2000
21 August 2000
LP release: Liverpool Sound Collage
HYDRA LSC01 Published by MPL, Licensed to EMI (single CD). 'Plastic Beetle'
(Paul McCartney, The Beatles); 'Peter Blake 2000' (Super Furry Animals, The Beatles); 'Real Gone Dub Made In Manifest In The Vortex Of The Eternal Now' (Youth); 'Made Up' (Paul McCartney, The Beatles); 'Free Now' (Paul McCartney, The Beatles, Super Furry Animals).
Following the feast of previously unreleased Beatles material issued during the Beatles Anthology project, most fans were hoping for further such archive releases on a regular, if less spectacular, basis. There were rumours that an entire album comprised of the 1968 White Album demos was being considered (an idea apparently being championed by Ringo) and even an official release of the aborted 1969 Get Back album.
Apple were kept busy remixing and promoting re-releases and new compilations, such as the Yellow Submarine DVD, video and Songtrack CD, but unfortunately, nothing actually new in the way of unreleased Beatles material hit the shelves until the bizarre release of Paul McCartney's Liverpool Sound Collage.
Paul McCartney's Liverpool Sound Collage was created as the soundtrack for About Collage, an exhibition by Peter Blake (the artist behind the famous Sgt Pepper cover sleeve) that ran at The Tate Liverpool in 2000.
It includes recordings made by McCartney on the streets of Liverpool, as well as out-takes from Beatles recording sessions. The sound collage is a collaboration between Paul McCartney, The Super Furry Animals and Youth.
Gruff Rhys (The Super Furry Animals): It's really weird. I think Cian [the band's resident mixer] was fucked off his head and he saw Paul McCartney at an awards ceremony and they talked about mixing, so Cian gave him his phone number and Paul McCartney phoned up the following week. And then the following week to that a pile of tapes arrived at our office from the Apple Corporation. All dusty boxes with a heavy letter from the Apple Corp. saying "these tapes contain previously unreleased Beatles material and should not be played anywhere but our broadcast area..."
The finished product is not a traditional music album, rather it is a variety of voices and sounds from Liverpool, including the River Mersey, shoppers on the street, a fish and chips vendor, snippets of McCartney's Liverpool Oratorio and
most interesting of all, clips of the Beatles joking and talking during sessions at Abbey Road Studios, taken from 1963 to 1968, with the majority of sound bites being taken from the vocal overdub session for the Rubber Soul track, Think For Yourself or from The Beatles Anthology videos. It's very much in the style of Revolution 9 from The Beatles' White Album, with some instrumental work reminiscent of McCartney's alter-ego The Fireman.
Paul: It's a new little piece of The Beatles. It's an outbreak from my normal stuff. It's a little side dish that is not to be confused with my other work.
The official website for Liverpool Sound Collage is at www.liverpoolsoundcollage.com and includes a large amount of information about this project.
Tom Brennan's Important Beatles News (TBIBN) site is also well worth a look. It includes an attempt list the audio samples used in the collage that were taken from Beatles sessions.
Sources include: Tom Brennan's Important Beatles News; http://www.liverpoolsoundcollage.com; Liverpool Sound Collage Press Release
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