A Trip With The Beatles - Part Three

The 'Get Back' or 'Twickenham sessions', took place in 1969.

Paul McCartney, wanted to get The Beatles playing together again as opposed to just recording. It was an opportunity to help the band gel together again, have some fun, and maybe lead to some new live performances.

It was also a chance for band members to share new material, some of which would surface later on solo albums.

In the end the now legendary roof top performance, was all that was to happen, as public performance's go.

The actual sessions were filmed, and each film reel was accompanied by a mono soundtrack.

The soundtrack has surfaced in different forms down the years. Recently I acquired the full soundtrack set, from a generation of copies quite close to the originals (so the sound quality is very good).

These copies are not broken down into individual songs, rather they are inclusive of what was included on the film reel in use. I will when time permits try and edit these down to songs, to help, I do at least have a full song listing from a boot series circulated some time ago.

One of the best known bootlegs from these performances, that has done the rounds for some time is 'The Corn Of Apple', or 'The Core of Apple'. Lost in translation, the 'Corn' typing error seems to be the more widely circulated version, indeed the cover of my copy has 'corn' rather than 'core'...

REPLACEMENT DOWNLOAD LINK OF FULL ALBUM IN COMMENTS BELOW OR CLICK ON THE PICTURE (5TH JANUARY 2010).

Those days playing in Hamburg, certainly paid off, they are up there with Elvis Presley's Wooden Heart. Mind you Elvis did his army conscription in Germany.

Perhaps it should me mandatory for all 'boy' bands to play live in Germany for a couple of years before hitting the big time in the UK, if you follow my drift.

The Beatles are included in The Beehive Candy Store.

A Trip With The Beatles - Part Two

In part one of this series, I used the first CD from the mythology boot series. Mythology is such a large collection, that it would be easy just to source from that.

It seems rather pointless to just keep dipping into this, especially as you can purchase the official Anthology series, especially if various outtakes, or work in progress versions are your bag.

So I will try and expand out on The Beatles rarities trail. The Beatles took a conscious decision to stop performing live, and most live recordings from the USA tours that I have heard feature the screaming audience rather than the band.

As a consequence the rehearsals for albums in the studio, have thrown up some real gems, as often the band would play 'live' without the audience. One of the best set of sessions are the 'Twickenham' or 'Get Back' sessions. This is a story in it's own right, and will be featured another time, it deserves the attention.

In 1968 The Beatles were both at Trident and EMI studios in London. Some excellent (performance and recording quality) material from sessions played, are on the bootleg 'Lord of Madness'. I have uploaded tracks 1 & 3, for your enjoyment.

The Beatles - Hey Jude - Lord of Madness.mp3

The Beatles - I'm So Tired - Lord of Madness.mp3

I have added the first Beatles dedicated page in The Beehive Candy Store, with as usual some absolute bargains to consider. Click HERE to visit.

A Trip With The Beatles - Part One

My first recollection of The Beatles, was watching them perform on the BBC probably in October 1963 at the London Palladium (no I do not have a fantastic memory, its a calculated guess, they were on the bill, and it was the sort of programme my parents would have had on).

Yes I was very young !!!

Keeping it simple, I have always liked the Beatles, if ever there was an example of popular music that stands the test of time, its them.

In this occasional series, I hope to share some of their rarities, and in doing so probably only just scratch the surface.

There are so many Beatles boots around it's a job to know where to start. In recent years however digital technology has allowed the ardent fan, not only to circulate the material more easily, but to clean up the sound quality, and in some cases, do such a fantastic job, it can rival 'officially' released material.

I am going to ignore any chronological order, to support the fact my collection is growing as I type.

However let's start close after success had come their way.

From Mythology - Volume One - CD One - comes track one. Not to be mistaken with The Anthology series released by the Beatles, and shown on TV at the same time, Mythology is a bootleg series, that dug a little deeper.

On the downside rather than share the material, those behind Mythology were trying to make a profit without royalties. However in more recent times, the collection has surfaced free on the web.

The Beatles - A Taste of Honey.mp3 - BBC Radio - Light Service - 25-10-1962

Or check out this, recorded again for BBC radio's 'Light Programme' as it was back then ( a whole two hours of pop music per week! - this was 1963, who arrived in 1964 ???).

The Beatles - Love Me Do.mp3 - Recorded January 22nd 1963 - Playhouse Theatre London

So who arrived in 1964 ?

To purchase The Beatles - White Album or check out similar Beatles Cd's click here, or on the picture above.

Genesis - Turn The Cash On Again

I have always liked Genesis. They are so easy to knock, ex public schoolboys who made good, through progressive rock, circa early 1970's.

Concept albums, followed by intelligent musical pieces, with complicated chord and time changes.

Add to that Phil Collins solo music that gradually descended to the depths of bland for bland's sake.

The fashion and dance sense of .... You remember why punk happened don't you ?

