Star Club revisited

A new release based on the Star Club recordings of the Beatles

So, it looks like someone has decided to try to profit from some Beatles recordings made in 1962 – that year that escaped the new EU copyright extention act.

“OxTango Music proudly presents The Beatles Live at the Star Club – The Definitive Remaster – a brand new completely remastered set of these crucial Beatles live recordings.”

Seeing as the Beatles won control over these recordings back in 1991, following an aborted reissue by Sony, we don’t think that neither the website nor the company will escape the attention of Apple Corps Ltd.

Ever since the 1998 court ruling, for which George Harrison testified on behalf of the Beatles, releases of the Star Club material have so far been limited to the underground market.

Website for this release

12 Responses

  1. Nicola says:

    Thanks so much Roger! Your blog is my first source for Beatles (and related) news 🙂

  2. Anonymous says:

    If you watch the promo reel to the end, it's pretty obvious that this isn't even a "gray market" operation, but just plain bootleggers. Among their promised coming releases are the "Get Back" Nagra tapes and The Beatles' performances at the Hollywood Bowl and in Paris.

  3. Unknown says:

    @james19 the itunes bootleg is being released on vinyl and cd by a bootleg company(ironic) not by Apple.

  4. wogew says:

    Yes, it's been a CD bootleg ever since it became available on iTunes, so it's hardly surprising that a vinyl edition was eventually going to be made.

  5. db says:

    I think George's court appearance was 1998: "One drunk recording another bunch of drunks does not constitute a business deal."

  6. Nicki says:

    Are we sure that Apple can act here? We know the recording was December 1962, and aside from some clips on the Anthology DVDs, I'm not aware of any Apple releases of the material.

    Therefore, anything that hasn't been officially released by Apple is now fair game, being over 50 years old. Or am I missing something?

  7. wogew says:

    James19, I saw one on ebay earlier today, from Spain. 4 vinyl records and 2 CDs.
    Nicki: First of all the company we are discussing here seems to be American, since the price is in dollars. The EU legislation is not for the USA, there they already have a longer copyright protection period in operation. Secondly, the Bellaphone/Lingasong etc releases from 1977 onwards were not grey market, so it would have to be considered a legitimate release – after all, it was for sale in every ordinary record shop from 1977 to 1998, that's more than twenty years in the open market – even if it was later ruled to be returned to Apple. Thus, add 50 years. Well at least that's my opinion.

  8. wogew says:

    Yes, it was here, but it's sold now.

Leave a Reply