amps and it was quite a day out for fans, I'd say. Roger Moore presented awards and so, with a special one for Joe Brown, did Roy Orbison; and afterwards there was a short set from the Merseybeats. Disc jockeys present for the celebrations included David Jacobs, Jimmy Savile and, from WINS Radio New York City, the one and only Murray the K. During the afternoon show, Mick Jagger and Brian Jones visited the Beatle dressing room. ... A huge smile illuminated Jagger's young face and his merry eyes glittered with the delights of success. There was in that dressing-room a glow of liberated young people at large in a beckoning world, their pockets full of fivers, heads full of songs, bodies full of sexuality. Nothing could stop them now."

There are some things we can learn from this quote. One key fact is that the recording presented here isn't the complete show. Other acts who performed included Cliff Richard and the Shadows, the Dave Clark Five, Tommy Quickly, and the Fourmost. I also found mentions elsewhere of others who performed: the Applejacks, Cilla Black, Eden Kane, and Frank Ifield. I'll bet Roy Orbison performed as well, since he was there to accept an award. Elvis Presley, who won "Outstanding Male Singer," sent a recorded message which was played to the audience of about 10,000 people.

Fun fact: the lead vocalist on the second track, "Patsy Girl," is Ross MacManus, the father of Elvis Costello. 

The recording quality is a bit rough. Consider it was probably recorded off a TV in 1964, so lower your standards a little bit. But it's still quite listenable, in my opinion. The lead vocals were usually low in the mix, so I used the MVSEP program to boost them for most of the songs. 

In case you're curious about who won the poll awards this year, there's a list at the NME website, which you can see here:

https://www.nme.com/nme-awards/awards-history/1964-606225  

This album is one hour and 58 minutes long. 

One final note. I mentioned above that I previously posted the 1965 NME concert. At the same time I'm posting this, I made some changes to that one. I didn't change the music, but I switched out the cover photo for a better one, and changed the write-up a bit. Here's the link to that one:

https://albumsthatshouldexist.blogspot.com/2022/01/various-artists-nme-poll-winners.html

01 Opening Theme [Instrumental] (Unknown)
02 Patsy Girl (Ross MacManus & & the Joe Loss Orchestra Band)
03 talk (Hollies)
04 Rockin' Robin (Hollies)
05 Just One Look (Hollies)
06 talk (Rolling Stones)
07 Not Fade Away (Rolling Stones)
08 I Just Want to Make Love to You (Rolling Stones)
09 talk (Rolling Stones)
10 I'm Alright (Rolling Stones)
11 talk (Joe Loss Orchestra Band)
12 Kayote Vender [Instrumental] (Joe Loss Orchestra Band)
13 talk (Swinging Blue Jeans)
14 Shake, Rattle and Roll (Swinging Blue Jeans)
15 talk (Swinging Blue Jeans)
16 Good Golly, Miss Molly (Swinging Blue Jeans)
17 talk (Searchers)
18 Farmer John (Searchers)
19 talk (Searchers)
20 Don't Throw Your Love Away (Searchers)
21 talk (Searchers)
22 What'd I Say (Searchers)
23 talk (Freddie & the Dreamers)
24 Kansas City - Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey (Freddie & the Dreamers)
25 talk (Freddie & the Dreamers)
26 Send Me Some Lovin' (Freddie & the Dreamers)
27 talk (Freddie & the Dreamers)
28 Short Shorts (Freddie & the Dreamers)
29 talk (Tremeloes)
30 Candy Man (Tremeloes)
31 talk (Tremeloes)
32 Do You Love Me (Tremeloes)
33 talk (Manfred Mann)
34 Sticks and Stones (Manfred Mann)
35 Hubble Bubble (Manfred Mann)
36 talk (Jet Harris & Tony Meechan)
37 Diamonds [Instrumental] (Jet Harris & Tony Meechan)
38 talk (Jet Harris & Tony Meechan)
39 Big Bad Bass [Instrumental] (Jet Harris & Tony Meechan)
40 talk (Kathy Kirby)
41 You're the One (Kathy Kirby)
42 Dance On (Kathy Kirby)
43 talk (Billy J. Kramer & the Dakotas)
44 I'll Keep You Satisfied (Billy J. Kramer & the Dakotas)
45 They Remind Me of You (Billy J. Kramer & the Dakotas)
46 talk (Merseybeats)
47 I Think of You (Merseybeats)
48 talk (Merseybeats)
49 Don't Turn Around (Merseybeats)
50 I'm Gonna Sit Right Down and Cry [Over You] (Merseybeats)
51 talk (Diamonds)
52 Happy Being Fat (Diamonds)
53 talk (Joe Brown & His Bruvvers)
54 I'm Henry VIII, I Am (Joe Brown & His Bruvvers)
55 talk (Joe Brown & His Bruvvers)
56 The Seculy Gas [Instrumental] (Joe Brown & His Bruvvers)
57 talk (Joe Brown & His Bruvvers)
58 What a Crazy World (Joe Brown & His Bruvvers)
59 talk (Gerry & the Pacemakers)
60 I Like It (Gerry & the Pacemakers)
61 talk (Gerry & the Pacemakers)
62 I'm the One (Gerry & the Pacemakers)
63 talk (Gerry & the Pacemakers)
64 Don't Let the Sun Catch You Crying (Gerry & the Pacemakers)
65 talk (Roger Moore)
66 talk (Beatles)
67 She Loves You (Beatles)
68 You Can't Do That (Beatles)
69 talk (Beatles)
70 Twist and Shout (Beatles)
71 Long Tall Sally (Beatles)
72 talk (Beatles)
73 Can't Buy Me Love (Beatles)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/RLHMHeFi

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/VIOOKmfwfsb8k2S/file

The cover photo of the Rolling Stones is from this exact concert. It shows Brian Jones on the left, and Mick Jagger on the right, hold maracas. Actually, technically, this is a composite of two photos. One of them had a good Jones but Jagger was messed up, and the other one had a good Jagger but Jones was messed up. So I used Photoshop to combine them. They were in the exact same positions in both photos; it was just a matter of using the best parts.

The original was in black and white. But I colorized it with the use of the Kolorize program. As for the text, I used some promotional material for the album I made for the 1965 NME concert. For this cover, I just copied that over, and changed the dates and musical act names and so forth. 

Robyn Hitchcock - Three Kings, Clerkenwell, London, Britain, 11-1-2009 (Abbey Road)

From 2003 to 2011, Robyn Hitchcock held yearly benefit concerts at a small venue in London called the Three Kings, with the funds going to various causes opposing the U.S. war in Iraq. Each year, he performed one of his favorite albums by the musical acts that most influenced him. In 2009, he tackled "Abbey Road" by the Beatles. Here it is.

Hitchcock is a massive Beatles fan. I've already posted his versions of "Revolver," "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band," and "The White Album," done in this series of benefit concerts. I waited on posting this one due to sound quality concerns. Namely, there was a fair amount of echo on the recording, which I find annoying. But, thanks to improving audio editing technology, I could finally fix that problem, so I did. First, I used the MVSEP program to split the vocals from the instruments. Then I used that program's "denoise" function on the vocals. Then I put the vocals and instruments back together again. I think it sounds much better now.

Hitchcock was backed by a full band, as he typically was in this series of concerts. He has a singing voice with lots of character, but he doesn't have an exceptionally high range. So, for a few of the songs that were more difficult to sing, he had other band members take the lead vocals. 

After playing the album straight though, in the correct album order, he played four more songs done by the Beatles in 1969. 

This music here is unreleased.

With this post, I believe I have posted all of the known recordings from these Three Kings benefit shows. However, there have been other occasions when Hitchcock has performed entire albums by other musical acts. So I'll keep working on posting those.

This album is an hour and 17 minutes long. 

01 talk by James Orbinski (Robyn Hitchcock)
02 Come Together (Robyn Hitchcock)
03 talk (Robyn Hitchcock)
04 Something (Robyn Hitchcock)
05 talk (Robyn Hitchcock)
06 Maxwell's Silver Hammer (Robyn Hitchcock)
07 talk (Robyn Hitchcock)
08 Oh, Darling (Robyn Hitchcock)
09 talk (Robyn Hitchcock)
10 Octopus's Garden (Robyn Hitchcock)
11 talk (Robyn Hitchcock)
12 I Want You [She's So Heavy] (Robyn Hitchcock)
13 talk (Robyn Hitchcock)
14 Here Comes the Sun (Robyn Hitchcock)
15 Because (Robyn Hitchcock)
16 talk (Robyn Hitchcock)
17 Because - Take 2 (Robyn Hitchcock)
18 You Never Give Me Your Money (Robyn Hitchcock)
19 Sun King (Robyn Hitchcock)
20 Mean Mr. Mustard (Robyn Hitchcock)
21 Polythene Pam (Robyn Hitchcock)
22 She Came in through the Bathroom Window (Robyn Hitchcock)
23 Golden Slumbers (Robyn Hitchcock)
24 Carry That Weight (Robyn Hitchcock)
25 The End (Robyn Hitchcock)
26 Her Majesty (Robyn Hitchcock)
27 talk (Robyn Hitchcock)
28 I've Got a Feeling (Robyn Hitchcock)
29 The Ballad of John and Yoko (Robyn Hitchcock)
30 Old Brown Shoe (Robyn Hitchcock)
31 talk (Robyn Hitchcock)
32 Don't Let Me Down (Robyn Hitchcock)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/NjVRqZ2g

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/mbFRvs1rGTzU3rb/file

For the cover image, I thought it would be interesting to post an outtake from the photo shoot that resulted in the iconic Beatles cover. This picture was probably taken a minute or less before the photo that was used for the cover. 

