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15.08.14 Music Week 15
RIGHT Abbey
memories: Artifacts relating to the release of the album ‘The Beatles’ (aka the White Album) in
November 1968
complaints to leave a bad taste in the mouth. “So for the monos, we decided to place the
worldwide order with Optimal, we’ll ship from there to everywhere and I think it’s been a good decision because they sound amazing.” That global number is a million units, including
35,000 x 11 for the box sets and varying runs of up to 100,000 for the individual pieces. It is probably the largest single order of vinyl
for decades – and has basically bought the Optimal capacity for the period. Even so, Hayden is aware that it might not
a consultant who used to work with Jones at Sony and was involved in the Bob Dylan and Miles Davis archive rehabilitation. The end result, says Hayden, “won’t rip up or revolutionise how you hear The Beatles, but it is an incredible chance to hear the records as they were intended.” The last link in the chain back to the very
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beginning is the manufacturing, and with vinyl, that’s key. Hayden, and The Beatles have been burned (probably the wrong word) before. “We did have some problems with the vinyl manufacturing in the States for the stereo vinyls. The test pressings we got back were absolutely brilliant, but I think it’s simply that The Beatles are
a different ball game. “I look after the jazz catalogue here and we’re
doing a range of Blue Note vinyl re-releases and they’re brilliant, they sound fantastic, but we’re never going to make more than 3,000 of them. When it comes to The Beatles, you’re going to make a lot more than 3,000 of them. We’re making a million records for the monos alone. And with the stereos I just don’t think our supplier at that time could cope. “For the European run [of the stereos], we used
Optimal in Germany, who put infinite care into making sure everything was perfect. Well, the plant in America did the same, but they just couldn’t handle the capacity. They were trying to make too many too quickly and we started to get, not lots, but enough
be enough. “We almost always undercook it. We always start off thinking, Does the world want another Beatles project? And then the world gets to hear about it and everything ramps up to a far greater degree than we’d dreamed of. With the stereo CDs we undercooked it by a factor of between 10 and 20.” With the mono vinyls, because the lead times
and expense involved in manufacturing, there is no safety net, but Hayden is hopeful that immediate demand will be satisfied. “I don’t want to lead people into thinking they
have to scramble to buy it but I also don’t want anyone to wait and wait and then not be able to get hold of what they want. We’re going to make as many as we think we need for between launch and Christmas and then we’ll see where we’re at. “Will we put it back on the presses in six
months? No. But will we never run the presses for mono again? I don’t know, I wouldn’t want to say ‘never’. It’s The Beatles; anything’s possible.”
Contact Karma Bertelsen, 020 7226 7246,
karma.bertelsen@
intentmedia.co.uk
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