Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band [VINYL]

Product Information

DB - I found EMI really pleasant – more musical, less technical. When you’re working in a factory, as I was before, there are production commitments, they needed 8 sides cut a day. I’d get in trouble as I didn’t produce any sides, but I was spending time working directly with clients. But EMI was a recoding studio, and it was all about the music. You could spend a day with a client and it was looked on as a very positive thing. They accepted the fact that clients would sit in while the album was cut. It was part of the deal, but in the other factory situations it was considered a pain. I had built my own amp, mixer and speakers, so I was already a minor hi-fi buff. But it really got me thinking that I want to get into this business, this process. It was a life changing experience. I thought, “There’s something going on there I want to know more about.” I had albums before that – but this one came along, and it was a combination of everything I had been listening to. Such a clever production - it grabbed me. Inspirational is the word. DB – When I started mastering in 1971, I was told to leave the recordings alone – no EQ or other changes allowed! The priority was to transfer the audio on to the vinyl without distortion. And if you have a good clean vinyl of a traditionally cut record, you’ve got a bit of gold there, because they don’t age. Vinyl is a very accurate physical representation of the audio modulations etched into it. I also mastered an AC/DC project for the Albert group. Ted Albert attended the session and spent time with me while I mastered the album. I also mastered a direct to disc recording one weekend – Crossfire, Direct to Disc. It was very successful, did very well, and it was an exciting process. Charles Fisher produced that one as well.

SGT. PEPPER - Beatles Collecting Guide SGT. PEPPER - Beatles Collecting Guide

Fewer than 500 copies of the Audio-5 album were made. This is fewer than the Nimbus Supercut production run, making it one of the rarest Sgt. Pepper’s… factory pressings in existence. It was never available at retail outlets and was sold only for “cash in hand” at the hi-fi show. And its audiophile provenance makes it all the more desirable. I know one person who bought a copy during the Sydney show. He still owns it and indicated it has a clarity and immediacy missing in the other analog-sourced stereo versions he has heard.

The Origin of The Rarest and Most Sought After Pressing of "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band"

DB – After a couple of years on the job at EMI, management called me into a meeting. They presented me with these tapes. They said they were special tapes from Abbey Road, and they wanted to produce an audiophile version of the Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band album. I was amazed, and said to myself, “This is me? I’m going to work on this album?” It was like a dream coming true. I basically said “Wow!” and chatted with Richard for a few hours, and he eventually said, “I think we can do something.” So I put my name and number on a piece of paper, and didn’t think anything else of it. He called a week later and said: “When can you start?” My family was cautious about it at the time – “when you get a job with the government, it doesn’t get any better.” But that’s how I started at the Australian Record Company. One rare version has been out of reach: the Nimbus Supercut pressing, said to be one of the best. But in the course my research, I came across a lesser-known Australian audiophile release from 1983, the EMI Audio-5. I have come to realize that, from a sound quality perspective, this may be the most valuable and best sounding of them all. So eventually I got a job at the Australian Record Company. I told my parents about my new position, and they said “Oh no! A government job is very secure!” As well, my school careers adviser had suggested being a train driver, or bus driver instead (laughs). So for five years I was cutting at CBS, with all kinds of fantastic music – ELP, Eagles, the Doobies, product from Europe, from Polydor, Bob Dylan, and all the Columbia classics. In those days we had to master at least four albums a day. You were not allowed to change the sound at the time, but were told to make it as loud and clean as possible on the lacquer master.

and Most Sought After Pressing of The Origin of The Rarest and Most Sought After Pressing of

And so, it also began for Don Bartley. One of the top sound engineers in Australia, Don first heard Sgt. Pepper’s…. upon its release in 1967, and decided then and there to enter the music business. As a result,, he eventually came to master what many consider the “holy grail” of audiophile Beatles records: the “Audio-5 Sgt. Pepper’s”. DB - I really enjoyed working with clients, because I learned a lot from them - just listening to them talk about how they went about making the record, and what they wanted to hear as the end result. Some clients were very technical and specific and others were musicians, and spoke more on a musical, emotional level. I just learned so much from all of them. I never took a course. Apart from Richard Harvey at CBS, who taught me the ground rules - and did a good job of it - I never actually had a formal education in mastering, as there were no courses in those days. I’m not self-taught, but learned from a lot of people around me, and the ones who came before me. DB – They were quarter inch 30 IPS tapes. I was amazed at how it corresponded with that first record I had been listening to. I thought it would be more open and detailed, but there was very little difference in terms of those early vinyl recordings, which is a testament to how good they were. That’s the thing about this album – how well it was recorded and produced. And how the tape sounded like the original vinyl issue – there was so little difference. The tape was nearly identical. DB – Yeah, for me it was fantastic, because it was one of the very first albums I bought. It was the stereo version, and in fact, I still have that copy (laughs). I heard it for the first time in 1967, and I was mesmerized. At the time, I was working for the government as an electronics technician in training. I listened to this incredible sound coming off that record, and said ‘Wow, what is this?” I was fascinated, and I thought to myself, “I want to do this for a living!” BW - You certainly got the right tapes! Did you talk with Abbey Road directly, or did they send something to you on their own?

I worked for the Sydney Water Board in their electronic section as a cadet design engineer, looking after two-way radios and telemetry systems. It was quite interesting, actually. It was quite advanced for the 1960s. One day, a component salesman I knew stopped by and said “I was talking to a guy who is looking for someone to help in the mastering department of their record plant – would you find that interesting?” So I went and met Richard Harvey. It was a position in the mastering rooms for international releases from Columbia, Polydor and Warners, as well as some local product. At the time, they had Ampex tape machines, Neumann lathes and Westrex cutters – one was a valve room, and the other was a transistor room. Thus, a lifelong appreciation of the Beatles started for me. Yellow Submarine is one of their more underappreciated albums, but it is still my favorite to this day. I listen to it every few months without fail. The second pressing of this LP took place in 1969 for both the mono and stereo version. It displays "the Gramophone & Co. Ltd." but no "sold in UK". To any Beatles collector, of critical importance is the label. Before you buy any Beatles record, you must examine the label to ensure it's authenticity. It has to have the right credentials. And of course, the condition is also all important.