Like I say I have always liked Genesis, with a few exceptions. So I wish them well on this years tour, and look forward to the superb digital remixes of their material to follow.

For those of us, that missed out on tickets (that were already expensive), and who are currently falling over with laughter, at the prices some mugs are paying on EBay, or the modern day ticket touts on the web - 'who have managed to source exclusive tickets' are charging, here's a couple of excellent live songs.

Both from the 1978 tour, and of the highest quality (soundboard - stereo boots no less). If you are going to one of this years concerts, and they don't play one of these, demand your money back !

Genesis - 3rd June 1978 - Palais Des Sports - Dijon France - The Cinema Show.mp3.

Genesis - 3rd June 1978 - Palais Des Sports - Dijon France - Ripples.mp3

As far as I understand this is from the first generation bootleg (from here on in on this blog lets call em boots), and the sound desk on the tour was really advanced for the time. Whatever the sound quality is superb.

Check out the Beehive Candy Store.

Now I must try and move on from the prog rock trend, that has sadly emerged so early in this blogs short life.

Pink Floyd - Animal Moments

When 'Animals' was first released, I was disappointed, I expected another ' Dark Side of the Moon'.
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Over time however, I have to say that Animals has become a Pink Floyd favorite of mine. Sadly the live material of this album has been pretty poor in quality down the years.
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Not surprising really, the American leg of the tour to promote this album was not a happy affair, which must have been clear at a number of concerts, and audience recordings from that time were generally pretty poor.

I doubt the sound engineers were keen to risk the wrath of Roger Waters, however apparently there is an excellent sound desk recording somewhere, and here is a public grovel, for a copy if anyone can shed light on this.

Having laboured the quality point, I have two good copies of Animals live namely, 'With Bright Knives' and 'Animal Instincts'.

Cutting to the chase a pretty decent version of Sheep is available via the following link.

Pink Floyd - Sheep - Live.mp3

The Beehive Candy Store is HERE.

Pink Floyd - Dreams Factory

I have to start somewhere.

The first Pink Floyd concert I attended, was in 1975. I am pleased to say I was too young to have really seen them much earlier.

That said, by the time Dark Side of the Moon came out, I was already a fan.

Radio Caroline introduced me to Pink Floyd, and for that reason alone, I remain an anorak of Sky's 0199 Channel to this day.

However way before I was going to gigs, fans were flocking to see Pink Floyd, and some were recording what they heard.

Pink Floyd are up there with the most bootlegged of artists, maybe not as much as the likes of Led Zeppelin, but I would guess pretty much a top ten contender.

What really makes a difference, is the quality of recordings made. None usually touch the live albums released with the artists approval. Pink Floyd however, by their very nature, seem to have had as much emphasis on quality, as quantity, when it comes to 'unofficial' recordings.

Lets not get carried away here, there are some really awful Pink Floyd bootlegs around, I know I have some.

What really matters from my point of view, is not how many there are, but what are the good ones, the excellent ones, and those that sound engineers have copied from concert sound desks, and still remain under lock and key.

My personal answer to all of this is "I don't know". What I do know is that I am trying to write a blog piece, and have some samples to share.

So lets start at the first Pink Floyd bootleg I have that meets a basic criteria.

It is listenable, has some unique attributes, and gives me a chance to kick off this whole Beehive Candy thing without wishing I had not bothered later.

Enter 1972's Dreams Factory. Probably a mix of concert recordings from that era, and nothing that special in it's own right. Except that the recordings are of Pink Floyd playing with passion, and with the guitar prevailing in a really positive and good way.

So download Echoes, and hear it in a new light, one recorded a long time ago. When the band were up for a bit of rock'n'roll.

Pink Floyd - Echoes - Dream Factory - 1972.mp3

It has been referred to as the guitar version, whatever you think if you are at all interested in hearing the original and do not have a copy check here - Pink Floyd.

Like I said, I have to start somewhere, and as far as Pink Floyd are concerned, I make no apologies in whats to follow, if you like them, come back again.

Beehive Candy

Beehive Candy.

Yet another MP3 blog ?

THAT'S HOW THIS - THE FIRST POST ON BEEHIVE CANDY ORIGINALLY STARTED.

Having looked back today in the first quarter of 2009, (as I check out reported missing files, that need re-uploading), I realise some of the first objectives remain pretty much the case right now.

The first entry went on...

Feedback will prove invaluable.

So I hope to provide regular themes, along with a mixed bag of musical bits'n'bobs, from yesterday, and a fresh selection of new discoveries.

If there are gaps between updates, it's because I want to enjoy developing this, not feel obliged to keep on adding new postings.

HOW TIME REALLY DOES SEEM TO FLY BY!

LETS HOPE THE BEEHIVE VAULTS CAN CONTINUE TO BE SHARED FOR A WHILE MORE.

Be seeing you...