NEW BEATLES AT BBC

The Beatles officially announced last week that a new double album of unreleased recordings will be available on November 11th. The band made many appearances on the BBC in the 1960s. Per company policy, most of the tapes were wiped after broadcast (a situation well known by fans of Doctor Who and early Avengers episodes). Luckily some tapes survived, and a number of shows were taped and preserved by listeners. Many of these recordings showed up on bootlegs and better sources have been unearthed over the years  The Beatles eventually released Live at the BBC in 1994, which contained many non-album tracks from the band's early club sets. The BBC recordings, including that 1994 collection, have been remastered and will come out in November. The new BBC set, The Beatles On Air Vol 2, will contain 63 unreleased performances and radio chat with the band. The remastered Vol 1 set will contain the 1994 material (with some exceptions). I'm very excited to hear both volumes of material! My fellow fans on the Steve Hoffman Forum have been discussing the various BBC tracks that remain unreleased and hope that someday Apple will make available a complete collection of all known BBC performances. More info on Amazon for BBC Vol 1 and On Air Vol 2. 

In addition, a new book that documents The Beatles on the BBC will be released on October 29th, The Beatles: the BBC Archives: 1962-1970. From Amazon: "A carefully curated collection of the surviving transcripts of the Beatles’ appearances on BBC Radio and Television from 1962 to 1970, featuring commentary from author and Beatles expert Kevin Howlett and rare photographs and memorabilia from the BBC.

The year 2013 marks the fiftieth anniversary of the release of The Beatles’ first album, Please, Please Me. To celebrate this event with material that has never been in print or has not repeatedly resurfaced is a challenge. But a great deal of both—namely, never-before-seen BBC transcripts, historical documents, and rare photos—will be the main thrust of the book The Beatles: The BBC Archives. Not since The Beatles’ Anthology of 2000 has a work of this magnitude been offered.

Author Kevin Howlett delves into the BBC television and radio archives and draws on previously unpublished transcripts of interviews, as well as personal reminiscences from presenters, producers, and studio staff to reveal the creative and personal evolution of the band- from the witty, irreverent foursome of the early sixties, to the more reflective and confessional individuals before the split at the end of the decade. Each chapter details a full year in the life of the band and is introduced with an engaging text by Howlett that puts the following material into historical context. The book features rare photos of the Fab Four at the BBCs studios, both onstage and off, and eight removables documents of historical merit, direct from the BBC archive itself.

This is the story of two of Britain’s most important cultural forces in tandem . . . word for word, event by event, as it happened with verbatim, unabridged transcripts. This has never been offered to reader before; it is a significant publishing event." Spy Vibers, pick up the book and the new BBC albums and transport yourselves back to Swinging London!

Get ready to meet MIKI ZERO, Japanese fashion model and spy! The creator of Spy Vibe has written a novel called Elevator Girl, inspired by his love of Ian Fleming and based on newly declassified intel from the Cold War. More info at Whiton's website here. Recent Spy Vibe posts: Peter Asher, new Hercule Poirot novel, Beatles fall 2013 releases, A Hard Days Night cinematographer dies, Magic Christian on Blu-ray, Early Beatles image archive, Julie Newmar, Erno Goldfinger, Hitchcock tribute, Ian Fleming memorial, Emma Peel Megaset returns

Recent Ian Fleming posts on Spy Vibe: Erno Goldfinger, Ian Fleming Music Series links: Noel Coward, Whispering Jack Smith, Hawaiian Guitar, Joe Fingers Carr, new Ian Fleming Catalog, Jon Gilbert interview, Double 007 Designs, Bond audio book reissues, discovery of one of Ian Fleming's WWII Commandos, James Bond book covers, Ian Fleming's Playboy interview for Kindle, Spy Vibe's discovery of a rare Ian Fleming serialization, rare View to a Kill, Fleming's Royal gold typewriter, Ian Fleming's memorial address