Robyn Hitchcock - Three Kings, Clerkenwell, London, Britain, 8-8-2004 (The White Album)

A few days ago, I posted a Robyn Hitchcock concert from 1996 that consisted entirely of songs Bob Dylan performed in a famous 1966 concert. That reminded me that I have some other albums of Hitchcock performing entire albums by others in concert that I haven't posted yet. I've been slow to post some of these because they come from audience bootlegs and the sound quality is merely good, not excellent. But with improving sound editing technology, there's a lot one can do. So I've fixed this one, and now it's good to go.

From 2003 until 2011, Hitchcock held a benefit concert most years at the small Three Kings club in London, and each time he performed one of his favorite albums by some other musical act, from start to finish. This, the second such concert, was his version of the classic "White Album" by the Beatles in 1968. Usually, he played some extra songs at the end of the concert. But since this was a double album, he just played every song from the White Album, in order, and nothing else.

Hitchcock was backed by a small band that included Kimberley Rew and Morris Windsor, two members of his 1970s band the Soft Boys. They were occasionally joined by others, for instance on "Revolution 9" (where backing tapes were also used).

I only have a limited number of editing techniques that I know, but they were pretty useful for this album. First, I ran every song through the MVSEP program to remove the crowd noise during songs, while keeping the cheering at the ends of songs. Then, I ran all the songs through MVSEP again, this time boosting the vocals relative to the instruments. I think these edits made a big difference. Now, this sounds more like a soundboard than an audience bootleg, though it still sounds far from pristine.  

This album is the hour and 48 minutes long. 

01 Back in the U.S.S.R. (Robyn Hitchcock)
02 Dear Prudence (Robyn Hitchcock)
03 Glass Onion (Robyn Hitchcock)
04 talk (Robyn Hitchcock)
05 Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da (Robyn Hitchcock)
06 talk (Robyn Hitchcock)
07 Wild Honey Pie (Robyn Hitchcock)
08 The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill (Robyn Hitchcock)
09 While My Guitar Gently Weeps (Robyn Hitchcock)
10 talk (Robyn Hitchcock)
11 Happiness Is a Warm Gun (Robyn Hitchcock)
12 talk (Robyn Hitchcock)
13 Martha My Dear (Robyn Hitchcock)
14 I'm So Tired (Robyn Hitchcock)
15 Blackbird (Robyn Hitchcock)
16 talk (Robyn Hitchcock)
17 Piggies (Robyn Hitchcock)
18 Rocky Raccoon (Robyn Hitchcock)
19 talk (Robyn Hitchcock)
20 Don't Pass Me By (Robyn Hitchcock)
21 talk (Robyn Hitchcock)
22 Why Don't We Do It in the Road (Robyn Hitchcock)
23 talk (Robyn Hitchcock)
24 I Will (Robyn Hitchcock)
25 talk (Robyn Hitchcock)
26 Julia (Robyn Hitchcock)
27 Birthday (Robyn Hitchcock)
28 Yer Blues (Robyn Hitchcock)
29 Mother Nature's Son (Robyn Hitchcock)
30 talk (Robyn Hitchcock)
31 Everybody's Got Something to Hide Except Me and My Monkey (Robyn Hitchcock)
32 Sexy Sadie (Robyn Hitchcock)
33 talk (Robyn Hitchcock)
34 Helter Skelter (Robyn Hitchcock)
35 Long, Long, Long (Robyn Hitchcock)
36 Revolution 1 (Robyn Hitchcock)
37 talk (Robyn Hitchcock)
38 Honey Pie (Robyn Hitchcock)
39 Savoy Truffle (Robyn Hitchcock)
40 talk (Robyn Hitchcock)
41 Cry Baby Cry (Robyn Hitchcock)
42 Revolution 9 (Robyn Hitchcock)
43 Good Night (Robyn Hitchcock)
44 talk (Robyn Hitchcock)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/9zvsPiTL

alternate: 

https://bestfile.io/en/UaGH8rZEC5P12Kd/file 

For the album cover, I did a parody of the official Beatles cover. I basically just replaced the text "The Beatles" with Hitchcock's name, in the same light grey font. Then I added some additional information at the bottom.  

The Beatles - Grugahalle, Essen, Germany, 6-25-1966

I usually don't post music by the Beatles here, even though they're my favorite musical act of all time. I generally leave that to guest poster Mike Solof, plus there are zillions of other Beatles bootlegs out there. But I'm making an exception in this case. This is a soundboard bootleg that only became publicly available in the last month or so (as I write this in August 2025). In terms of sound quality, it has to be the best of any 1966 live Beatles recording, and it sounds better than most of their other live stuff, including much of those that are officially released. 

Even if you already downloaded this elsewhere, I recommend you download this version, since it has the significant improvement of making the drumming audible.

That said, this should come with a warning, because the Beatles played raggedly in their 1966 concerts in general, and this one is no exception. The problem was, they'd been performing to screaming fans, mostly consisting of teenage girls, for three years by this time, and they were sick of it. They could barely hear themselves playing, due to all that screaming as well as very poor sound systems. So, while they still played with energy, they didn't worry about nailing their harmony vocals and being careful not to make mistakes and so on. They figured nobody would notice or care about the details. 

On the plus side, the set lists in their 1966 concerts got a lot more interesting, in my opinion. They still played a few songs they'd been playing in concerts since at least 1964, but they were also playing challenging brand new songs. For instance, "Paperback Writer" had only been released as a single two months earlier. While they didn't play any songs from their "Revolver" album, as it wouldn't be released until August, they did play a couple from their most recent album "Rubber Soul," such as "Nowhere Man" and "If I Needed Someone," as well as the recent single "Day Tripper."

The one main complaint people have had about this bootleg is the drums are very low in the mix. So I used the MVSEP program to boost the drums relative to everything else. In some places on a few of the songs though, the drums were so low that there wasn't enough there for the program to find. The only song where I didn't boost the drum volume was "I Wanna Be Your Man." Since that one was sung by the drummer Ringo Starr, I'm guessing his vocals microphone picked up a lot of the drumming too. Also, by fixing the drumming volume, one interesting thing that comes through is "Yesterday." On record, and usually in concert, it was just Paul McCartney's vocals and acoustic guitar, plus sometimes strings. But this version was arranged for a full band, including drums.

Also, "If I Needed Someone" has "[Edit]" in its title because there were some sound problems going on during that song, leading to some roadie loudly saying "One, two" in the middle of the song, probably because that person was testing if a microphone was working. So I just got rid of that jarring voice while keeping everything else the same.

This album is 31 minutes long. 

01 talk (Beatles)
02 Rock and Roll Music (Beatles)
03 She's a Woman (Beatles)
04 talk (Beatles)
05 If I Needed Someone [Edit] (Beatles)
06 talk (Beatles)
07 Day Tripper (Beatles)
08 Baby's in Black (Beatles)
09 talk (Beatles)
10 I Feel Fine (Beatles)
11 talk (Beatles)
12 Yesterday (Beatles)
13 talk (Beatles)
14 I Wanna Be Your Man (Beatles)
15 talk (Beatles)
16 Nowhere Man (Beatles)
17 talk (Beatles)
18 Paperback Writer (Beatles)
19 talk (Beatles)
20 I'm Down (Beatles)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/ZfZcCuJD

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/bizGeJf2w0o4heY/file

It's a really lucky break that I was able to find a color photo of this exact concert. I found a bunch of black and white ones, but just one color one, but one was all I needed.

The Beatles - The Beatles Uncovered, Volume 14: Mike's Mixes (1964-2007) (A Mike Solof Guest Post)

I didn't know if I would have time to post this before leaving for my vacation, but I managed to get the packing done in time. So here's another guest post by Mike Solof, another one of his great Beatles remix albums.

The last volume in this series was a bit weird, kind of Mike's B-team choices to go with unlucky Volume 13. But for this volume, he's back to his usual. 

And speaking of usual, Mike has included a PDF with detailed notes on all the songs and their edits, as he usually does. So please give that a read for more information on this album. 

This album is 59 minutes long. 

