Beatles "Live at the Hollywood Bowl" to finally be released on CD!

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That's right, folks!
It's finally happening!
The Beatles album "Live at the Hollywood Bowl" will finally be released on CD in September to coincide with the new Ron Howard documentary "Eight Days a Week", which focuses on the Beatles touring years.

No official press release yet, but here is an amazon preorder: https://www.amazon.com/Live-At-Hollywood-Bowl-Beatles/dp/B01IO7OHTU

:)
 
That's right, folks!
It's finally happening!
The Beatles album "Live at the Hollywood Bowl" will finally be released on CD in September to coincide with the new Ron Howard documentary "Eight Days a Week", which focuses on the Beatles touring years.

No official press release yet, but here is an amazon preorder: https://www.amazon.com/Live-At-Hollywood-Bowl-Beatles/dp/B01IO7OHTU

:)

Four bonus tracks including the Real Love single's "Baby's In Black" 1965 Hollywood Bowl performance. The difference between 1976 and 2016 sound processing is beyond what could have been imagined 40 years ago. So, this CD release should be a greatly improved version of the long-out-of-print May 1977 original LP.

This is an obvious tie-in for Ron Howard's documentary, "Eight Days A Week: The Touring Years" which is premiering that same week in theaters and Hulu.

Only bad news is no discussion of any surround sound versions of either Hollywood Bowl or Eight Days A Week. There is almost no chance for Hollywood Bowl, but I still expect Eight Days A Week to be available in some form of surround. Of course, some of the Hollywood Bowl audio will appear in the Eight Days A Week documentary.

Also note the subtle name change with this release. The original was "The Beatles At The Hollywood Bowl". The new version is "The Beatles Live At the Hollywood Bowl". LP of the new version will be available in November 2016.

Andy
 
Got the LP when it came out and I still have it! VG+/NM !!!
George Martin really did outdo himself mixing and processing it!!! And that was 1977...
 
Am I mistaken, or were the Hollywood Bowl recordings three track?
 
Not sure if this is the actual cover for the CD release or just a placeholder, but I think the original cover art is MUCH better...
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Let's face it, if the marketing team at Apple can promote the movie on the album cover then I guess it makes sense to them.

I'll get the CD and buy a boot CD with a mini LP sleeve and that will be that.
 
Surprised this isn't a video release as well. There have been amateur videos created from the multiple press films, and concert goer's 8mm color recordings, they could do much better today.
 
Surprised this isn't a video release as well. There have been amateur videos created from the multiple press films, and concert goer's 8mm color recordings, they could do much better today.

The video will likely be in "Eight Days A Week". So there is video and it's being released at the same time.

Andy
 
Am I mistaken, or were the Hollywood Bowl recordings three track?

Since you asked, the Hollywood Bowl recordings were done originally on 1/2" 3-track tape. The normal way to record with 3-track at the time was to record the band instruments in stereo and the vocals on the third track. The Capitol engineers instead used the Hollywood Bowl's in-house mixing system (which was said to be a good system) and ended up with vocals on different tracks along with the instruments. This created a problem in 1976-1977 when George Martin, Geoff Emerick and company remixed the original 3-track tape.

With the use of equalizers and analog noise reducers to isolate the instruments, the original 3-tracks were transferred to 24-track tape in 1976/1977. That's how the original LP was created and how the tapes sat until the newest release.

If you look at the what was recorded, there are screaming fans, screaming fans and screaming fans - 18,700 people. But, there are also four vocalists, one rhythm guitar, one lead guitar, one bass guitar and one drum kit. Eight potential instrument and vocal recording tracks plus screaming girls. That's it. With modern techniques can you isolate each of the instruments? Sure, and the separations were done by James Clarke. The vocals are probably more difficult but that some of the vocals were recorded on different tracks may help. This new Live release will have better separation and "clarity" than the original LP. This is also the first official Beatles release I'm aware of where demix techniques for mono tracks, to create new recording stems, were used. The same type of technology was used to help clean-up the 2009 remastered original albums.

I think the best example of the potential for improvement may be "All My Loving" on the Anthology DVD 5.1-channel DTS mix. Obviously the surround channels are mostly screaming girls but the separation is greatly improved over the LP.

The recordings were done on August 23, 1964, August 29, 1965 and August 30, 1965. The August 29, 1965 had microphone issues and was deemed unusable for the original LP.

One other thing to remember is that none of the instruments were directly recorded (no DI). Instead microphones were placed against the Beatles' 100 Watt VOX amps that then fed the Hollywood Bowl mixing system.

