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Recordings
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.

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.
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
         
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
         


This web site also contains a more recent recording of a Radio 4 programme called "The Strange Parallel World of Christian Pop"
which was aired on 12 February 2008.

Finally, I recently (2008) came across an early commercial tape recording of 'pre-beat Christian combos' on Cathedral Cecordings.  This has been converted to MP3 and is available at the link.  This is probably a good example of what would be considered 'cutting edge' CCM in the late 50s, and the kind of thing that the Christian beat groups of the 60s were trying to build upon and move on from.



If you want any further information, please get in touch. Email

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