BEATLES FAB

The Beatles secured their 18th No.1. single in the UK with the release of Now And Then, an incredible 60 years after their first No.1 From Me To You, that topped the charts for seven weeks from the 2nd May 1963. Billed as the last Beatles song, Now And Then was released in the UK on Thursday, 2nd November, a strange decision, as sales for new releases begin on a Friday, meaning the 10,000 or so sales from Thursday, 1st November were lost in the first week sales, considered the best time for legacy acts to achieve a No.1 single, there again, this was the Beatles. We decided to grace the Liverpool Beatles Museum on Mathew Street with our presence:-). Seriously, Roag and the staff there are first class. One hundred tickets were made available to fans to hear the premier of the new song and we managed to obtain eight of them.  We were greeted with a choice of tea, coffee, a beer and cakes.   Within 30 minutes we would be joining Beatles fans around the World and up the street at the Cavern

  MIND GAMES  The Ultimate Collection:  6CDs  - 72 tracks - 2BluRays  Due for release   June  2024 Revelatory new Stereo & Dolby Atmos remixes, Produced by Sean Ono Lennon with Paul Hicks, Sam Gannon, Rob Stevens and Simon Hilton.

I purchased this 42 track album   at Beatleweek 2023,  although it was released in 2019. It was a big decision as I've bought numerous releases of Hot Hits, Cold Cuts and other 'unofficial albums' featuring the likes of Lulu, Tony Bennett and Steve Martin but the premise of purchasing this release' was 'It'll be nice to have them all on this 2CD Ultra Rare Tracks set.' So what do I get for my £22? Well the boast on the back of the CD advises there's '42 tracks or mixes that have never appeared on any McCartney album' is slightly out of date. A number of the songs have surfaced on Paul McCartney releases since 2019. For instance 'Same Time Next Year' as the  B-side to  Put it There  and 'My Carnival' as the B-Side to  Spies Like Us but there's still a wealth of unreleased songs across it's two sides Side two begins with a rollicking version of Girl School, taken from the songs Acetate.  One off releases of songs include