I'm sure that by the time this project was started, the LP's master 3-track tapes had been transferred to digital and likely existed on Giles Martin's laptop's hard drive since the original Love show mixing. However, Capitol in L.A. found the original half-inch 3-track recording tape in their vaults recently ("a few years ago" according to the press release). This cleaner 3-track recording was transferred to digital and used for this release instead of the 3-track that was used for the original LP. It must have been difficult to find a working 3-track tape machine in the 2010s, considering George Martin mentioned how difficult it was to find a working deck in 1977.

Andy

And, yes, the cover photo above is the cover for the new release (unfortunately, IMHO). The use of a different cover is supposed to signify that this is an entirely new release rather than an update of the old LP.
 
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I've just read this very interesting post by Chip Madinger of www.lennonology.com where he explains that the album would have originally been a Quad release in the early 70's.

This would have been a sad Quad album I suspect, but it shows that there was a little interest by Lennon in getting some of The Beatles' material released in Quad.
 
I've just read this very interesting post by Chip Madinger of www.lennonology.com where he explains that the album would have originally been a Quad release in the early 70's.

This would have been a sad Quad album I suspect, but it shows that there was a little interest by Lennon in getting some of The Beatles' material released in Quad.

Ostensibly, I'm afraid, with "SCREAMING GIRLS IN THE REAR CHANNELS!"
 
I doubt this will ever be released though. I just thought it was an interesting anecdote. :)

Probably, not, Simon but one can only hope.

OT, I did watch the 'restored' Doors Live At The Hollywood Bowl on BD~V the other night and is it me or did it seem the band was 'BOWLING' for dollars? I thought it was a terrible performance, all in all.
 
OT, I did watch the 'restored' Doors Live At The Hollywood Bowl on BD~V the other night and is it me or did it seem the band was 'BOWLING' for dollars? I thought it was a terrible performance, all in all.

It was my first introduction to the band's music and live performances in the 80's when it was released on VHS and so I've always had a soft spot for it. It contains my favourite live version of The End. And let's not forget the whole grasshopper scene. ;)
 
Official Press Release from wogblog


The Beatles’ Companion Album to New Ron Howard-Directed Feature Documentary Presents Remixed and Mastered Recordings from Three Hollywood Bowl Concerts.

Apple Corps Ltd. and Universal Music Group are pleased to announce global release plans for The Beatles: Live At The Hollywood Bowl, a new album that captures the joyous exuberance of the band’s three sold-out concerts at Los Angeles’ Hollywood Bowl in 1964 and 1965. A companion to The Beatles: Eight Days A Week – The Touring Years, Academy Award®-winner Ron Howard’s authorized and highly anticipated documentary feature film about the band’s early career, The Beatles: Live At The Hollywood Bowl will be released worldwide on CD and for digital download and streaming on September 9, followed by a 180-gram gatefold vinyl LP on November 18. The album includes a 24-page booklet with an essay by noted music journalist David Fricke, and its cover art features a sunny photo taken on August 22, 1964 by The Beatles’ then-U.S. tour manager, Bob Bonis, as John, Paul, George and Ringo boarded a chartered flight from Seattle Tacoma Airport to Vancouver, BC for their first concert in Canada.

Documenting The Beatles’ Hollywood Bowl concerts on tape was no easy feat, as producer Sir George Martin explained in his album notes for 1977’s The Beatles At The Hollywood Bowl: “The chaos, I might almost say panic, that reigned at these concerts was unbelievable unless you were there. Only three track recording was possible; The Beatles had no ‘fold back’ speakers, so they could not hear what they were singing, and the eternal shriek from 17,000 healthy, young lungs made even a jet plane inaudible.”

While The Beatles: Live At The Hollywood Bowl references the long out of print 1977 album, it is an entirely new release, directly sourced from the original three track tapes of the concerts. To preserve the excitement of the shows while unveiling the performances in today’s best available clarity and quality, GRAMMY Award® winning producer Giles Martin and GRAMMY Award® winning engineer Sam Okell have expertly remixed and mastered the recordings at Abbey Road Studios, including the thirteen tracks from the original album produced by Giles’ father, plus four additional, previously unreleased recordings from the momentous concerts.