01 I'm Losing You [Mike's Mix 2025] (John Lennon with Cheap Trick)
02 And I Love Her [Mike's Mix 2025] (Beatles)
03 Sour Milk Sea [Mashup Version] [Mike's Mix 2025] (George Harrison, the Beatles & Eric Clapton)
04 Here Comes the Sun [Mike's Mix 2025, Version 2] (Beatles)
05 You've Really Got a Hold on Me [Mike's Mix 2025] (Beatles)
06 What You're Doing [Mike's Mix 2025] (Beatles)
07 Got to Get You into My Life [Mike's Mix 2025] (Beatles)
08 Rain [Take 5, Actual Speed] [Mike's Mix 2025] (Beatles)
09 This Song Is about You [Mike's Mix 2025] (Ringo Starr & the Roundheads)
10 I Should Have Known Better [Mike's Mix 2025] (Beatles)
11 Any Time at All [Mike's Mix 2025] (Beatles)
12 It s All Too Much [Mike's Mix 2025] (Beatles)
13 Yellow Submarine [Mostly Song Writing Demo] [Mike's Mix 2025] (Beatles)
14 I'm Only Sleeping [Edit of Takes 1 & 2] [Mike's Mix 2025] (Beatles)
15 I Want You [She's So Heavy] [Mike's Mix 2025] (Beatles)
16 Love You To [Take 7, Rehearsal and Commercial Version] [Mike's Mix 2025] (Beatles)
17 Band on the Run [One Hand Clapping Version] [Mike's Mix 2025] (Paul McCartney & Wings) 

https://pixeldrain.com/u/fKuWH4uz

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/5KP7ajM4CZ69ThF/file

The cover photo is something Mike found on the Internet, another AI-generated "what if" picture of John and Paul. 

The Beatles - The Beatles Uncovered, Volume 13: Mike's Mixes (1963-1969) (A Mike Solof Guest Post)

It's time again for another volume of Beatles remixes by guest poster Mike Solof. 

This one is different than all the previous ones. Basically, Mike decided to use the "unlucky 13" volume to include all the mixes that he was less than totally psyched about. If you read the PDF Mike always includes with these albums, he is surprisingly harsh about his own album. But I listened to this, and it's perfectly fine. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and it's hard to go wrong with any mix of any Beatles song, in my opinion. But because this is like the outtakes from earlier albums he made, it's shorter than usual. Also, he didn't include song-by-song explanations in his PDF.

This album is 41 minutes long.

01 Because [Mike's Mix 4 2025] (Beatles)
02 Baby's in Black [Mike's Mix 2025] (Beatles)
03 Can You Take Me Back [Mike's Mix 2025] (Beatles)
04 Good Night, Take 10 [Mike's Mix 2025] (Beatles)
05 Got to Get You into My Life [Mike's Mix 2 2025] (Beatles)
06 Birthday [Mike's Mix 2024] (Beatles)
07 Hey Bulldog [Mike's Mix 2025] (Beatles)
08 I Don't Want to Spoil the Party [Mike's Mix 2024] (Beatles)
09 Dig It [Mike's Mix 2025] (Beatles)
10 Dizzy Miss Lizzy [Mike's Mix 2024] (Beatles)
11 Eleanor Rigby [Mike's Mix 2024] (Beatles)
12 For No One [Mike's Mix 2025] (Beatles)
13 I'll Cry Instead [Mike's Mix 2024] (Beatles)
14 Roll Over Beethoven [Mike's Mix 2025] (Beatles)
15 Rock and Roll Music [Mike's Mix 2025] (Beatles)
16 With a Little Help from My Friends, Take 10 [Mike's Mix 2025] (Beatles)
17 Things We Said Today [Mike's Mix 2024] (Beatles)
18 Please, Please Me [Mike's Mix 2025] (Beatles)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/6785v1eV 

alternate: 

https://bestfile.io/en/8DjvSgMg1Z5Q0jV/file

The cover is an image Mike creating using AI. It plays off the whole "Paul is dead" rumor.

The Beatles - The Beatles Uncovered, Volume 12: Mike's Mixes (1963-1979) (A Mike Solof Guest Post)

Here we go again, with another volume of "The Beatles Uncovered" by guest poster Mike Solof. We've made it all the way to Volume 12.

By now, I hope you know the drill. Once again, Mike has taken the officially released versions of Beatles songs, plus some songs from their solo careers, and heavily edited them to bring out aspects you might otherwise have overlooked. 

There's not much else I need to say, I think, except this time he really outdid himself with an edit of an early demo version of "Something," making hundreds of edits to create something unique. So don't miss that one.

As usual, if you want to know more, including editing details for each song, please check out the PDF Mike has written that's included in the download files.

This album is 57 minutes long.

01 Old Brown Shoe [Demo Final Version] [Mike's Mix 2025] (Beatles)
02 Don't Let Me Down [Mike's Mix 2025] (Beatles)
03 I'm Looking through You [Mike's Mix 2025] (Beatles)
04 Lady Madonna [Mike's Mix 2025] (Beatles)
05 Run for Your Life [Mike's Mix 2025] (Beatles)
06 She Loves You [Mike's Mix 2025] (Beatles)
07 Soft-Hearted Hana [Mike's Mix 2025] (George Harrison)
08 Givin' Grease a Ride [Mike's Mix 2025] (Mike McGear & Paul McCartney)
09 Wait [Mike's Mix 2025] (Beatles)
10 The Word [Mike's Mix 2025] (Beatles)
11 Old Dirt Road [Mike's Mix 2025] (John Lennon)
12 I Will [Mike's Mix 2025] (Beatles)
13 You Won't See Me [Mike's Mix 2025] (Beatles)
14 What Goes On [Mike's Mix 2025] (Beatles)
15 The Inner Light [Mike's Mix 2025] (Beatles)
16 The Ballad of John and Yoko [Mike's Mix 2025] (Beatles)
17 Maxwell's Silver Hammer [Mike's Mix 2025] (Beatles)
18 Bluebird [Mike's Mix 2025] (Paul McCartney)
19 Something [Reconstructed Early Demo] [Mike's Mix 2025] (Beatles)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/NMT37B5j

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/wqCUtOiQSe5mPiQ/file

The cover art was made by a friend of Mike's, Matt Busch. I stretched it out a bit on the top and bottom to fit the square space.

The Beatles - The Beatles Uncovered, Volume 11: Mike's Mixes (1963-2023) (A Mike Solof Guest Post)

Here we go again. Like a dancing fool who just can't stop dancing, Mike Solof just can't stop editing Beatles songs. By now, you should know the drill. Mike takes songs by the Beatles, and well as a few from their solo careers, and remixes them in ways to bring out aspects you may not have appreciated before.

He really outdid himself with the first song here, "Run So Far." That song, written by George Harrison, first appeared on an Eric Clapton album in 1989. Then it appeared on a Harrison album in 2003. Discovering the two versions were in the same key, Mike combined the lead vocals to create a truly unique acappella mash-up, thanks to over 300 edits for just three minutes of music. Check it out! Then enjoy all the other interesting mixes.

Oh, and as usual, if you want to know more details, like what the edits are for each song, check out the PDF including in the download.

This album is 56 minutes long.

01 Run So Far [Mike's Mix 2025] (George Harrison and Eric Clapton)
02 Now and Then [Orchestra Version] [Mike's Mix 2025] (Beatles)
03 Piggies [Mike's Mix 2025] (Beatles)
04 Drive My Car [Mike's Mix 2025] (Beatles)
05 From Me to You [Mike's Mix 2025] (Beatles)
06 Good Day Sunshine [Mike's Mix 2025] (Beatles)
07 Rocky Raccoon [Mike's Mix 2025] (Beatles)
08 Rock and Roll Music [Mike's Mix 2025] (Beatles)
09 All My Loving [Mike's Mix 2025] (Beatles)
10 Norwegian Wood [Mike's Mix 2025] (Beatles)
11 Blackbird [Mike's Mix 2025] (Beatles)
12 You Know My Name [Look Up the Number] [Mike's Mix 2025] (Beatles)
13 Yer Blues [Mike's Mix 2025] (Beatles)
14 Got to Get You into My Life [Band Version] [Mike's Mix 2025] (Beatles)
15 Maybe I'm Amazed [Mike's Mix 2025] (Paul McCartney)
16 The Long and Winding Road [De-Spectorized Version] [Mike's Mix 2025] (Beatles)
17 No. 9 Dream [Mike's Mix 2025] (John Lennon)
18 Maggie Mae [Mike's Mix 2025] (Beatles)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/dmbRp1er

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/a1g6298C9uDpe0J/file

Mike selected the cover photo. I'm sure it's from 1969, but I don't know any details.

The Beatles - The Beatles Uncovered, Volume 10: Mike's Mixes (1963-1979) (A Mike Solof Guest Post)

Here we go again with another Beatles Uncovered album by guest poster Mike Solof.

