Richard, thanks for all this information.

I think the record will sell for a fair amount. The artifact -- a 78RPM Beatles record, with Brian
Epstein's handwriting on the label, probably used to promote the lads in the time before they
exploded on the scene (after YEARS of practice and dues-paying, something that seems lost on many
young bands since that time) -- makes it of great intrinsic value to a Beatles memorabilia
collector.

 But you are correct, since tape copies of the songs exist, it is not a music "holy grail." A dub
from a 78RPM acetate would likely be of much lower fidelity than a second-generation tape copy made
at a professional studio. And, it's not clear that this acetate was cut from the first-generation
tape, per Richard's statement that Decca retained that tape after funding the evaluation/demo
session at their studio.

-- Tom Fine

----- Original Message -----
From: "Mint Records" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Friday, February 26, 2016 2:09 PM
Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] 'Holy Grail' Beatles record to be auctioned


> The Quarrymen tape was sold to Apple/EMI. In that case however the
> recording on the tape was the big selling point as there were no other
> copies. Which is not the case here.
>
> On the other hand the tape machine that recorded them in Hamburg at the
> Star Club & another machine used to make a copy tape sent to Brian Epstein
> by Ted Taylor and a separate lot with duplicates of the original tape and
> various other associated tapes belonging to the producer of the 1977
> Lingasong album failed to sell so you never know. Apple were offered the
> tapes but weren't interested, probably because the majority of the audio is
> already out there. - The original Star Club tape does survive but is to
> fragile to play. Due to this it wasn't included in the lot.
>
> The Beatles did sue over the Hamburg tapes and lose in the 70's, but they
> won when they tried again in the 90's (see the articles Dr Hans Olof
> Gottfridsson and I wrote for Record Collector last year for more info)
>
> These are apparently confirmed as from the Decca sessions. Hello Little
> Girl was issued on the Beatles Anthology 1 (along with 4 others from the
> tape) before it fell out of copyright. Till There Was You wasn't and has
> fallen out of copyright, but a scratchy acetate is never going to sound as
> good as the tape version that is readily available.on ridiculous numbers of
> bootlegs. Of the 15 songs recorded 10 have never been officially released.
>
> To answer Tom's question about the Decca Tape as far as it can be. We don't
> know for sure what still exists. It is believed that Apple may have Brian
> Epstein's copy of the tape, but this could be a dupe made by Decca rather
> than the master as he was apparently given a copy at the end of the session
> - as no decision was made about the band at that point the master would
> have remained at Decca, Of course it's possible he was given the master
> after they had been turned down, but nobody seems to be sure. It isn't
> known where the 'bootlegged' version of the tape comes from, but they all
> originate from a tape that has the same damage or break in "September in
> the Rain" I've spoken to a few 'Beatle' experts, but nobody seems to know.
> Although I've just realized that there is someone else I know who might, I
> 'll ask.
>
> As I said before this is an important artifact, but Holy Grail.......? Will
> be very interesting to see what it sells for.
>
>
> By the way my name is Richard Moore. My personal e-mail doesn't like
> ARSCLIST - keeps bouncing it - so I have to use a business e-mail instead.
>
>