“A few years ago Capitol Studios called saying they’d discovered some Hollywood Bowl three track tapes in their archive,” says Giles Martin. “We transferred them and noticed an improvement over the tapes we’ve kept in the London archive. Alongside this I’d been working for some time with a team headed by technical engineer James Clarke on demix technology, the ability to remove and separate sounds from a single track. With Sam Okell, I started work on remixing the Hollywood Bowl tapes. Technology has moved on since my father worked on the material all those years ago. Now there’s improved clarity, and so the immediacy and visceral excitement can be heard like never before. My father’s words still ring true, but what we hear now is the raw energy of four lads playing together to a crowd that loved them. This is the closest you can get to being at the Hollywood Bowl at the height of Beatlemania. We hope you enjoy the show…”

Featuring rare and exclusive footage, Ron Howard’s The Beatles: Eight Days A Week – The Touring Years is based on the first part of The Beatles’ career (1962-1966) – the period in which they toured and captured the world’s acclaim. The film is produced with the full cooperation of Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, Yoko Ono Lennon and Olivia Harrison. The Beatles: Eight Days A Week – The Touring Years touches on the band’s Hollywood Bowl concerts and includes footage of the “Boys” performance featured on The Beatles: Live At The Hollywood Bowl.

White Horse Pictures’ GRAMMY Award®-winning Nigel Sinclair, Scott Pascucci, and Academy Award® and Emmy Award®-winner Brian Grazer of Imagine Entertainment are producing with Howard. Apple Corps Ltd.’s Jeff Jones and Jonathan Clyde are serving as executive producers, along with Imagine’s Michael Rosenberg and White Horse’s Guy East and Nicholas Ferrall.

Following a world premiere event in London on September 15, the film will roll out theatrically worldwide with release dates set in the U.K., France and Germany (September 15); the U.S., Australia and New Zealand (September 16); and Japan (September 22). In the U.S., Hulu is the presenting partner for Abramorama’s theatrical release of the film, which will be available to stream exclusively to Hulu subscribers beginning September 17. Studiocanal and PolyGram Entertainment are also anchor partners on the film, having acquired U.K., France, Germany and Australia and New Zealand rights. For more information about the film, visit www.thebeatleseightdaysaweek.com.

The Beatles: Live At The Hollywood Bowl track list:

1. Twist and Shout [30 August, 1965]
2. She’s A Woman [30 August, 1965]
3. Dizzy Miss Lizzy [30 August, 1965 / 29 August, 1965 – one edit]
4. Ticket To Ride [29 August, 1965]
5. Can’t Buy Me Love [30 August, 1965]
6. Things We Said Today [23 August, 1964]
7. Roll Over Beethoven [23 August, 1964]
8. Boys [23 August, 1964]
9. A Hard Day’s Night [30 August, 1965]
10. Help! [29 August, 1965]
11. All My Loving [23 August, 1964]
12. She Loves You [23 August, 1964]
13. Long Tall Sally [23 August, 1964]
14. You Can’t Do That [23 August, 1964 – previously unreleased]
15. I Want To Hold Your Hand [23 August, 1964 – previously unreleased]
16. Everybody’s Trying To Be My Baby [30 August, 1965 – previously unreleased]
17. Baby’s In Black [30 August, 1965 – previously unreleased]
 
The official release microsite is up and running: www.thebeatleseightdaysaweek.com First button on the site has the Hollywood Bowl release information that Simon A posted above plus ordering information.

I've updated my blurb (a few posts above) with the information about a new 3-track tape being found.

The most significant portion of the press release is that the Beatles production staff has finally embraced spectral editing as a way of isolating instruments in mono recording tracks. Short of inventing a time machine, that's the only way to be able to have addition recording tracks (stems) on a Beatles recording for further remixing. That James Clarke is mentioned by name says how much "demix" work probably went into this new release.

Baby's In Black was previously released as part of the 4-song "Real Love" single. The introduction by John Lennon is from the August 29, 1965 show and the music is from the August 30, 1965 show.

And, yes, I'm disappointed, too, that this really is the cover photo compared to the original LP cover.


Andy
 
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The official release microsite is up and running: www.thebeatleseightdaysaweek.com First button on the site has the Hollywood Bowl release information that Simon A posted above plus ordering information.


And, yes, I'm disappointed, too, that this really is the cover photo compared to the original LP cover.


Andy

and the title includes a song of theirs that's not on the lp.
 
and the title includes a song of theirs that's not on the lp.

...and one that was never actually played live to an audience.

I was researching 3-track decks that Capitol used in the 1960s. I'm pretty sure the Hollywood Bowl tapes were recorded on an Ampex 1/2" 3-track but haven't found the model yet.

Andy
 
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