With this being the tenth volume, hopefully you know the drill by now. Mike remixes Beatles songs to bring out aspects that are generally underappreciated. Sometimes, he even pulls up interesting little bits that you almost certainly never even knew where there in the first place. Most of the songs here are from the Beatles, but there are a few songs from their solo careers included as well.

Also as usual, if you want to know more, check out the PDF included with the download files. Mike has written explanations of the edits for all the songs.

This album is 58 minutes long.

01 I Am the Walrus [Mike's Mix 2025] (Beatles)
02 Two of Us [Mike's Mix 2025] (Beatles)
03 For You Blue [Mike's Mix 2025] (Beatles)
04 Can't Buy Me Love [Take 2] [Mike's Mix 2025] (Beatles)
05 I've Got a Feeling [Mike's Mix 2025] (Beatles)
06 Steel and Glass [Mike's Mix 2025] (John Lennon)
07 Eight Days a Week [Mike's Mix 2025] (Beatles)
08 Rain [Mike's Mix 2025] (Beatles)
09 Don't Pass Me By [Mike's Mix 2025] (Beatles)
10 Here, There and Everywhere [Mike's Mix 2025] (Beatles)
11 Here Comes the Moon [Mike's Mix 2025] (George Harrison)
12 She Loves You [Mike's Mix 2025] (Beatles)
13 Dear Prudence [Mike's Mix 2025] (Beatles)
14 The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill [Mike's Mix 2025] (Beatles)
15 My Dark Hour [Original Mix] [Mike's Mix 2025] (Steve Miller & Paul McCartney)
16 Blue Jay Way [Mike's Mix 2025] (Beatles)
17 Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite [Mike's Mix 2025] (Beatles)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/zU1o2nr7

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/lYmltO8gfuedMoA/file

The cover art is some art that Mike and I found while Googling about the Beatles and cats on the Internet. I don't know who originally made it. It's a parody of the "Beatles for Sale" album cover.

The Beatles - The Beatles Uncovered, Volume 9: Mike's Mixes (1964-1979) (A Mike Solof Guest Post)

It's time for another volume of "The Beatles Uncovered" by guest poster Mike Solof. We've made it to Volume 9, and Mike already has two more almost ready to go.

As usual, Mike has taken some Beatles songs, as well as a few songs from their solo careers, and remixed them to bring out hidden or little noticed aspects. You probably know the drill by now, if you've listened to any of his previous volumes in this series.

I don't feel the need to say much more, because Mike has detailed notes about the edits to each song in the PDF file he's included with the download zip, just as he's done with previous volumes.

This album is 59 minutes long.

01 A Day in the Life [Mike's Mix 2025] (Beatles)
02 Doctor Robert [Mike's Mix 2025] (Beatles)
03 If I Needed Someone [Mike's Mix 2025] (Beatles)
04 Revolution No. 1 [Mike's Mix 2025] (Beatles)
05 And I Love Her [Mike's Mix 2025] (Beatles)
06 Every Night [Mike's Mix 2025] (Paul McCartney)
07 Back in the U.S.S.R. [Mike's Mix 2025] (Beatles)
08 Ob-La-Di Ob-La-Da [Mike's Mix 2025] (Beatles)
09 Oh, Darling [Mike's Mix 2025] (Beatles)
10 Faster [Mike's Mix 2025] (George Harrison)
11 Good Night [Take 10 - Vocals Only Mix] [Mike's Mix 2025] (Beatles)
12 Cry Baby Cry [Mike's Mix 2025] (Beatles)
13 Come Together [Mike's Mix 2025] (Beatles)
14 I Me Mine [Mike's Mix 2025] (Beatles)
15 Happiness Is a Warm Gun [Mike's Mix 2025] (Beatles)
16 Scared [Mike's Mix 2025] (John Lennon)
17 A Hard Day's Night [Mike's Mix 2025] (Beatles)
18 Tomorrow Never Knows [Mike's Mix 2025] (Beatles) 

https://pixeldrain.com/u/XTQXMfLK

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/i7v7TLnEJ9v7eos/file

If you want an explanation for the, uh, rather unusual cover photo, you'll have to read the PDF file included in the download.

The Beatles - Star-Club, Hamburg, Germany, 12-1962

I've been on the verge of posting this very early live Beatles album for a few months now. One reason is the sound quality. Bluntly speaking, the sound quality is pretty bad compared to just about everything else I've posted at this blog. But the good news is, thanks to recent advancements in audio editing technology, it sounds better than it ever has before. Still, this is not for the casual fan. 

The second reason is the story behind this recording is very complicated, and I lacked the enthusiasm for a long write-up. So I ultimately decided to skip most of what I was thinking of writing. Instead, I can point you to a Wikipedia article for the short version:

Live! at the Star-Club in Hamburg, Germany; 1962 - Wikipedia 

But if you want to dig deeper, I've included a PDF of a lengthy but I think interesting article from Record Collector Magazine about the long and tangled story about this recording.

Before I go any further, I want to say: all hail Lord Reith! The only reason I'm posting this is because a super Beatles fan by that name has made repeated efforts to improve this recording, each one sounding better than the last. The most recent one is from late 2024 (as I write this in February 2025). All I'm basically doing is posting what he did, with minor changes. He even is the one who came up with the PDF of the article mentioned above. I've also included a text file from him that explains some more about what he did. If you want to find more of his Beatles-centric audio editing, search for his name at the Beatlegs forum. He's one of the best at this audio editing stuff, for sure.

Here's a link to that forum:

https://forum.beatlegdb.com/

Anyway, while I'm not going to write a tome about this recording, I will give the basics. As most Beatles fans know, the Beatles honed their musical skills playing in small clubs in Hamburg, Germany, from 1960 to 1962, before they became famous. This recording comes from December 1962, when they were on the brink of fame. Their drummer Pete Best had recently been replaced by Ringo Starr, who plays drums on everything here. Their debut single "Love Me Do" was released in October 1962, and reached Number 17 in the British charts around the time these recordings were made. In fact, the Beatles didn't want to play in Hamburg anymore, but they felt obliged to finish off a contract they'd signed many months earlier.

Their stay this time was relatively short. They played from December 18th until December 31st. Nobody knows the exact dates these recordings were made, except that they come from that time period. What happened was, recording equipment was set up, and every now and then someone hit the record button, and nobody kept track of details. There are three big continuous chunks, probably recorded on different nights. Plus, there are some extra individual songs recorded here and there. 

So what we ended up with was a luck of the draw thing. For instance, no recording of "Love Me Do" made it, despite that being their sole hit single at the time that they certainly must have played. And we only got a couple of originals, "I Saw Her Standing There" and "Ask Me Why." But what really makes this fascinating is the Beatles played a bunch of cover songs. Some covers made their early studio albums or singles, and some were done later at the BBC and thus recordings survived, but for many, maybe half of the songs here, these are the only Beatles versions we have. 

Note that this version isn't complete. If you want that, check out Lord Reith's version at the Beatlegs forum. I didn't cut out much, but I cut out a few songs that had sound problems, or were otherwise problematic, such as a version of "Road Runner" that barely got started and then petered out after less than a minute. I also cut out some dead time between songs when nobody was talking. But I tried to keep as much as possible. For instance, there are three versions of "A Taste of Honey" here because each one is somewhat different. One is the standard Beatles version. Another has a little-known extra verse. And another has singer Tony Sheridan guesting on it. (The Beatles backed him in the studio for a couple of songs in 1962.)

I also tried to make some improvements to Lord Reith's edits. I couldn't do much with the actual songs. But for the times between songs, I separated out just the talking (using the UVR5 program) from everything else, then lowered the volume of everything else. That helped somewhat, but be warned that the banter between songs is often unintelligible due to the poor sound quality.

Finally, I have a bit to say about the history of this recording. The actual recording was done by Adrian Barber, the stage manager of the club. Apparently, the Beatles gave approval in return for free beer! Barber then gave the tapes to Ted Taylor, the leader of the Dominoes, another band playing in the club at the time. Some other bands were recorded as well, but few people care about that since those other bands never made it out of obscurity. 

Taylor tried selling the tapes to record companies starting in 1973. However, there wasn't much interest due to the poor sound quality. Eventually, a rather obscure company bought the rights to the tapes, and spent about $100,000 trying to improve the sound. They had partial success at best. The album was released in 1977 with the name "The Beatles Live! at the Star-Club in Hamburg, Germany; 1962." Only 26 of the 30 different songs were included, with no duplicates. 

The Beatles then tried to sue, and years of legal battles ensued. Generally speaking, it was much like a game of whack-a-mole. Different versions of the album came out with different names and track lists in different countries, making it impossible to stop them all. In 1991 though, the massive company Sony tried to release a version. This led to more legal battles. Finally, in 1998, the Beatles won ownership of the tapes and the exclusive rights to release the material. They've just sat on them since. But after director Peter Jackson redid lots of material from the Beatles' "Get Back" sessions in 2022, he said he has the best version of this bootleg available, and he wants to use the latest cutting edge technology to make it sound truly good. Nothing has come of that since then, but who knows what the future may bring.

