LIVE AT SHEA-STADIUM
Company: Offshore Records
Matrix Number: erased and unreadable
Release date: early-mid 1972
Country: Holland
SIDE A
1. TWIST AND SHOUT
2. YOU CAN’T DO THAT
3. ALL MY LOVING
4. SHE LOVES YOU
5. THINGS WE SAID TODAY
6. ROLL OVER BEETHOVEN
​
SIDE B
7. CAN'T BUY ME LOVE
8. A HARD DAY’S NIGHT
9. BOYS
10. LONG TALL SALLY
11. PLEASE DON’T BRING YOUR BANJO BACK
12. EVERYWHERE IT’S CHRISTMAS
13. WHAT’S THE NEW MARY JANE
​
Sound Quality: VG mono, #13 EX stereo
SOURCE:
1-10: Hollywood Bowl, August 23, 1964: from LP LIVE AT SHEA Kustom Records
11-12: Extract from the Beatles Fan Club Christmas Messages
13: Unreleased Apple b-side
COMMENTS
Musically, this record is important because it features the first available version of What's the New Mary Jane, in stereo and in excellent quality.
​
The original Dutch issue was made by a bootlegger who chose "Offshore Records" as the logo for his releases. He also produced a few other records with this label in 1972. The Hollywood Bowl tracks were copied from the Kustom Records LP that was widely distributed in Europe in that year, with a skip at the beginning of Can't Buy Me Love. For unknown reasons, A Hard Day's Night and Boys had their sequence inverted, even though they were listed in the correct order on the record cover.
RELEASES
1. early-mid 1972 (see above). The first pressing had a laminated cover with the title on the front and black-and-white photos with liner notes about the content on the back. These claimed that this was the only European bootleg (which is untrue, since the Kustom LP, from which this record was derived, was distributed in the U.K. starting in February, 1971, at least a year earlier. However, incorrect information in bootleg liner notes is not uncommon). The record itself had blank white labels, and the pressing marks are a ring at 12 mm from the spindle hole, a second ring at 32 mm and a third ring near the border of the label area. The matrix number was scratched out.
INTEREST. The original Dutch record appears to be extremely rare, and is historically very important, not only because it features the first appearance of What's the New Mary Jane, but also because it's one of the first European bootlegs. *****
THE EUROPEAN BENBECULA VERSIONS
The Benbecula version copied the original layout of the Offshore Record. This had a glossy red laminated cover and may have been pressed in Germany, starting in late 1972. The matrix number is NTT 10A / NTT 10B. The label was black with track listings. This is a rather common release, particularly in Europe. It had three different versions, the sequence of the first two is not known:
1. (photo above). Red glossy laminated cover, the label has a pressing ring at 12 mm and another ring at 32 mm from the hole.
2. Same cover as #1, but the disc label has a single pressing ring at 12 mm from the hole (photo below, left).
3. Early eighties. This has an orange glossy (rather than red) laminated cover, and a label with a single pressing ring at 12 mm from the spindle hole. In at least some copies there is a small white dot by side of Roll Over Beethoven on the label.
INTEREST. This is still a common record. As one of the very first records produced in Europe, a copy should be in every collection. ***/**.
THE JAPANESE COUNTERFEIT OF THE OFFSHORE VERSION
The Dutch Offshore record was quickly issued in Japan. However, it appears that the Japanese bootleggers did not have the actual Dutch LP available, or had a poor copy of it, since the musical content on their release was reconstructed, lifting the Hollywood Bowl tracks from the EP LIVE AT SHEA (that does not skip on Can't Buy Me Love). The other three tracks were also not directly copied, since the silence between the songs has a different length between the European and the Japanese releases. However, the bootleggers based their product on the Dutch release, since they even copied the inverted running order of A Hard Day's Night and Boys. The Japanese version can be easily differentiated from the Dutch one because the pressing mark is a single ring at 12 mm from the spindle hole. The record was pressed at the OG plants and has slightly better quality, with a richer sound, compared to the Benbecula release. It had the following versions:
​1. Late 1972. The first pressing had a folder-type jacket with blank labels, matrix numbers OG 718 A 1H / OG 718 B 1H.
2. A new master was made, numbered OG 718 A 1L / OG 718 B 1L, and this was used for further releases, distributed with the laminated cover and blank label. To avoid identification of the pressing plant, each copy had the OG letters scratched out with a hot iron stick directly placed on each disc.
3. There is a version from another master, that came with the same jacket as version 2, but also had the numbers 718 removed, leaving only A 1L / B 1L. However, in this master the A / B side indications are etched further away in the run-off groove from the other numbers.
Late seventies. Same cover, blue label with titles, matrix OG 802 A 1J / OG 802 B 1J, machine-impressed as usual for the OG records. This version was limited to 300 copies.
INTEREST. As a collectible item, the Japanese Offshore versions are very interesting, particularly the first one with the folder-type cover (****/***).
