The Beatles at Johanneshov

The Beatles at Johanneshov

A recording from one of The Beatles’ performances at Johanneshovs Isstadion, Stockholm, Sweden suddenly materialised out of nowhere the other day, and started circulating among collectors. The Beatles played four concerts at the venue, two on July 28th, 1964 and two the day after. The recording could be from any of these concerts. The concert was professionally recorded in stereo, however, over the years, one channel of the stereo image has been wiped. The result is that you can hear Paul McCartney’s vocal microphone loud and clear, but not John Lennon’s. Of course, when George Harrison sings into McCartney’s microphone you can hear him, but not when he is using John’s. The bass, drums and George’s guitar are heard, but not so much Lennon’s rhythm guitar. You can hear John’s voice being picked up some times by Paul’s microphone, but distant. Still, it’s an entertaining recording, and the missing side of the stereo image lets you focus in on some backup singing.

From this recording, “All My Loving” has previously been aired on Swedish Radio by Staffan Olander in 2012, like we told you about at the time.

Songs heard:

I Saw Her Standing There (the beginning is missing)

You Can’t Do That (Paul thanks the audience in Swedish, John is audible when he’s speaking)

She Loves You (Paul tries to sing it with a Swedish accent occasionally)

All My Loving

Roll Over Beethoven (George is using Paul’s microphone, so we can hear him sing)

Can’t Buy Me Love

I Wanna Be Your Man (Ringo’s vocals almost inaudible, but Paul and John share Paul’s microphone and are strongly present)

And the recording comes to a halt. You can listen to the recording in the player below.

It’s strange that this recording should appear at its 50th anniversary. Perhaps something to do with the EU copyright legislation?

Poster for the concerts at Johanneshov