Anyway, if you want to know more about all that, check out the Wikipedia article above, or the PDF file included in the download. Hopefully, someday Jackson will perform a miracle on this material. In the meantime, this is the best version that's publicly available, in my opinion. 

Oh, another thing. When you listen to the vocals of the first song, you may think, "Who the heck is singing?" That's because that song, "Be-Bop-A-Lula," plus the third song, "Hallelujah, I Love Her So," were actually sung by other people and only backed by the Beatles. Horst Fascher, who sang one of those, was one of the club managers. He also was the club's bouncer and a former boxer. Fred Fascher, who sang the other one, was his brother. The Beatles relied on them for protection from unruly crowds, so letting them sing a little bit was a good way to keep them on their side.

My final comment: don't expect sonic miracles here. This is not for the casual fan, due to the sound quality. But it's fascinating if you're a die-hard Beatle fan and can handle the recording's flaws.

This album is an hour and 28 minutes long.

01 Be-Bop-A-Lula (Beatles & Fred Fascher)
02 I Saw Her Standing There (Beatles)
03 talk (Beatles) (Beatles)
04 Hallelujah, I Love Her So (Beatles & Horst Fascher)
05 talk (Beatles) (Beatles)
06 Red Hot (Beatles)
07 Sheila (Beatles)
08 talk (Beatles) (Beatles)
09 Kansas City - Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey (Beatles)
10 talk (Beatles) (Beatles)
11 Shimmy like Kate (Beatles)
12 talk (Beatles) (Beatles)
13 Reminiscing (Beatles)
14 talk (Beatles) (Beatles)
15 Red Sails in the Sunset (Beatles)
16 talk (Beatles) (Beatles)
17 Sweet Little Sixteen (Beatles)
18 talk (Beatles) (Beatles)
19 Roll Over Beethoven (Beatles)
20 talk (Beatles) (Beatles)
21 A Taste of Honey [Extra Verse Version] (Beatles)
22 Nothin' Shakin' [But the Leaves on the Trees] (Beatles)
23 I Saw Her Standing There (Beatles)
24 talk (Beatles) (Beatles)
25 To Know Her Is to Love Her [To Know Him Is to Love Him] (Beatles)
26 talk (Beatles) (Beatles)
27 Everybody's Trying to Be My Baby (Beatles)
28 talk (Beatles) (Beatles)
29 Till There Was You (Beatles)
30 talk (Beatles) (Beatles)
31 Where Have You Been All My Life (Beatles)
32 talk (Beatles) (Beatles)
33 Lend Me Your Comb (Beatles)
34 talk (Beatles) (Beatles)
35 Your Feet's Too Big (Beatles)
36 I'm Talking about You (Beatles)
37 talk (Beatles) (Beatles)
38 A Taste of Honey (Beatles)
39 talk (Beatles) (Beatles)
40 Matchbox (Beatles)
41 Little Queenie (Beatles)
42 talk (Beatles) (Beatles)
43 The Hippy Hippy Shake (Beatles)
44 talk (Beatles)
45 talk (Beatles) (Beatles)
46 A Taste of Honey (Beatles with Tony Sheridan)
47 I Remember You (Beatles)
48 talk (Beatles) (Beatles)
49 Ask Me Why (Beatles)
50 Besame Mucho (Beatles)
51 Mr. Moonlight (Beatles)
52 talk (Beatles) (Beatles)
53 Falling in Love Again (Beatles)
54 I'm Gonna Sit Right Down and Cry [Over You] (Beatles)
55 Long Tall Sally (Beatles)
56 I'm Talking about You (Beatles)
57 Twist and Shout (Beatles)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/CVJuAYuU

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/u7UoC9JNRT4FHtS/file

The cover photo shows the Beatles performing at the Star-Club at some point, though unfortunately Ringo Starr isn't included in the image. Note I used the venue's logo in the album title at the top.

The Beatles - The Beatles Uncovered, Volume 8: Mike's Mixes - The Acoustic Abbey Road (1969) (A Mike Solof Guest Post)

It's time for another guest post by Mike Solof. This one came out of a recent discussion I had with him. I told him that it's always been a wish of mine to have all acoustic versions of all the Beatles albums, much like the acoustic demos to Beatles made for the "White Album." Mike basically responded "Say no more!" and whipped up an acoustic version of the Beatles' classic 1969 album "Abbey Road." If you like this as much as I do, please encourage him to do others.

To make this, Mike used only the exact versions of the songs on the official album, no alternate versions. But interesting things are brought to light by stripping instruments away. If you want to know more, I suggest you read the PDF Mike included in the download file. He gives an explanation for what he did to every song. 

This album is 43 minutes long. Note the original "Abbey Road" is 47 minutes long. This is shorter mostly because several minutes at the end of "I Want You" weren't included, since there was nothing really acoustic about them.

01 Come Together (Beatles)
02 Something (Beatles)
03 Maxwell's Silver Hammer (Beatles)
04 Oh, Darling (Beatles)
05 Octopus's Garden (Beatles)
06 I Want You (Beatles)
07 Here Come the Sun (Beatles)
08 Because (Beatles)
09 You Never Give Me Your Money (Beatles)
10 Sun King - Mean Mr. Mustard (Beatles)
11 Polythene Pam - She Came In through the Bathroom Window (Beatles)
12 Golden Slumbers - Carry That Weight (Beatles)
13 The End (Beatles)
14 Her Majesty (Beatles)

https://spaces.hightail.com/receive/SZDdBte1ee

I came up with the idea of the album cover. Since this is an acoustic version of "Abbey Road," I thought it would be fun to change the iconic cover of the album to have the Beatles carrying acoustic guitars. Before, that just would have been a fun thought, but with the advances in AI art, it's actually doable. I used the free program Krea AI to make a bunch of variants of the cover, then picked the best bits. Then I used Photoshop to add in just those bits to the original cover.

And by the way, speaking of covers, if you open Mike's PDF, you'll see an alternate version of this with McCartney wearing giant sneakers. I made this as a joke after Mike jokingly complained about McCartney having bare feet. Mike liked the image so much that he wanted to use it for the actual cover, but cooler heads prevailed.

The Beatles - The Beatles Uncovered, Volume 7: Mike's Mixes (1962-1987) (A Mike Solof Guest Post)

Here we go again, with another Beatles Uncovered album by guest poster Mike Solof.

Once again, by now, hopefully you should know the drill, if you're familiar with the previous volumes in this series. So I don't see the need to say much more. Mike has extensive comments in the PDF file that's included in the download zip. I encourage you to check that out.

However, I will comment that, this time, there's a particular focus on early Beatles songs, with almost half of the songs from 1962 to 1964. And Mike put in a truly remarkable amount of time making a special version of "Hey Jude," which draws on three takes the Beatles did for a 1968 TV, which resulted in lots of little differences compared to the version everyone is familiar with.

This album is 58 minutes long.

01 Hey Jude [Mike's Mix 3] (Beatles)
02 Love Me Do [Mike's Mix] (Beatles)
03 Nobody Told Me [Mike's Mix] (John Lennon)
04 This Is Love [Mike's Mix] (George Harrison)
05 If I Fell [Mike's Mix] (Beatles)
06 All Things Must Pass [Mike's Piano Mix 2] (George Harrison)
07 You Can't Do That [Mike's Mix] (Beatles)
08 Tell Me Why [Mike's Mix] (Beatles)
09 Dear Yoko [Mike's Mix] (John Lennon)
10 Breath Away from Heaven [Mike's Mix] (George Harrison)
11 There's a Place [Mike's Mix] (Beatles)
12 Twist and Shout [Mike's Mix] (Beatles)
13 Isn't It a Pity, Version 1 [Mike's Mix] (George Harrison)
14 If Not for You [Mike's Piano Mix 2] (George Harrison)
15 Can't Buy Me Love, Take 2 [Mike's Mix] (Beatles)
16 I'd Have You Any Time [Mike's Mix] (George Harrison)
17 P.S. I Love You - Besame Mucho [Mike's Mix] (Beatles)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/EcRPE2K1

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/JNBYfORDKJZ6teG/file

Once again, the cover art comes from some interesting Beatles artwork Mike found on the Internet. This one bears a close resemblance to the "Keep On Truckin'" guy from the 1970s. (If you don't know what I mean, look it up.) In March 2025, I upgraded the cover image with the use of the Krea AI program.

Robyn Hitchcock - Covers Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, Three Kings, Clerkenwell, London, Britain, 7-1-2007

From 2003 until 2011, Robyn Hitchcock held annual benefit concerts at the Three Kings pub in London where he played one of his favorite albums by other artist in their entirety. I've already posted his versions of "Revolver" by the Beatles, "Hunky Dory" by David Bowie, and "Naff 70's Hits," a collection of cheesy 1970s songs. Next up in this series is the all time classic from 1967, "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band," by the Beatles.

