Freda Kelly’s Christmas singles and more

by admin · September 16, 2024

Freda Kelly’s copies of the Beatles Fan Club Christmas singles are for sale.

British company Tracks is now having an online auction of items related to the Beatles, and a number of items that once belonged to Freda Kelly and others will go under the hammer.

A folder with the Christmas singles

One of these objects is a folder containing the famous Christmas singles of the fan club. They are famous because when the fan club did not have any Christmas singles in 1970, it was decided to make a Christmas album that collected the previously released flexi discs on vinyl, i.e. singles from each of the years from 1963 up to and including 1969. The problem was that all or some (the details are unclear on this point) of the original master tapes that were used for the production of the flexi discs may have been discarded, thrown away or disappeared, so Freda was asked if she could bring her copies of the singles to Apple, in order for them to use recordings of her singles (what we now call needle drops) to create a master for the album.

One edition of the Christmas album was made for the British members and one for the American ones. The content was the same, but they had different covers and record labels. When the Christmas singles were re-released in limited edition as seven-inch singles on coloured vinyl in 2017, they may have used sources other than Freda Kelly’s old flexies. Or they may just have cleaned up the sound from these.

Odd Spot

The Beatles made their debut at the club Odd Spot in Liverpool on 29 March 1962. Photographer Alan Swerdlow was present and ten of his photos from Freda’s collection are also being offered at the Tracks auction. Here is one of them, you can find them all here.

One of the pictures from the performance at Odd Spot

1965 Blackpool Night Out

From this televised concert, a series of photographs, an unused ticket and a used ticket stub from Freda Kelly’s collection are on offer.

One of the pictures from Blackpool Night Out 1965

There are also many other items for sale, from Freda and from other people from Beatles history, including from the late Lizzie Bravo and Johnny Guitar Byrne. Everything from guitar picks to door handles, signed items, rare records and Beatles wigs.

Here are some samples: