Although only 16 of the nearly 70 songs written by the crossBeaTs
were ever recorded 'professionally', there were a number of odd tape recordings
(with the emphasis on the word 'odd') made of the group over the years.
Some were home recordings or made by people at various meetings. In
particular, the staff at the Catacombs Coffee bar in
Manchester invariably recorded the groups who played there, and a few tapes
came into our possession.
These have all been made into CDs (of very
variable quality), and can be made available if anyone is interested.
Some are better listened to on headphones !
The list
of CDs follows, and clicking on a particular CD # in the left column will
give more details of what tracks that particular CD contains. When you
reach the list of tracks, you will see that some songs from that particular CD
are available as MP3 downloads. Alternatively, a subset of downloads of
tracks from various CDs is available from the page containing the list of
crossBeaTs' songs.
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Some attempt
has been made to estimate the RELATIVE quality of each recording
(sound-wise). This is difficult as there are so many factors: balance,
sound, 'hum', 'clipping', relative EQ of instruments/voices, overall EQ,
background hiss etc - all apart from song and performance quality. Speeds
vary too, which affects the "tuning", as some tape machines must have had very
inaccurate tape speeds. Some songs sound a bit low and slow - others
squeaky high.
The poorest and oldest recording has been given 0, and the
best (CB14 - the CBS 1967 LP & single recording session) has been given 10.
Note that CB14 also contains the poorer 1965 recordings. Of course,
you can guage the accuracy of these "relative estimates" for yourself from the
MP3 files.
One or two live sessions were recorded with cassette
recorders which, along with poor tape speed accuracy, had an inexpensive form
of automatic gain control (AGC) - this meant that when a loud sound occurred,
the gain was noticeably reduced for a second or two. There is a degree of
'clipping' in some of these too. All in all, this may not be so much a
case of 'warts and all', but simply of 'warts'! The redeeming feature is
that these CDs at least constitute an historical record. |
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CD #
|
Year
|
Details
|
Time
|
Quality
|
CB0 |
1962 |
Early
secular and Christian songs played (badly) for enjoyment at home or church
concerts (Grundig TK20)
|
23:51 |
0 |
CB1 |
Feb
1964 |
Recording by the 'recording club' at Plessey telecommunications
factory off Edge lane, Liverpool. 'Original' line-up (Eddie Boyes, Eric
Knowles, John Boyes, John Millington, Tony Mathias). |
70:31 |
4 |
CB2 |
Dec
1964 |
Recording by the 'recording club' at Plessey (1964), plus some home
recordings of 'doing parts' (1965). 'Original' line-up. |
35:58 |
1 |
CB2a |
Spring
1965 |
Catacombs, Manchester. 'Original' line-up. (A little on the
slow side) |
~ 55 |
2 |
CB2b |
Spring
1965 |
Catacombs, Manchester. 'Original' line-up. |
~ 60 |
4 |
CB2c |
Autumn
1965 |
Catacombs, Manchester. 'Original' line-up. Most of this
recording was probably made in the autumn of 1965 (27 Oct), at the time
when the Catacombs first went full-time. |
~ 60 |
3 |
CB3 |
Early
1966 |
'Feed the Minds' concert, Philharmonic Hall Liverpool,
plus a recording for 'Immediate' (Ian Fletcher). 'Original'
line-up. |
72:08 |
3 |
CB4 |
Oct
1966 |
Catacombs, Manchester. 'Original' line-up. |
46:44 |
5 |
CB5 |
Late
1966 |
Catacombs, Manchester. 'Second' line-up (Eddie Boyes, Eric
Knowles, John Boyes, Sam Pennington, Tony Mathias). |
49:15 |
5 |
CB6 |
June
1967 |
Catacombs, Manchester. 'Second' line-up |
63:45 |
5 |
CB7 |
Early
1968 |
Catacombs, Manchester, plus some home recordings of 'doing parts'.
'Second' line-up |
44:52 |
5 |
CB8 |
Autumn 1968 |
Catacombs, Manchester, in
the period with no drummer, (inc short part of the farewell to Alan Godson,
leader of the Catacombs). 'Third' (short period) line-up - no
drummer. |
52:47 |
6 |
CB9 |
May 1969 |
Catacombs, Manchester.
'Fourth' line-up (Eddie Boyes, Joe Roberts, John Boyes, Sam Pennington,
Tony Mathias) |
42:25 |
6 |
CB10 |
1969-1971 |
Catacombs, Manchester.
'Fourth' line-up |
55:13 |
6 |
CB11 |
Early 1970s |
Home recordings
(relatively good quality - Akai 4000D modified to allow in phase sound-w-sound
recording). 'Fourth line-up. |
65:25 |
8 |
CB12 |
Aug 1972 |
Radio Merseyside interview
with Eddie Neale. 'Fourth line-up. |
30:20 |
8 |
CB13 |
Mid 1970s |
Home recordings (as above,
Akai 4000D), but after Tony Mathias left the group. 'Fifth' line-up
(Eddie Boyes, Joe Roberts, John Boyes, Sam Pennington) |
36:57 |
8 |
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CB14 |
1967 & 1965 |
The CBS London recordings
(LP and single 1967) and the Birmingham
recordings (2 singles 1965) all on one CD.
Mainly 'Second' line-up (LP and later single) - some 'First' line-up
(early singles). |
~
45 |
10 |
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