Once again, this is completely unreleased. I don't know if the recording was an audience boot or a soundboard boot, but the bottom line is it sounds very good, though maybe not excellent. I did a little remixing of all the songs to hopefully make them sound a little better.

The only song I had a problem with was "With a Little Help from My Friends." That's because someone else in his band sang the lead vocals, while Hitchcock sang the main harmony part. (As an aside, his backing band included Kimberly Rew and Morris Windsor of the Soft Boys, so this was close to a Soft Boys reunion.) The problem was, Hitchcock's microphone volume was much louder than whoever was singing lead. So I manually went in and boosted the lead vocals wherever I could. The backing vocals are still too prominent, in my opinion, but at least it's less than before. That's why that one song has "[Edit]" in its title.

After the Sgt. Pepper's album finished, Hitchcock went on to mainly play other songs the Beatles released in 1967, as well as "Hey Bulldog," recorded in early 1968. But additionally they played two songs by the Kinks from that time period ("Sunny Afternoon" and "Waterloo Sunset") and one by Jimi Hendrix ("Are You Experienced"). Furthermore, there was one song Hitchcock originally first did with the Soft Boys, "Kingdom of Love," probably a nod to the fact he was playing with some of his old Soft Boys band mates.

As usual, Hitchcock plays cover versions pretty close to the originals, in terms of the arrangements. However, they end up having his personals stamp anyway. And sometimes he does veer off, such as breaking into "In the Midnight Hour" in one of the songs. Plus, there's a lot of his typically strange banter between the songs that is always entertaining.

This album is an hour and 32 minutes long.

01 talk (Robyn Hitchcock)
02 Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (Robyn Hitchcock)
03 With a Little Help from My Friends [Edit] (Robyn Hitchcock)
04 Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds (Robyn Hitchcock)
05 talk (Robyn Hitchcock)
06 Getting Better (Robyn Hitchcock)
07 talk (Robyn Hitchcock)
08 Fixing a Hole (Robyn Hitchcock)
09 talk (Robyn Hitchcock)
10 She's Leaving Home (Robyn Hitchcock)
11 talk (Robyn Hitchcock)
12 Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite (Robyn Hitchcock)
13 talk (Robyn Hitchcock)
14 Within You, Without You (Robyn Hitchcock)
15 talk (Robyn Hitchcock)
16 When I'm Sixty-Four (Robyn Hitchcock)
17 talk (Robyn Hitchcock)
18 Lovely Rita (Robyn Hitchcock)
19 talk (Robyn Hitchcock)
20 Good Morning, Good Morning - In the Midnight Hour (Robyn Hitchcock)
23 talk (Robyn Hitchcock)
21 Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band [Reprise] (Robyn Hitchcock)
22 A Day in the Life (Robyn Hitchcock)
24 talk (Robyn Hitchcock)
25 Strawberry Fields Forever (Robyn Hitchcock)
26 talk (Robyn Hitchcock)
27 Penny Lane (Robyn Hitchcock)
28 talk (Robyn Hitchcock)
29 Sunny Afternoon (Robyn Hitchcock)
30 Waterloo Sunset (Robyn Hitchcock)
31 talk (Robyn Hitchcock)
32 Are You Experienced (Robyn Hitchcock)
33 Hey Bulldog (Robyn Hitchcock)
34 talk (Robyn Hitchcock)
35 Kingdom of Love (Robyn Hitchcock)
36 talk (Robyn Hitchcock)
37 All You Need Is Love (Robyn Hitchcock)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/PBtiv4ox

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/ZehZ2BLEmEAmqN0/file

alternate:

https://www.imagenetz.de/mWaaj

The cover appears to be promotional art made for this very concert. However, it was repurposed from a cover of a Sgt. Pepper's tribute album put out by Mojo Magazine. A commenter named Carlos helped me find the best version of this. I made a change to the bottom, replacing some text in the red area with more fitting text of my own.

The Beatles - Roxburgh Hall, Stowe School, Buckinghamshire, Britain, 4-4-1963

Here's something that's pretty amazing, if you're a Beatles fan. I'm writing this in December 2023. Back in September, there were some articles in the mainstream media about a recently discovered bootleg recording of a 1963 Beatles concert at the Stowe School in Buckinghamshire, Britain. Here's one such article. I suggest you read it to be familiar with what I'm talking about:

The Beatles Stowe School Concert Is Unlike Any Other Show in History (thedailybeast.com)

I'll explain more about the story behind this concert and how it got recorded in a bit. But first, I want to say that I tracked down that recording after reading about it, and I have to admit I was pretty disappointed, due to poor sound quality. Amongst many other problems, the vocals were so low that they often couldn't be heard at all. I tried my best to fix things with my limited ability using the artificial intelligence based audio editing programs that have come out in recent years, but the recording was too poor to be salvageable. I didn't even bother keeping a copy of the concert in my music collection, because it wasn't worth hearing for me.

Or so I thought. Enter Lord Reith. He's someone who has been editing and improving Beatles recordings for years. I don't know if he's a magician or what, but what he did with this Stowe School bootleg is nothing short of miraculous! There are still some problems, which I will get to in a bit, but he's completely transformed the sound quality, making it almost sound as good as some soundboard recordings. In particular, he did wonders to make the vocals audible. So, in my opinion, this has gone from not worth listening to more than once (if that) to being one of the most interesting and listenable live Beatles recordings, period. If you're a fan, and you can tolerate some sound quality issues, definitely give this a listen.

Now, let me explain a bit more about what this concert is and why it's so unique. Again, I highly recommend you read the above newspaper article, but in case you don't, here's a short summary. At the time of this concert, the Beatles were right on the cusp of being big stars in Britain, but they weren't quite there yet. They'd released their first single, "Love Me Do," in late 1962. It made the Top Twenty in Britain, which was a good start. Then, in January 1963, they released the single "Please Please Me." It reached Number One in most British charts. In late March 1963, they released their first album, also called "Please Please Me." That would go on to be a huge hit, staying in the Top Ten of the charts for over a year, which would set a record for the next fifty years. Then, only one week after this concert, the single "From Me to You" would be released, and that would be another Number One hit in Britain. 

So, mere weeks after this concert, Beatlemania hit Britain in a big way, just as it would hit the U.S. in early 1964. From that point on, pretty much all Beatles concerts would be short, a half an hour or less, and so filled with screams from overexcited girls that one couldn't really hear the music. If you're heard live Beatles recordings, then you know it's usually a pretty rough listening experience, due to all that screaming and cheering.

Previously, the Beatles had spent a couple of years in Hamburg, Germany, honing their music skills by playing in small clubs. There are some rough live recordings from that, and they're very interesting, but they consisted almost entirely of cover songs. 

This recording is unique, however, in part because the Stowe School is very unusual. In 1963, it was only for boys aged 13 to 18. As you can see from this photo, it was only for the children of the elite. It looks less like a high school and more like a palace! The Beatles were booked to perform there months before the concert date, when their fame was a lot less. But they upheld their agreement and played there in April 1963 anyway. Not only that, but they played for over an hour, instead of the mere half hour or less they were already doing for screaming fans in other shows. 

But what's really great is, because the audience considered entirely of boys, and well-behaved upper class boys, no less, there was no screaming. According to articles I read, most of the boys in the audience hadn't even heard of the Beatles yet, so they weren't swept up in any hysteria. The Beatles played virtually all the songs from the "Please Please Me" album, plus "From Me to You" and its B-side "Thank You Girl," despite the fact those last two songs still hadn't been released. Yet they also played a bunch of cover songs that they'd done in Hamburg. This is probably the last time most of those covers were played by them in concert, as they switched to doing very short concerts consisting entirely of their best known songs. So this is the one and only concert recording with a mix of the "old" Beatles of Hamburg cover versions and the "new" Beatles with their remarkable original songs. How lucky we are that one of the boys in the audience snuck in a tape recorder and recorded it.

So that's the good news. The bad news is, even after Lord Reith's miraculous transformation of the recording, there still are sound quality issues. The biggest problem is the banter between songs. There was a lot banter, between almost all the songs. Unfortunately, the recording of those bits were very quiet, way more quiet than the music. So I suspect there just wasn't much there on the recording for Lord Reith to work with. I took his version, with the banter way down low, and boosted the volume of those bits so the banter can be clearly heard. But unfortunately, all that means in that quiet jibber jabber is now louder jibber jabber. I've included a couple of extra text files. One of them is a list of all the changes Lord Reith made to make this listenable. The other is a transcript of what he and other die-hard Beatles fans have managed to figure out from the banter. If you read that as you listen, you can catch most of it. But otherwise, the talking is pretty hard to understand, other than the occasional phrase.

