The Beatles To Release New Collection Of Rare BBC Recordings

A slip up by a Philippines-based Universal imprint appears to suggest that a new collection of unheard BBC recordings from The Beatles will be released soon.

Likely to be a follow up to the 1994's two-disc Live At The BBC, The Guardian points to a Facebook post from MCA Music (which has now been deleted) that promised a release of recordings of the band from the mid-'60s. The Beatles catalogue was acquired by Universal in their purchase of EMI just under a year ago and it was expected that the world's biggest label would move to capitalise on their acquisition.

The last notable major release under EMI was the re-issuing and re-mastering of all the band's albums, complete with stereo and mono anthology box sets, in 2009. In 2011

The Beatles are believed to have made over 50 appearances in the BBC during the '60s, so there is likely a number of recordings – which may have been bootlegged over the years – in the BBC vault. The Guardian notes that while the material was broadcast to the nation, proper archiving didn't occur until the late '70s and so the earlier cuts are quite rare. The first Live At The BBC anthology boasted 56 songs, including covers of Elvis Presley, Chuck Berry, Buddy Holly and Carl Perkins tracks, and 13 dialogue tracks.

Yesterday one of The Beatles' primary songwriters Paul McCartney released the single New, which is closer to the Beatles 'sound' than anything he's released in a number of years.