The Beatles Live At The Hollywood Bowl to be released in September

The Beatles have announced the release of remixed and remastered recordings of their Hollywood Bowl concerts from 1964 and 1965.

Live At The Hollywood Bowl will be released in September 2016 to coincide with the Ron Howard documentary The Beatles: Eight Days A Week – The Touring Years.

The new album – released on CD and digital download on 9 September, and on vinyl on 18 November – contains 17 songs: eight from the 1964 show, two from the first 1965 show, six from the second 1965 show, and a composite version of Dizzy Miss Lizzy from the two 1965 recordings (similar to the 1977 album).

Extracts from the three concerts – 23 August 1964, and 29 and 30 August 1965 – were released in 1977 as The Beatles At The Hollywood Bowl, but the album has been long out of print.

A technical fault left Paul McCartney’s vocals and introductions inaudible during the first four songs of the 29 August 1965 show, rendering a substantial portion of the recordings unusable.

Five songs from 30 August 1965 appeared on The Beatles At The Hollywood Bowl: Twist And Shout, She’s A Woman, Dizzy Miss Lizzy, Can’t Buy Me Love and A Hard Day’s Night. The album version of Dizzy Miss Lizzy was a composite edit incorporating parts of the 29 and 30 August performances.

The track listing is almost identical to that of the 1977 album, aside from four extra tracks, three of which are previously unreleased.

• ‘Twist And Shout’ (30 August 1965)
• She’s A Woman (30 August 1965)
• ‘Dizzy Miss Lizzy’ (29/30 August 1965)
• ‘Ticket To Ride’ (29 August 1965)
• Can’t Buy Me Love (30 August 1965)
• ‘Things We Said Today’ (23 August 1964)
• ‘Roll Over Beethoven’ (23 August 1964)
• ‘Boys’ (23 August 1964)
• A Hard Day’s Night (30 August 1965)
• ‘Help!’ (29 August 1965)
• ‘All My Loving’ (23 August 1964)
• ‘She Loves You’ (23 August 1964)
• ‘Long Tall Sally’ (23 August 1964)
• You Can’t Do That (23 August 1964 – previously unreleased)
• ‘I Want To Hold Your Hand’ (23 August 1964 – previously unreleased)
• Everybody’s Trying To Be My Baby (30 August 1965 – previously unreleased)
• Baby’s In Black (30 August 1965 – previously released on the ‘Real Love’ single, 1996)

Beatles fans have long hoped for the full release of the 1964 and 1965 concert recordings, although that now seems unlikely.

Here’s the official press release:

The Beatles’ Companion Album to New Ron Howard-Directed Feature Documentary Presents Remixed and Mastered Recordings from Three Hollywood Bowl Concerts.

Apple Corps Ltd. and Universal Music Group are pleased to announce global release plans for The Beatles: Live At The Hollywood Bowl, a new album that captures the joyous exuberance of the band’s three sold-out concerts at Los Angeles’ Hollywood Bowl in 1964 and 1965. A companion to The Beatles: Eight Days A Week – The Touring Years, Academy Award®-winner Ron Howard’s authorized and highly anticipated documentary feature film about the band’s early career, The Beatles: Live At The Hollywood Bowl will be released worldwide on CD and for digital download and streaming on September 9, followed by a 180-gram gatefold vinyl LP on November 18. The album includes a 24-page booklet with an essay by noted music journalist David Fricke, and its cover art features a sunny photo taken on August 22, 1964 by The Beatles’ then-U.S. tour manager, Bob Bonis, as John, Paul, George and Ringo boarded a chartered flight from Seattle Tacoma Airport to Vancouver, BC for their first concert in Canada.

Documenting The Beatles’ Hollywood Bowl concerts on tape was no easy feat, as producer Sir George Martin explained in his album notes for 1977’s The Beatles At The Hollywood Bowl: “The chaos, I might almost say panic, that reigned at these concerts was unbelievable unless you were there. Only three track recording was possible; The Beatles had no ‘fold back’ speakers, so they could not hear what they were singing, and the eternal shriek from 17,000 healthy, young lungs made even a jet plane inaudible.”