Due to this seemingly unfixable problem, I'm posting two versions of this album. One contains the banter and the songs, and the other one contains just the songs. I much, much prefer the music only version. The banter is interesting to hear once or twice, but beyond that, it drags down the overall recording. So maybe you'll want to download both, and listen to one version and then the other.

There's one other big problem. The tape in the tape recorder only lasted for about sixty minutes. The recorder was up at the stage and the boy who recorded it was sitting in the audience, so when the tape ran out, there was no way for him to flip it over and keep recording. Thus, the end of a second version of "I Saw Her Standing There" was cut off, plus all of the last two songs, "Sweet Little Sixteen" and "Long Tall Sally." Most of the second version of  "I Saw Her Standing There" survived, and luckily it happened to be the only song played twice. So I patched in the ending from the first version earlier in the show. But the last two songs are lost.

And there's one more lost song. Right before that second version of "I Saw Her Standing There," the Beatles played "Money (That's What I Want)." Unfortunately, there's only about twenty seconds of this on the recording, and then it gets replaced by the hit version of "Surfin' Bird" by the Trashmen! Probably what happened was that the boy who recorded it accidentally recorded that song off the radio over the Beatles concert. I removed the snippet of "Money" and the little bit of banter before it, because it's frustrating to get only such a short part of that. 

Furthermore, note that even after all of Lord Reith's edits, there were still some problems with the vocals. I used UVR5 to boost all the vocals a bit. I think that helped to make the singing easier to hear. But some songs are better than others. For "Matchbox" in particular, only bits and pieces of the lead vocals can be heard. I figure that's because that song was sung by Ringo Starr, the drummer, and maybe he was sitting back and too busy with drumming to keep his mouth near the microphone all the time. (That reminds me: there are no lead vocals from George Harrison because he was recovering from a cold.)

If you want to know even more about this remarkable concert, I recommend this link:

The Beatles concert at Roxburgh Hall, Stowe School in Buckingham on Apr 4, 1963 (the-paulmccartney-project.com)

It includes lots of great photos and stories. You can learn the whole story of how this bootleg came to be recorded and then rediscovered decades later. It's really interesting stuff, if you're a Beatles fan. That also includes a transcript of the banter between songs.

Here's the track list to the version that includes the banter. This version is 58 minutes long.

01 talk (Beatles)
02 I Saw Her Standing There (Beatles)
03 Too Much Monkey Business (Beatles)
04 talk (Beatles)
05 Love Me Do (Beatles)
06 talk (Beatles)
07 Some Other Guy (Beatles)
08 talk (Beatles)
09 Misery (Beatles)
10 talk (Beatles)
11 I Just Don't Understand (Beatles)
12 talk (Beatles)
13 A Shot of Rhythm and Blues (Beatles)
14 talk (Beatles)
15 Boys (Beatles)
16 talk (Beatles)
17 Matchbox (Beatles)
18 talk (Beatles)
19 From Me to You (Beatles)
20 talk (Beatles)
21 Thank You Girl (Beatles)
22 talk (Beatles)
23 Memphis, Tennessee (Beatles)
24 talk (Beatles)
25 A Taste of Honey (Beatles)
26 talk (Beatles)
27 Twist and Shout (Beatles)
28 talk (Beatles)
29 Anna [Go to Him] (Beatles)
30 talk (Beatles)
31 Please Please Me (Beatles)
32 talk (Beatles)
33 The Hippy Hippy Shake (Beatles)
34 talk (Beatles)
35 I'm Talking about You (Beatles)
36 talk (Beatles)
37 Ask Me Why (Beatles)
38 talk (Beatles)
39 Till There Was You (Beatles)
40 talk (Beatles)
41 I Saw Her Standing There [Edit] (Beatles)

And here's the link to the version with the banter:

https://pixeldrain.com/u/RqK9Aoq6

alternate: 

https://bestfile.io/en/ZJ2vjwIBlYO5yRK/file 

Here's the track list for the version with only the music. This version is 50 minutes long, eight minutes shorter than the other version.

01 I Saw Her Standing There (Beatles)
02 Too Much Monkey Business (Beatles)
03 Love Me Do (Beatles)
04 Some Other Guy (Beatles)
05 Misery (Beatles)
06 I Just Don't Understand (Beatles)
07 A Shot of Rhythm and Blues (Beatles)
08 Boys (Beatles)
09 Matchbox (Beatles)
10 From Me to You (Beatles)
11 Thank You Girl (Beatles)
12 Memphis, Tennessee (Beatles)
13 A Taste of Honey (Beatles)
14 Twist and Shout (Beatles)
15 Anna [Go to Him] (Beatles)
16 Please Please Me (Beatles)
17 The Hippy Hippy Shake (Beatles)
18 I'm Talking about You (Beatles)
19 Ask Me Why (Beatles)
20 Till There Was You (Beatles)
21 I Saw Her Standing There [Edit] (Beatles)

Here's the link to the version with no banter, and only songs. 

https://pixeldrain.com/u/jQXFfpAb

alternate: 

https://bestfile.io/en/02ggG53jP4MyIFd/file

Again, especially if you're not a die-hard fan, I recommend just getting the music only version.

For the cover photo, I used one of the photos from this exact concert and colorized it, using the Palette program. You can see a larger and uncropped version of the original black and white photo in one of the above article links.

The Beatles - The Beatles Uncovered, Volume 6: Mike's Mixes (1964-2013) (A Mike Solof Guest Post)

It's time for another one of guest poster Mike Solof's collections of his unique edits of Beatles songs. 

By now, hopefully you should know the drill, if you're familiar with the previous volumes in this series. So I don't see the need to say much more. Mike has extensive comments in the PDF file that's included in the download zip. I encourage you to check that out.

However, I will say one more thing. I can personally attest to the struggles Mike went through to make the Ringo Starr and George Harrison duet of "It Don't Come Easy" included here, since he kept me abreast of changes as he made them. He probably pulled out most of his hair on that one. Luckily, he gets paid the big bucks for making these edits... Not! So drop him a thanks if you like the album, 'cos it takes a lot of work to make these versions.

This album is one hour long.

01 Save Us [Mike's Mix] (Paul McCartney)
02 If I Needed Someone [Mike's Mix] (Beatles)
03 I'm Stepping Out [Mike's Mix] (John Lennon)
04 It Don't Come Easy [Mike's Mix] (Ringo Starr & George Harrison)
05 Hello Goodbye [Mike's Mix] (Beatles)
06 Devil's Radio [Mike's Mix] (George Harrison)
07 Baby, You're a Rich Man [Mike's Mix] (Beatles)
08 House of Wax [Mike's Mix] (Paul McCartney)
09 Maxine [Mike's Mix 2] (Traveling Wilburys)
10 Oh Yoko [Mike's Mix] (John Lennon)
11 Because [Mike's Mix - Paul Left, John Center, George Right] (Beatles)
12 Someplace Else [Mike's Mix] (George Harrison)
13 You're Mother Should Know [Mike's Mix] (Beatles)
14 Only Mama Knows [Mike's Mix] (Paul McCartney)
15 When We Was Fab [Mike's Mix] (George Harrison)
16 Run for Your Life [Mike's Mix] (Beatles)
17 Slow Down [Mike's Mix] (Beatles)
18 New [Mike's Mix] (Paul McCartney & AI John Lennon)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/KEyKZBYE

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/AnBwQGkvLQZoDIY/file

I don't know the details of the cover photo of the Beatles, since Mike picked it. But just going off the styles and haircuts and such, I'd guess it's from 1966. In March 2025, I upgraded the cover image with the use of the Krea AI program.

The Beatles - The Beatles Uncovered, Volume 5: Mike's Mixes (1963-1987) (A Mike Solof Guest Post)

Guest poster Mike Solof strikes again, with another volume of his unique mixes of Beatles (and solo careers) songs.

This time around, there's a wide range of music, dating from the early Beatles back in 1963 all the way to solo career songs from the 1980s. If you want to know more, check out the PDF file included with the download, as usual for Mike, with explanations about the edits for all the songs.

This album is 59 minutes long.

01 That's What It Takes [Mike's Mix] (George Harrison)
02 Uncle Albert-Admiral Halsey [Mike's Mix] (Paul McCartney)
03 Watching the Wheels [Mike's Mix] (John Lennon)
04 Beware of Darkness [Mike's Mix 2] [Instrumental] (George Harrison)
05 Michelle [Mike's Mix] (Beatles)
06 You Won't See Me [Mike's Mix] (Beatles)
07 Magical Mystery Tour [Mike's Mix] (Beatles)
08 The Inner Light [Mike's Mix] (Beatles)
09 Beautiful Boy [Mike's Mix] (John Lennon)
10 I Want to Hold Your Hand [Mike's Mix] (Beatles)
11 All You Need Is Love [Mike's Mix] (Beatles)
12 Wreck of the Hesperus [Mike's Mix] (George Harrison)
13 Think for Yourself [Mike's Mix] (Beatles)
14 With a Little Help from My Friends [Mike's Mix] (Beatles)
15 Woman [Mike's Mix] (John Lennon)
16 The Fool on the Hill [Mike's Mix] (Beatles)
17 Across the Universe [Mike's Mix] (Beatles)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/B7RTEqED

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/YShiu3Xy8wi1XrM/file

The cover photo looks to show Paul McCartney and John Lennon in the late 1970s. However, is not real, meaning it's a mash-up of two photos created by someone and posted on the Internet. Originally, there was a photo of Lennon with his wife, Yoko Ono, from the late 1970s. But someone pasted over McCartney from a different photo also taken in that time period. I had some issues with this version, most especially that the lighting on their hair didn't match, so I made some edits in Photoshop to at least make the fake look more plausible.

