Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band [VINYL]

Product Information

In 1987, Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band was released on CD for the first time. It was, by some considerable distance, the most ballyhooed reissue in the history of pop. A two-hour documentary about the album and its place in history was shown at prime time on ITV, even then a very peculiar place to find Allen Ginsberg and Abbie Hoffman discussing LSD and the Exorcism of the Pentagon protest. When I'm Sixty Four Print - The Beatles - Beatles Quote - From Sgt Pepper Album - Beatles Gift - Beatles Gift - Beatles Quotes - Beatles DB – After a couple of years on the job at EMI, management called me into a meeting. They presented me with these tapes. They said they were special tapes from Abbey Road, and they wanted to produce an audiophile version of the Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band album. I was amazed, and said to myself, “This is me? I’m going to work on this album?” It was like a dream coming true. Beatles, c.1967, early Pressing, Vinyl, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, The Beatles, Collector Grade Artifact

DB - I really enjoyed working with clients, because I learned a lot from them - just listening to them talk about how they went about making the record, and what they wanted to hear as the end result. Some clients were very technical and specific and others were musicians, and spoke more on a musical, emotional level. I just learned so much from all of them. I never took a course. Apart from Richard Harvey at CBS, who taught me the ground rules - and did a good job of it - I never actually had a formal education in mastering, as there were no courses in those days. I’m not self-taught, but learned from a lot of people around me, and the ones who came before me. Thus, a lifelong appreciation of the Beatles started for me. Yellow Submarine is one of their more underappreciated albums, but it is still my favorite to this day. I listen to it every few months without fail. In steps Giles Martin, son of the Beatles’ indispensable producer George Martin and a proven producer himself. Martin thought it would be nice if we Sgt. Pepper fans could experience the album in a stereo version that more closely hewed to the Beatles’ musical vision. The result of his efforts, which purportedly involved months of research, is this Anniversary Edition. DB – They were quarter inch 30 IPS tapes. I was amazed at how it corresponded with that first record I had been listening to. I thought it would be more open and detailed, but there was very little difference in terms of those early vinyl recordings, which is a testament to how good they were. That’s the thing about this album – how well it was recorded and produced. And how the tape sounded like the original vinyl issue – there was so little difference. The tape was nearly identical. The Beatles Wall Art With LED Lights, The Beatles Wall Led Sign, The Beatles Lovers Gift RGB LED Light Sign, Christmas Gift, Birthday GiftBW: So moving on to the Audio-5 Sgt. Pepper, what was that day like – when you first received the tapes? One rare version has been out of reach: the Nimbus Supercut pressing, said to be one of the best. But in the course my research, I came across a lesser-known Australian audiophile release from 1983, the EMI Audio-5. I have come to realize that, from a sound quality perspective, this may be the most valuable and best sounding of them all. Revisiting Sgt. Pepper is also a lot more fun than mere nostalgia . Start with the cover, a witty, iconic work of art. Next, the conceit it depicts: the Beatles’ death and replacement by an alter-group called Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. The concept is entertaining and original, but it also serves to liberate both the musicians and the listener from any ingrained expectations. Nor have the hummable melodies, assorted musical styles, day-in-the-life tales, or now-serious/now-sardonic lyrics lost any of their appeal. In short, Sgt. Pepper has aged but it’s never gotten old. Those tapes were one generation from the absolute original, and they sounded so good - clean, quiet - just superb, really. They were very nice to work with. For the half speed, I was able to run the 30ips original at 15ips, so the system worked very well to accommodate the dynamic range and frequency response on the tape.

DB – Yeah, for me it was fantastic, because it was one of the very first albums I bought. It was the stereo version, and in fact, I still have that copy (laughs). I heard it for the first time in 1967, and I was mesmerized. At the time, I was working for the government as an electronics technician in training. I listened to this incredible sound coming off that record, and said ‘Wow, what is this?” I was fascinated, and I thought to myself, “I want to do this for a living!” The vinyl records at the time were high quality – if you had a good pressing and a good system, it was an amazing representation of what was going on in the performance, and what was meant to be released. Vinyl in those days was capable of very high quality reproduction. Which it still is today.I basically said “Wow!” and chatted with Richard for a few hours, and he eventually said, “I think we can do something.” So I put my name and number on a piece of paper, and didn’t think anything else of it. He called a week later and said: “When can you start?” My family was cautious about it at the time – “when you get a job with the government, it doesn’t get any better.” But that’s how I started at the Australian Record Company.

DB - My first job was a Van Morrison best of compilation, and we had to put the master together as well as cut the master lacquers. I had already been editing tape at home, so I gave it a go. Richard said, “no, it’s not good enough” and told me to do it again. He pointed out the level issues and other aspects to me, and then how to do it right. It was a great learning process. The album was released and was quite popular. The facility was then bought by Columbia and became CBS records. Not much difference, but there was a bit more diverse product coming through. So for five years I was cutting at CBS, with all kinds of fantastic music – ELP, Eagles, the Doobies, product from Europe, from Polydor, Bob Dylan, and all the Columbia classics. In those days we had to master at least four albums a day. You were not allowed to change the sound at the time, but were told to make it as loud and clean as possible on the lacquer master. The Beatles "Sgt Pepper" 50th Anniversary Gold Vinyl Cd Record And Autographed Cover Mounted And Framed - Unique Collectable/Gift The Beatles - Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band - Framed Cassette Tape - Music Wall Art - Music GiftFewer than 500 copies of the Audio-5 album were made. This is fewer than the Nimbus Supercut production run, making it one of the rarest Sgt. Pepper’s… factory pressings in existence. It was never available at retail outlets and was sold only for “cash in hand” at the hi-fi show. And its audiophile provenance makes it all the more desirable. The Beatles Yellow Submarine Greeting Card | 60s Beatles Card | Beatles Music Card | Beatles Song Art Card | Psychedelic Groovy 60s Card And when I worked at EMI in Australia, there was an engineer there who had worked at Abbey Road at that time, named Richard Lush – I think he was the original assistant engineer on Sgt. Pepper’s…. He said everything for the original was done in mono, and fully designed around a mono release. They had spent two to three weeks mixing it for mono, and just as they were sending it off, someone came running down from the office and said ‘by the way, we need a stereo mix.’

BW - You certainly got the right tapes! Did you talk with Abbey Road directly, or did they send something to you on their own?

Sign up for the SDE newsletter

It was created for the Sydney Audio Show in 1983. A team of EMI Australia executives decided to do a special release of five albums. These dedicated audiophiles and regular show attendees wanted these pressings to be top quality recordings that would highlight EMI Australia’s capabilities as an audiophile label. Given the audience, they knew these pressings needed to be of the highest quality. They had also recently spent millions of dollars to upgrade their facility and create a mirror of Abbey Road Studios, all the way down to the TG mixing board, staff assignments and maintenance schedules.