While The Beatles: Live At The Hollywood Bowl references the long out of print 1977 album, it is an entirely new release, directly sourced from the original three track tapes of the concerts. To preserve the excitement of the shows while unveiling the performances in today’s best available clarity and quality, GRAMMY Award® winning producer Giles Martin and GRAMMY Award® winning engineer Sam Okell have expertly remixed and mastered the recordings at Abbey Road Studios, including the thirteen tracks from the original album produced by Giles’ father, plus four additional, previously unreleased recordings from the momentous concerts.

“A few years ago Capitol Studios called saying they’d discovered some Hollywood Bowl three track tapes in their archive,” says Giles Martin. “We transferred them and noticed an improvement over the tapes we’ve kept in the London archive. Alongside this I’d been working for some time with a team headed by technical engineer James Clarke on demix technology, the ability to remove and separate sounds from a single track. With Sam Okell, I started work on remixing the Hollywood Bowl tapes. Technology has moved on since my father worked on the material all those years ago. Now there’s improved clarity, and so the immediacy and visceral excitement can be heard like never before. My father’s words still ring true, but what we hear now is the raw energy of four lads playing together to a crowd that loved them. This is the closest you can get to being at the Hollywood Bowl at the height of Beatlemania. We hope you enjoy the show…”

Featuring rare and exclusive footage, Ron Howard’s The Beatles: Eight Days A Week – The Touring Years is based on the first part of The Beatles’ career (1962-1966) – the period in which they toured and captured the world’s acclaim. The film is produced with the full cooperation of Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, Yoko Ono Lennon and Olivia Harrison. The Beatles: Eight Days A Week – The Touring Years touches on the band’s Hollywood Bowl concerts and includes footage of the “Boys” performance featured on The Beatles: Live At The Hollywood Bowl.

White Horse Pictures’ GRAMMY Award®-winning Nigel Sinclair, Scott Pascucci, and Academy Award® and Emmy Award®-winner Brian Grazer of Imagine Entertainment are producing with Howard. Apple Corps Ltd.’s Jeff Jones and Jonathan Clyde are serving as executive producers, along with Imagine’s Michael Rosenberg and White Horse’s Guy East and Nicholas Ferrall.

Following a world premiere event in London on September 15, the film will roll out theatrically worldwide with release dates set in the U.K., France and Germany (September 15); the U.S., Australia and New Zealand (September 16); and Japan (September 22). In the U.S., Hulu is the presenting partner for Abramorama’s theatrical release of the film, which will be available to stream exclusively to Hulu subscribers beginning September 17. Studiocanal and PolyGram Entertainment are also anchor partners on the film, having acquired U.K., France, Germany and Australia and New Zealand rights. For more information about the film, visit www.thebeatleseightdaysaweek.com.

The Beatles: Live At The Hollywood Bowl track list:

1. Twist and Shout [30 August, 1965]
2. She’s A Woman [30 August, 1965]
3. Dizzy Miss Lizzy [30 August, 1965 / 29 August, 1965 – one edit]
4. Ticket To Ride [29 August, 1965]
5. Can’t Buy Me Love [30 August, 1965]
6. Things We Said Today [23 August, 1964]
7. Roll Over Beethoven [23 August, 1964]
8. Boys [23 August, 1964]
9. A Hard Day’s Night [30 August, 1965]
10. Help! [29 August, 1965]
11. All My Loving [23 August, 1964]
12. She Loves You [23 August, 1964]
13. Long Tall Sally [23 August, 1964]
14. You Can’t Do That [23 August, 1964 – previously unreleased]
15. I Want To Hold Your Hand [23 August, 1964 – previously unreleased]
16. Everybody’s Trying To Be My Baby [30 August, 1965 – previously unreleased]
17. Baby’s In Black [30 August, 1965 – previously unreleased] [sic]