In March 2025, I improved the image quality with the use of the Krea AI program.

That said, it is known that McCartney and Lennon did hang out together from time to time in the late 1970s, especially whenever McCartney was passing through New York City, where Lennon lived. So this photo could have happened.

The Beatles - The Beatles Uncovered, Volume 4: Mike's Mixes (1963-2023) (A Mike Solof Guest Post)

A few days ago (as I write this in early November 2023), the Beatles released a "new" song called "Now and Then." It's a long story, but the short version is that it's based on a demo John Lennon recorded in the late 1970s, before he died in 1980. The three surviving Beatles worked on it some around 1995, but they weren't satisfied, and never finished. Finally, thanks to advances in technology, the two surviving Beatles Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr finished it recently. So it's a fitting time to post another guest post by Mike Solof, featuring more of his unique mixes of Beatles songs.

I'll let Mike do most of the explaining via his notes contained in a PDF file that's included in the download zip. But I just want to make two more comments. One, I noted to him that his earlier volumes didn't include any early Beatles songs, and I wanted to hear some of those. Happily, he obliged, and there are a bunch of songs from 1963 to 1965 here. Second, speaking of the "new" song "Now and Then," Mike has included a mix of that song that's different from the released version in interesting ways.

This album is exactly an hour long.

01 Long Tall Sally [Mike's Mix] (Beatles)
02 Bad Boy [Mike's Mix] (Beatles)
03 I Call Your Name [Mike's Mix] (Beatles)
04 Yes It Is [Mike's Mix] (Beatles)
05 Now and Then [Mike's Mix] (Beatles)
06 I Am the Walrus [Mike's Mix] (Beatles)
07 I'm Down [Mike's Mix] (Beatles)
08 Matchbox [Mike's Mix] (Beatles)
09 This Boy [Mike's Mix] (Beatles)
10 Watching the Wheels [Mike's Mix Version 2] (John Lennon)
11 Hear Me Lord [Mike's Mix] (George Harrison)
12 Hey Bulldog [Mike's Mix] (Beatles)
13 You're Sixteen [Mike's Mix] (Ringo Starr)
14 I Saw Her Standing There [Mike's Mix] (Beatles)
15 I Feel Fine [Mike's Mix] (Beatles)
16 Lady Madonna [Mike's Mix] (Beatles)
17 Because [Mike's Mix] (Beatles)
18 A Day in the Life - Inner Groove [Mike's Mix] (Beatles)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/YqmSM6YN

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/Zht9DnokJps5uob/file

For the album cover, Mike found another artistic representation of the Beatles. I have no idea what the original source is. In March 2025, I improved the picture quality with the use of the Krea AI program.

Robyn Hitchcock - Covers Revolver by the Beatles, Three Kings, Clerkenwell, London, Britain, 8-29-2011

From 2003 to 2011, Robyn Hitchcock performed a series of charity concerts that benefited the victims of the Iraq War. There was about one such concert a year, and they almost always involved Hitchcock covering an entire album, and were always held at the small Three Kings pub in London. Back in April 2023, I posted the first one he did, which consisted of covers of "naff" 1970s hits. It's time I post another one, so here you are.

This actually is the last of these concerts. I picked it mainly because I remember the sound quality was especially good for the series. I believe all the recordings are audience bootlegs, and some just sound okay. This one, though, was nearly soundboard quality. The one snag was that the lead vocals were often low in the mix, and the drums were too high in the mix. But that's the kind of thing I can fix with the audio editing program UVR5, so that's what I did for every single song here. I believe it sounds markedly better than before. Now, I think this could easily be mistaken for a true soundboard boot.

Hitchcock is a huge Beatles fan, and he's covered the Beatles albums "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band," "The White Album," and "Abbey Road" in this concert series. This time, he did the 1966 Beatles album "Revolver." He played the songs in the exact same order as the album, starting from the first song. But that doesn't make for a very long concert, so when he finished with "Revolver," he played an additional bunch of covers. He did the Beatles songs "Rain," "Old Brown Shoe," and "I Want You (She's So Heavy)." 

But oddly, he did even more David Bowie songs: "Soul Love," "Golden Years, "TVC15," and "All the Young Dudes." (That last one was a big hit for Mott the Hoople, but it actually was written by Bowie, and he's done his own version of it.) Hitchcock is also a huge Bowie fan, and he'd done a Bowie themed concert in this series the year before, covering the "Hunky Dory" album. I figure he had many or most of the same musicians backing him in that show and this one, so it would have been easy for them to do the Bowie songs. (He did all four of those Bowie songs in the 2010 concert.)

Speaking of musicians backing him, I think a particularly interesting aspect of these concerts is that he really went out of his way to perform cover versions that were faithful to the originals. If one of the originals had an oboe in it, he'd get someone to play an oboe for that bit, and so on. He even knew the little bits of chatter or other "Easter eggs" the Beatles sometimes had in their songs, and he would reproduce those as well. But at the same time, Hitchcock is known for his stream-of-consciousness style banter between songs, and this concert had plenty of that as well.

Just one song here, "Rain," has "[Edit]" in the title. That's because it was the only song I had that wasn't complete, since it got abruptly cut off before the end. Luckily, the song had a false ending when it briefly came to a stop earlier in the song. So I was able to do some editing to repeat that ending at the end. Then I patched in some applause after that, taken from another song earlier in the concert. 

By the way, I believe this was the last concert in this series mainly because the Three Kings pub was closing down. Hitchcock lamented that a bit in some banter during this concert. Of course, he could have chosen another venue, but it seems he had a special arrangement with the pub to perform these benefit concerts there without any costs whatsoever. Plus, the military involvement of the U.S. and Britain in the Iraq War was winding down around this time, so that may have been a factor as well.

This album is an hour and 29 minutes long.

I'm curious how much people like this sort of thing. I could post other concerts in this series of covered albums, but I hesitate because the sound quality may be rougher for some or all of those. I might be able to improve the sound quality in some cases, but I don't know how much. So I'd only take those on if there's sufficient interest.

01 talk (Robyn Hitchcock)
02 Taxman (Robyn Hitchcock)
03 talk (Robyn Hitchcock)
04 Eleanor Rigby (Robyn Hitchcock)
05 talk (Robyn Hitchcock)
06 I'm Only Sleeping (Robyn Hitchcock)
07 talk (Robyn Hitchcock)
08 Love You To (Robyn Hitchcock)
09 talk (Robyn Hitchcock)
10 Here, There and Everywhere (Robyn Hitchcock)
11 talk (Robyn Hitchcock)
12 Yellow Submarine (Robyn Hitchcock)
13 talk (Robyn Hitchcock)
14 She Said, She Said (Robyn Hitchcock)
15 talk (Robyn Hitchcock)
16 Good Day Sunshine (Robyn Hitchcock)
17 talk (Robyn Hitchcock)
18 And Your Bird Can Sing (Robyn Hitchcock)
19 talk (Robyn Hitchcock)
20 For No One (Robyn Hitchcock)
21 talk (Robyn Hitchcock)
22 Doctor Robert (Robyn Hitchcock)
23 I Want to Tell You (Robyn Hitchcock)
24 talk (Robyn Hitchcock)
25 Got to Get You into My Life (Robyn Hitchcock)
26 Tomorrow Never Knows (Robyn Hitchcock)
27 Soul Love (Robyn Hitchcock)
28 talk (Robyn Hitchcock)
29 Golden Years (Robyn Hitchcock)
30 talk (Robyn Hitchcock)
31 TVC15 (Robyn Hitchcock)
32 talk (Robyn Hitchcock)
33 Rain (Robyn Hitchcock)
34 talk (Robyn Hitchcock)
35 Old Brown Shoe (Robyn Hitchcock)
36 talk (Robyn Hitchcock)
37 I Want You [She's So Heavy] (Robyn Hitchcock)
38 talk (Robyn Hitchcock)
39 All the Young Dudes (Robyn Hitchcock)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15824556/RobynH_2011_RvolvrThreeKingsClerkenwell__8-29-2011_atse.zip.html

The cover photo is a screenshot taken from a YouTube video of a song, "Eleanor Rigby," from this exact concert.