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For quite a while, Rob Frith, the owner of Neptoon Records in Vancouver, has had an old tape sitting around in his store; the label reads Beatles 60s Demos, and he figured it was some sort of bootleg. However, after loading it up and listening to it recently, he found out that it’s actually a rare direct copy of an early Beatles audition – specifically, one they did at Decca Records January of 1962.
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Based on the 15-song audition – recorded while the band were still with their original drummer Pete Best – Decca passed on signing The Beatles. Later, they signed with Parlophone, and the rest is legendary music history.
After Frith’s Insta got some notice, he got in touch with the man who originally brought the tape to Vancouver – former Mushroom Records owner Jack Herschorn. During a trip to London in the 70s, he got the tape from a producer, who said that he should sell copies in North America, but Herschorn did the right thing and declined: “I took it back and I thought about it quite a bit … I didn’t want to put it out because I felt — I didn’t think it was a totally moral thing to do. These guys, they’re famous and they deserve to have the right royalties on it … it deserves to come out properly,” Herschorn said.
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Frith says he’ll give Decca a copy if it if they want to release it. If not, he’ll hang onto it. Unless, of course, Sir Paul drops into his store, in which case he would happily hand it over.
Love, Dr. Scott James
