New App with Wings

For those of you with an Android phone, an iPhone, or an iPad or Android tablet, there's a free app out called UView from Universal. Using the app you can view some material relating to the Wings Over America and Rockshow releases. Install the app on your device, click it, select the Wings Over America album cover and find the Wings logo in the view finder on your built-in camera and witness the magic happening! Click on the pic for more on this. Oh, and by the way, the price for Wings Over America Deluxe just went up from £89 to £119 over at Amazon UK...well, someone had to pay for this free app!

ITN News clips

Care for some more ITN news clips?

Lewisohn bio cover

The first volume of Mark Lewisohn's "definitive" unofficial Beatles biography All These Years (volume one 'Tune In') is due out this autumn. Yesterday, the book's cover was revealed (see above).
So, what do you think? Brown paper bag for "Tune In"?


   

Paul McCartney's incredible soundcheck

I'll tell ya, if this set list is correct and a preview of things to come, we are in for a very pleasant change when the actual concert in Belo Horizon, Brazil commences tonight:

Blue Suede Shoes
Got To Get You Into My Life
Sing The Changes
Let 'Em In
Calico Skies
We Can Work It Out
Eight Days A Week
Being For The Benefit Of Mr. Kite!
Lovely Rita
Another Day
Hope Of Deliverance
Listen To What The Man Said
Hi Hi Hi
All Together Now
Your Mother Should Know
Blackbird
Here Today

The Beatles Shell Help! LP

I recently aquired this album, a genuine Dutch pressing of the Beatles' Help! LP from 1979, where a Shell logo is shown in the background. This special issue of the Help! album was produced for Shell Oil for the kickoff of their 1979 "Shell Helps" campaign. As part of this promotion, Shell Oil arranged to produce a small number of these special versions of the Beatles’ Help! album to be given out at a company-wide meeting of their Dutch distributors and store managers. Less than 2000 copies were printed - so unless you were a Shell Oil distributor or store manager in 1979, you couldn't get it anywhere.

original Dutch pressing on black vinyl

All of the sleeves for this album were manufactured in Holland but some copies of the vinyl were pressed in Sweden. There are two opinions about the Swedish edition: Some say that around 1000 copies were pressed in each country, some (mainly those who have Swedish pressings to sell) say that a minority of the copies were pressed in Sweden.

original Swedish pressing on black vinyl

Never before and never since have the Beatles allowed any of their official albums to have been given such a major cover artwork overhaul for a commercial promotion by another company. One can only wonder how this one managed to get approved.

These days, (as is the case with quite a number of these rare international Beatles album releases, see footnote) you can get bootleg pressings. Some on coloured vinyl, some on picture discs. Buyers beware: all the originals were on black vinyl only, all others are fakes. And what's more: there are fakes on black vinyl circulating as well. As I haven't come across any of these, I can't tell you how to distinguish between a fake and an official pressing - but they say that fakes all have a thinner cardboard cover and that the vinyls have scratched matrix numbers. An original will set you back around $500, the fakes are usually a lot cheaper.

fake

fake

 Of course, this isn't the only Beatles/Shell association; their televised 1964 Melbourne concert was sponsored by the oil company, and the resulting TV Show was called "The Beatles sing for Shell".

Footnote: Here are some of the albums we know about which exist as newly produced fakes.
- Yesterday And Today (butcher cover) USA
- The Beatles Christmas Album USA
- From Then To You UK
- The Beatles Hottest Hits (Denmark)
- The Beatles Help! (Shell cover) The Netherlands
- The Beatles Help! (export to Switzerland) Germany

And other albums from various countries with interesting front covers.

Rockshow promotion

Soon it's time for the theatrical release of the remastered "Rockshow" movie by Wings, In conjunction with this, a few clips from the film has been served us as teasers for the upcoming event.
Here's the complete Maybe I'm Amazed, published by Paul McCartney yesterday:

 

Here's Silly Love Songs, published by Specticast april 17.

 

and here's a trailer, published by Specticast on april 15.

If you can't make it to a theatre near you on the day (well, I'd have to travel through several countries to see it), there's always the Blu-ray and DVD release June 10 (11th in the USA). What you'll miss then, is the new 12-minute interview with Paul, which will only accompany the theatrical version of the film. Although I must confess, I wouldn't be at all surprised if it shows up elsewhere.

