There have been many albums released by the Beatles, from classic LPs to reissued box sets, full of never-before-heard tracks. Some fans might think they’ve heard it all. But a new live recording of a 1963 Beatles performance just surfaced, making it the earliest known from the group.
Before ‘Beatlemania’ hit, the Beatles were just another band trying to make it big
The Beatles were, and continue to be, one of the biggest bands in the world. They started releasing music in the early 60s and quickly became worldwide sensations. A new word “Beatlemania,” came about to describe the impact they had on young people.
However, they were not always playing in the world’s biggest arenas full of screaming fans. A newly-discovered live recording of the Fab Four has just been released, showing what an early show sounded like from the now-iconic band.
A previously unheard 1963 live recording contains an early performance of the Beatles’ hit single ‘I Saw Her Standing There’
The hour-long live recording was made at an April 1963 show the band did at Stowe, an all-boys boarding school in Buckinghamshire, England. The Beatles performed at the show after a student named David Moores wrote to their manager, Brian Epstein. In order to pay the Beatles’ £100 fee, Moores sold tickets to his classmates.
Another student, John Bloomfield, was the one who was responsible for the tape of the Beatles’ show. Some of the tracks the group performed include now-famous tracks like “I Saw Her Standing There,” from 1963’s Please Please Me, and a cover of Chuck Berry’s 1956 single “Too Much Monkey Business.” The full recording includes 22 total songs.
The Beatles can also be heard taking requests from the students and joking around with each other and the audience. Bloomfield said the show made him grow up “at that very instant” and that he “realized this was something from a different planet…we were in the middle of Beatlemania” [via NME].
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1 Beatles historian said he had to pick himself ‘up off the floor’ after finding out the tape existed
Beatles historians were unaware that Bloomfield’s tape even existed. Mark Lewisohn said he had to “pick [himself] up off the floor” after finding out what Bloomfield had.
“The opportunity that this tape presents, which is completely out of the blue, is fantastic because we hear [The Beatles] just on the cusp of the breakthrough into complete world fame,” Lewisohn continued. “And at that point, all audience recordings become blanketed in screams.”
“Beatlemania” became such a massive phenomenon that the band actually stopped touring. They often complained that they couldn’t hear themselves over the racket their fans made. It’s also why high-quality live recordings of the Beatles are so hard to come by — and why Bloomfield’s tape is such a find.
Other popular live recordings of the Beatles include their record label audition and massive concerts from the 1960s
Bloomfield’s 1963 tape is far from the only bootleg recording we have from the Beatles. One popular recording many fans are eager to get their hands on is the group’s 1962 Decca audition. They played fifteen songs to audition for a recording contract.
Recordings from other live concerts of the Beatles exist, too. These include performances at the Hollywood Bowl in 1964 and 1965 that were officially released on the album The Beatles at the Hollywood Bowl, and the band’s famous 1965 Shea Stadium show.
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