First Live Recordings

First Live Recordings

1st Live Recordings is a two-volume album series released by Pickwick Records in 1979 containing live performances by The Beatles. Adrian Barber, the stage manager at the Star Club, on the instructions by King Size Taylor, the leader of The Dominoes, another group from Liverpool, recorded this on a Grundig home tape recorder at 3¾ ips in December 1962, probably during three performances at Hamburg's Star Club on 25, 28 or 29 and 30 December. Though even The Beatles thought the sound quality was too poor for anything to be made of the recording, Lingasong Records spent about $100,000 rebuilding the sound into a 16-track master. The result of their effort is this recording. This recording includes Ringo Starr on drums, making this the first live recording of The Beatles. This same recording was previously released as Live! at the Star-Club in Hamburg, Germany; 1962 by Lingasong Records. Pickwick's version has been slightly altered to allow for more prominence in the vocals.

Two songs on the set, "Be-Bop-A-Lula" and "Halleluja, I Love Her So," feature the Beatles performing the instruments while Star-Club waiter, Horst Fascher provides the vocals. Another cut, the only track on the set to not appear on the original Lingasong release, "Hully Gully," does not include the Beatles at all. Rather, it is a recording by Cliff Bennett and the Rebel Rousers who performed at the club the same night.