Way Beyond Compare
updates


As anyone who tries to collect Beatles recordings knows, new material appears with alarming regularity, even after 40 plus years. This page will serve as a continually-updated repository for any Beatles recordings not mentioned in Way Beyond Compare or That Magic Feeling. Where possible, I've linked to other websites where the material may be heard or viewed.


1 April 1963
1:03 of the Beatles' first appearance on BBC Radio's Side By Side (broadcast 22 April 1963) has surfaced on the CDR Unbootlegged 28. The good-quality off-air tape consists of chat between host John Dunn and John and Paul, and the opening chord of "Do You Want To Know A Secret". Hopefully more of the show (which is otherwise missing) will appear soon.


1 April - 16 July 1963
More snippets of BBC Radio chat are also circulating, in fair quality:

From Side By Side (recorded 1 April 1963, broadcast 13 May), an extra 20 seconds of the intro to "A Taste Of Honey", in which Paul discusses Hamburg.

From Pop Go The Beatles #5 (recorded 2 July 1963), Rodney Burke's intro to "That's All Right (Mama)", Rodney and Paul reading requests for "There's A Place", and Rodney's outro for "Clarabella" ("This was whistling?").

From Pop Go The Beatles #6 (recorded 10 July 1963), a longer intro and outro to "Sweet Little Sixteen", and Paul reading a request for "A Taste Of Honey".

From Pop Go The Beatles #8 (recorded 16 July 1963), Paul reading a request for "Crying, Waiting, Hoping" (cut short on previous bootlegs).


16 October 1963
A 15-second BBC-TV news clip exists, filmed at the Playhouse Theatre. It's similar (but not identical) to the last few seconds of the Radio Newsreel interview, and is conducted by the same reporter, Peter Woods.


23 October 1963
The Misterclaudel CD/DVD bootleg Stars Of The Beatles In Sweden contains about 15 seconds of silent color footage of the Beatles' arrival at Arlanda Airport in Stockholm. You can also view it on YouTube.


5 November 1963
An extra 20 seconds of footage from the interview for This Week turned up on YouTube (it's since been removed), with George talking about the difficulty of meeting fans in public.


8 November 1963
The ITN archive includes the most complete footage of an interview for Ulster News (conducted on the road from Dublin to Belfast), as well as the group signing autographs and taking home movies inside the Ritz Cinema in Belfast. The clips can be viewed here.


7 December 1963
A mostly-upgraded copy of the Liverpool concert broadcast on TV as It's The Beatles surfaced on YouTube (audio only, unfortunately). The upgraded portions appear on Purple Chick's CDR Live Before America.


ca. 20 December 1963
A further 25 seconds of footage from the Day By Day interview surfaced on YouTube (it's since been removed), featuring the Beatles discussing what they'll get each other for Christmas.


15 January 1964
A French news archive contains footage of the Beatles' concert at the Cinema Cyrano in Versailles, including natural sound of their performance of "From Me To You". The audio appears on the Purple Chick CDR Live Before America, and the clip can be viewed here.


22 February 1964
An extra minute of ITV's London Airport interview has surfaced on audio (the video undoubtedly exists), with The Beatles further discussing Cassius Clay, and describing the Washington Embassy reception at which Ringo lost a lock of hair.


19-20 March 1964
A very good quality tape of BBC Radio's Film Time, aired 27 June 1970, has recently appeared. It contains excerpts of the Beatles' 1964 interviews for Movie-Go-Round, in three segments totalling 3:15. The lads complain about having to get up early to film, discuss the plot of A Hard Day's Night, and reveal several proposed titles for their movie debut. Beatlemania, On The Move, and Let's Go are all derided by Paul, who says they might as well call it It's Rock, Cock (a parody of It's Trad, Dad). For a while they favored What Little Old Man?, while Ringo's literal suggestion was A Film. Best of all is George's invention: Ben Hair (pronunced "Hur" in true Ken Dodd fashion).


31 March 1964
Some of you may have noticed that the November 1965 OK magazine flexi-disc opens with a few lines from Paul that are not part of the usual Dieter Bröer interview (taped 11 July 1964 at the London Hilton). This portion was actually part of a longer interview Dieter conducted with Paul outside the Scala Theatre this afternoon, during filming of A Hard Day's Night. In addition to interviewing fans in the street (who sing "We Love You Beatles"), Bröer chats with Paul, partially in German, about Beethoven, privacy, and the film. The entire recording lasts 5:29 and circulates in very good quality.


30 April 1964
Footage of the Beatles' interviews for Scottish Television's Roundup (originally aired 5 May 1964) was recently discovered. On 1 July 2008, BBC Radio aired about 6:09 of the recording in a documentary, which can be heard here.


5 June 1964
The Misterclaudel CD/DVD bootleg Stars Of The Beatles In Sweden includes a "sneak preview" section at the end of the DVD. Among the footage is a previously-unseen clip from the Amsterdam press conference at Schiphol Airport, with the group complaining of having their pictures taken by a camera with a fisheye lens.


25 June 1964
Further footage of The Beatles' appearance at Auckland Town Hall exists, including about 30 seconds with natural sound. Paul talks to the crowd and refuses their chanted request to sing something.


