THE BEATLES

On Air – Live at the BBC Volume 2 (EMI/Apple)

This collection delivers exactly what it says on the tin: the fab four in all their early glory performing live on the likes of such BBC radio programmes as Pop Go The Beatles, Saturday Club, Here We Go, Easy Beat, The Beatles Say From Us To You and Top Gear. The lion’s share of the material performed comes from 1963. Spanning two CDS, the collection features 37 previously unreleased performances alongside 23 speech tracks. For trainspotters, ten of the tunes on board never made it to an official recording session. It’s hard to pick favourites, but standouts include ‘Words Of Love’, ‘Lucille’, ”I’m Talking About You’, ‘The Hippy Hippy Shake’, ‘Glad All Over’ and ‘And I Love Her’. The set closes with an outtake of ‘I Feel Fine’. For Beatlemaniacs, a real joy is the 1965/66 interviews with John, Paul, George and Ringo tacked onto the end of the set. The material itself, which is punctuated by fun studio chatter, is period piece stuff and sounds like it was recorded fifty years ago. It’s not pristine in parts: but it’s brilliant to have it. ‘1, 2, 3 4 …’ indeed.

[rating: 4/5]

Sean Sennett