     

Wings Over America Microsite Rockshow Website

Paul McCartney From Hyde Park To The White House

Here's a DVD available to preorder on Amazon. It's due out May 14, they claim. Looks very fishy to me. And at $41.38? It's only €9.99 at Season of Mist. And Canadian $24.99 at Renaud Bray. Who claims it was released in November 2012. I think it's a black market release.

Wings Over America - film

This film was just released to show the splendor of the numbered deluxe edition of Wings Over America. And here's a clip promoting the "Wings Over The World" documentary:

So, no in-between-edition this time, just standard and DeLuxe. And if you need the 8 extra tracks on disc 3 and the DVD on disc 4, the DeLuxe is your only option.
Then, of course, there's this one - but it seems redundant:

     

Wings over $140

Looks like the tracklist and contents we published earlier were correct. Amazon com has started the preordering of the Wings Over America set at $140.57
The original 28-track album on 2 discs, remastered at Abbey Road Studios.
8 previously unreleased bonus audio tracks recorded live at the Cow Palace in San Francisco.
Bonus DVD featuring the 75 minute TV special Wings Over The World and a brand new short film charting the tour route in photographs.
All set within a numbered hardbound slipcase containing:
-112-page book written by David Fricke, featuring new interviews and extensive tour photography
-Exclusive 60-page photographic journal of Linda s images chronicling life on the road
-136-page replica tour book with itineraries, tour program, memorabilia, and lyrics plus 3 (10 x8 ) prints
-80-page book of drawings by artist Humphrey Ocean
24bit 96kHz high resolution audio versions of all 36 songs on the remastered album & bonus audio tracks, accessed via a download code inserted on a card within the deluxe edition package.
So, no "Rockshow", but it has shown up on Amazon (UK) as a Blu-ray, release date 10 June 2013, Run Time: 139 minutes. Looks like there'll be only three editions of WOA, regular, deluxe and vinyl. The regular editions will just be the good old WOA lineup from 1976.
     

Tracklist Wings Over America

Okay, so this is just a rumour, but here goes:

Physical editions:
Paul McCartney & Wings - Wings Over America (Standard Edition) - 2CD MPL / Hear Music
Paul McCartney & Wings - Wings Over America (Deluxe Edition) - 3CD +1 DVD MPL / Hear Music
Paul McCartney & Wings - Wings Over America (Vinyl) - 3LP MPL / Hear Music

Download editions:

Paul McCartney & Wings - Wings Over America (Special Edition Digital Booklet MFIT + = 28 titles)
Paul McCartney & Wings - Wings Over America (Special Edition Hi Res Digital TrueHD + Booklet = 28 titles)

TRACKLISTING

CD1 (Standard / Deluxe / LP)
1. Venus And Mars / Rock Show / Jet
2. Let Me Roll It
3. Spirits Of Ancient Egypt
4. Medicine Jar
5. Maybe I'm Amazed
6. Call Me Back Again
7. Lady Madonna
8. The Long And Winding Road
9. Live And Let Die
10. Picasso's Last Words
11. Richard Cory
12. Bluebird
13. I've Just Seen A Face
14. Blackbird
15. Yesterday

CD2 (Standard / Deluxe / LP)
1. You Gave Me The Answer
2. Magneto And Titanium Man
3. Go Now
4. My Love
5. Listen To What The Man Said
6. Let 'Em In
7. Time To Hide
8. Silly Love Songs
9. Beware My Love
10. Letting Go
11. Band on the Run
12. Hi Hi Hi
13. Soily

CD3 (Deluxe only, recorded live at the Cow Palace in San Francisco)
1. Let Me Roll It
2. Maybe I'm Amazed
3. Lady Madonna
4. Live And Let Die
5. Picasso's Last Words
6. Bluebird
7. Blackbird
8. Yesterday

80 pages of drawings by Humphrey Ocean
60 pages of exclusive photos from the diary of the tour by Linda McCartney
136 pages telling this tour anthology (programs, pictures, memorabilia, lyrics, notes ...)
8 unreleased tracks recorded live at the Cow Palace in San Francisco
a DVD featuring the legendary film of 75 minutes "Wings Over The World"

So, no Rockshow, it has to be purchased individually from Eagle Vision.