2 July 1964
1:06 of newsreel footage exists of fans greeting The Beatles at Frankfurt Airport, a refueling stop on the way from Sydney to London. As the group (along with Neil and Derek) emerge from the plane to wave at fans, Paul gives a brief interview.


28 July 1964
A very silly clip from the Stockholm interview at Hotel Foresta can be seen on YouTube, featuring the Beatles and an interviewer babbling in mock-Swedish.


19 August 1964
During their stay at the San Francisco Hilton, Paul and George were interviewed for KCBS radio by reporter Hillard Rose. The 8:10 excellent-quality recording can be heard here.


28 August 1964
In a short interview apparently taped in the pre-dawn hours of the 28th, Ringo describes his missing St. Christopher's medal to WABC's Cousin Brucie and Scott Muni and agrees to meet with anyone who returns it.


6 September 1964
An excellent-quality 0:41 recording exists of Paul discussing folk music, during an interview for WKNR's Bob Green in Detroit.


7 September 1964
The soundtrack to a TV documentary covering the Beatles' Toronto visit has been unearthed. Some of the footage included is circulating on video, without the narration, but portions of the press conference and fan interviews are unique.
UPDATE: The documentary originally aired on CFTO-TV in the Toronto area, 12 September 1964 at 6PM, and ALL the raw footage apparently survives (without narration). Thanks to Jay Donnelly and Brad Howard for helping to crack this case!


18 August - 21 September 1964
Disc jockey Jim Stagg traveled with The Beatles on their summer 1964 North American tour, covering events for KYW-AM radio in Cleveland. 32 minutes of good quality recordings have appeared, with Jim Stagg (and his colleague Art Schreiber) interviewing the group, Derek Taylor, Neil Aspinall, and fans. Among the new material is more of the San Francisco press conference (18 August), Paul in Vancouver (22 August), the Cincinnati press conference (27 August), and George and John in Baltimore (13 September). Stagg also chatted with Derek in San Francisco (18 August), fans outside the Hilton (19 August), and reported while leaving Seattle and outside Empire Stadium in Vancouver (22 August).


20-21 September 1964
In addition to the above, a couple minutes of fair-sounding interviews conducted by Art Schreiber also exist from the last days of the tour. During the flight to New York, George praises Red Rocks Amphitheatre and the Hollywood Bowl, and Ringo recalls hitting the town in Atlantic City and Indianapolis. There are also a few extra seconds of Ringo's farewell at JFK Airport on the 21st.


20 October 1964
A slightly longer clip of the Beatles' interview with June Shields for Grampian Week has turned up on YouTube. Filmed at Caird Hall in Dundee, Scotland, it can be viewed here.


21 October 1964
Silent colour home movies of the Beatles' visit to Glasgow turned up in early 2009 at an auction. Brief samples, including a glimpse of Derek Taylor, can be seen here.


31 October 1964
ITN's online archive includes a few clips of the Beatles' arrival in Ipswich (and this is a good time to point out that I misspelled it as Ipswitch in both editions!), including their interview with John McGregor. The clips (misdated as 10 August 1964) can be viewed here.


2 November 1964
The ITN newsreel archive contains 1:03 of silent footage depicting the Beatles' arrival at Belfast Airport, deplaning and being driven off the tarmac in a car chased by fans. This can be viewed here (misidentified as Dublin Airport, 7 November 1963).


17 November 1964
One of the session reels from the Beatles' second appearance on the BBC Radio series Top Gear recently surfaced. A 17-second clip was released to the media, in which a take of "I'll Follow The Sun" breaks down due to Paul's giggling fit.


13 April 1965
During filming of Help! at Twickenham Studios, the Beatles were interviewed by Hilkka Kantelinen for Finnish Radio's Kaleidoskooppi. Her lengthy chats with all four Beatles, as well as director Richard Lester and hairdresser Betty Glasow, can be heard here.


22 June 1965
2:37 of ORTF newsreel footage exists of The Beatles' visit to Lyon, France, covering the airport arrival and concert at the Palais d'Hiver. Some of this circulates from a rebroadcast, but the full clip can be viewed here.


15-16 August 1965
A good-quality (but heavily distorted) tape exists, containing nearly 30 minutes of Brian Matthew's uncut interviews for the BBC Radio special The Beatles Abroad. Taped over two days at the Warwick Hotel in New York City, much of this (particularly the 15 August material) went unused in the finished broadcast. Paul talks about watching a horror movie on TV, and the tour's first press conference. George discusses the Ed Sullivan Show taping, and "Act Naturally". Ringo says he enjoys acting, and compares the way tours are handled in the UK and USA. Most interesting is John's segment, in which he reveals that Leonard Bernstein has been composing tunes to his poems. Apparently Bernstein and his children enjoyed playing a game (joined by the Kennedy children on one occasion) in which they had to take turns singing new melodies to John's poem "The Moldy Moldy Man"!



I will continue to add new items to this page as they come to my attention. If you know of any Beatles audio or video not in the book, please e-mail me at dinsdalep@aol.com and let me know!