Monday 19 October 2015

THE BEATLES: an exciting new discovery!

As many of you will know, at the end of 1970 the moribund Official Beatles Fan Club sent its members an LP entitled From Then To You, compiling the light-hearted 'Christmas message' flexidiscs they'd received from the band every Christmas between 1963 and 1969. Though it was pressed by Lyntone (who'd also made the flexis) instead of EMI, it was on the Apple label. The earlier messages tend towards sub-Goons / Stanley Unwin jollity, while the later ones have tentative studio effects and musical content. All are irritating on repeated listens, but worth a spin for serious fans. The sleeve reproduces the front covers of all seven discs, but offers no background info. A pressing size isn’t known, but as it was never commercially available, it’s extremely rare by the standards of their other official releases, changing hands for up to £1000 in perfect condition.


Last week an eBay seller named 933gone, based in Macclesfield, UK, listed what he called a 'MEGA RARE' copy of the album, with completely different labels to the Apple release. According to him, 'APPLE DECIDED TO CHANGE LABEL FROM LYNTONE TO APPLE. HOWEVER THE LYNTONE LP WAS PRESSED IN A VERY SHORT RUN AND IS, CONSEQUENTLY, EVEN RARER THAN THE APPLE LABEL VERSION. LYNTONE LABELED RECORD WAS GIVEN AWAY TO THE FAN CLUB STAFF, THE APPLE LABELED LPs GIVEN TO FAN CLUB MEMBERS.'



This will of course come as a startling revelation to long-term Beatles collectors. Intrigued, I emailed him to request evidence for the claim. Clearly a busy man, he disregarded that part of my message, but did have time to tell me: 'This is not a bootleg - bootleg versions have brown/beige label - this one is white label... Please look at the popsike site. There you will find the exact same record and label at £220 or 298 EUROS - its not described as a fake. I am an honest bayer - not a dealer.'

So there we have it - a fascinating artefact for serious Beatles collectors to fight over. No wonder it has already attracted a £200 bid! (PS He has also yet to reply to my contention that the American version of this that he's selling is a blatant counterfeit.)

14 comments:

  1. Actually whether you like it or not, Lyntone pressings do indeed exist as a geniune article. Though indeed, they are second pressings or Export pressings. How? Well simply that after the initial run, a few copies were made in the following months / following year for fan clubs members who didnt recieve them, or werent available to recieve them on the first run. Plus (as is very well known) in certain countries the Apple label wasnt licensed (hence Beatles Parlophone exports) and so the Lyntone label was used for fans in these countries. Of course the problem arose in the mid/late 1970s when Mr John Doe (figure of speech for anyone) starting faking these Lyntone pressings in copious amounts.

    Geniune Lyntone Export / 2nd Pressings - have stamped matrixes, centred labels, sharp label print, and a clear factory made laminated cover.

    Lyntone Fakes have etched or different stamped matrixes, off centred or bad label print, and obvious blurring or 'dotting' on the back of the cover - from a copy of a copy so to speak.

    So dont dismiss all Lyntone pressings are fakes, because you would be wrong!

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  2. Thanks, Anonymous. In this post I simply dismiss the seller's claim that the fake copy he was selling 'was given away to the fan club staff' in 1970. As for the other pressings you mention - well, feel free to add pictures or a link.

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  3. Different Anonymous here! I have seen at least 5 of these on eBay and elsewhere in the last few months and I am very dubious about them. All are mint and have the same machine stamped matrix, LYN 2153 A1 and LYN 2153 B1. This begs the question that if these were

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    1. Agree. If these were real, we'd have seen them thruout the 70s, 80s, 90s and 00s. I call fake.

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    2. please google: "beg the question get it right"

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    3. But they were? These fakes have been around for years. Whether there were originals or not, there is also at least 2 or 3 batches of fakes. Don't know about these recent ones. But you certainly used to see them in the early 1980s at records fairs. I remember them all being pretty Mint though - so the first batch was definitely made in the late 1970s/early 1980s. People who say they have only appeared now haven't been around very long have they!

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  4. given away to fan club staff in 1970 how many fan club staff were there and why are so many of these on the market all of a sudden? If they are 2nd presses or indeed the very first press why are the matrix numbers different to the official Apple release. Very fishy IMHO!

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    1. One of the laughable things about 933gone's crooked auction is the suggestion that the Beatles had such a thing as 'fan club staff' by the end of 1970.

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    2. Very fishy; A "ligitemate" release that doesn't even say "Beatles" on it anywhere? Kinda like many, many bootleg/fakes out there. I'm not buying it.

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    3. Actually you are incorrect. The Beatles Fan Club was closed in 1971 with a final letter to fan club members. It was kept open for another year because in the early days after the split, it was thought there may have been a chance of The Beatles reforming. Clearly after the law suits etc started that wasnt going to happen. So actually there were fan club staff up until early 1971. Of course, clearly not as many as in their hey day of the mid 1960s when fan club membership was at its peak. You are however, correct in surmising that this record was not given out to fan club staff, as by the end of 1970 there were only 10 or 20 people, and that is being generous! So clearly that part is a fantasy, because it is were true - it would be the rarest Beatles record ever made! But to say there were no fan club staff at the end of the 1970 is not correct.

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  5. did you mean from THEM to you ? cause you have then

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  6. Chessman, it is called From Then To You. It's a play on words.

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  7. Richard, thanks so much for the beautiful scan of the Apple label version of the Xmas record. I've never seen as good a scan of that label. You are correct, the record itself becomes quite obnoxious on repeated listenings, but the label is a thing of beauty (as most of the UK Apple labels are). The US labels never looked quite as tidy or cared-for in manufacture as the UK labels.

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  8. It is fairly obvious where these fakes were made. Or least I refer to the ones knocking around in the 1980s, with laminated covers and perfect printing. Havent got a recent one. If you check out the stamped Lyntone matrix numbers and compare them to existing matrixes from the 1970s, you will find they were made by either:- Sound News Production Studios or Industrial Commercial Plastics. Both were private firms where if you paid them money, they would produce anything on the 'nightshift' so to speak. Personally I would plump for Industrial Commercial Plastics....

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