A Canadian record shop owner has found an audition tape that The Beatles recorded in 1962 for Decca Records, which the record label famously decided didn't show enough promise for them to sign the band.
Rob Frith, the owner of Neptoon Records in Vancouver, discovered the reel-to-reel tape labelled ‘Beatles 60s Demos’ last week, but originally believed that the recording was merely a bootleg. He subsequently learned, however, that he had in his possession a rare, direct copy of an audition tape The Beatles recorded for Decca on January 1, 1962, eight months before Ringo Starr joined the band, replacing original drummer Pete Best.
Posting on his Instagram account, Frith wrote: “I picked up this tape years ago that said Beatles Demos on it. I just figured it was a tape off a bootleg record. After hearing it last night for the first time, it sounds like a master tape. The quality is unreal. How is this even possible to have, what sounds like a Beatles 15 song Decca tapes master?”
Frith was subsequently put in touch with Jack Herschorn, the former owner of Vancouver's Mushroom Records, who originally brought the priceless recording to Canada.
Herschorn revealed that he had been given the tape by a producer friend while visiting London in the 1970s, and it had been suggested to him that he could sell copies of the recording across North America.
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“I took it back and I thought about it quite a bit,” the former record label executive admits to CBC. “I didn’t want to put it out because I felt... I didn’t think it was a totally moral thing to do. These guys, they’re famous and they deserve to have the right royalties on it… it deserves to come out properly.”
Speaking about the quality of the tape, Rob Frith said, “It seemed like the Beatles were in the room”, and as proof, he's posted a snippet of the recording, featuring Paul McCartney, John Lennon, George Harrison and Pete Best playing Money.
Understandably, Frith isn't looking to sell this priceless artefact, but he has said Frith that he is willing to give Decca a copy if they wish to correct their historical faux pas and release it. Alternatively, he says that if Paul McCartney visits his record shop, he will hand over the recording to him in person.
