Discover Jude’s Fascinating John Lennon Series here
Shivering Inside (Vol 2) Dec 1961 – Jan 1963
But for John Lennon, the hectic rise to glory failed to cure the constant Shivering Inside. He was still searching for something…or someone…to fill the hole in his heart. There are no hard copies left but you can get it on Kindle here for $9.99.
With this Blog I decided that as The Our First Four was featured in my book Inside No3, I thought that it would be very much an experience for many Beatle fans who visit The Beatles Bookstore, that they would appreciate an in depth look at my very own copies. The set was originally published and distributed to just over 400 very notable people in August 1968.
It announced to the world that Apple Records, ( a part of the Apple Foundation for the arts) was now fully in swing, to give artistic and talented people a fairer chance to be able to produce a telling work of art. The record division was only one of the five divisions that the company would operate through to reach its audience
Those Divisions were Apple Retail, Apple Records, Apple Electronics, Apple Films, and Apple Books. Apple Records was by plan and effect the most visible to the everyday punter, as their products were able to be bought via your local record store. However, to announce Apple Records a wonderful and now extremely rare Public Information vehicle was to be used. That item was the package simply titled “Our First Four”.
This package was altogether a Black Cardboard package with the words Our First Four printed in various colours on a white background on the front. This package when turned over opened a small box / packet which contained within it the first 4 Apple Records Released singles. ( Again, this was in effect the first 3 Apple singles, as Hey Jude was ostensibly an EMI Parlophone release, complete with Parlophone catalogue numbers ).
However, in effect it contained 4 Apple labelled singles. Each of these singles were held in a plastic polythene sleeve stuck onto a piece of foldable card, which contained a photograph of the artist. This was to be inside the card, and the front carried on it an introduction to the artist penned by PR man Derek Taylor. The back was intentionally left blank.
This was to prove a stunning package and as only slightly over 400 were produced, and many were simply just thrown away or destroyed forever without anyone realising the value to which this document package would accrue. To further enhance this wonderful and expensive package roughly a dozen was made in plastic, and sent to world notable dignitaries, which included Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, The British Prime Minister, The President of the United States, and a few others. We believe that Buckingham Palace has kept the copy sent to the Queen as well as the White House, but the others very likely have been stolen, or most likely destroyed.
So, what were the packages like. Well for the very first, (and may I say only time), I have displayed my set to be photographed and seen here at The Beatles Book Store, so that others may get to see this long lost and much sought after item. Finally, I have placed the whole set inside a heavy black box for protection. That is not part of the set, and I have stuck to the lid an officially printed Apple ID card which has been personally autographed by the late Tony Bramwell. This makes the collection to me, very complete.
You will now see the collection fully displayed and described. Thank you
This is my separate box to hold the sets in and to protect them further. The box is completely black, and the top card is an officially produced Apple box label autographed by Tony Bramwell in 1972.
Our First Four by Apple Corps
This is a general package shot of the American Our First Four Package. This will be described fully in a later Blog.
Here is the package outer box art used for the UK Package. This is the cardboard version.
Our First Four UK Box
The inside header sheet fronts for the artists and individual records held within
Inside Header Sheets
The American package in a general presentation.
The USA Package
The internal design for The Beatles Hey Jude Record and Folder.
Hey Jude
The internal Design for Mary Hopkin Those Were The Days Folder.
Mary Hopkin
The Internal Design for Jackie Lomax Sour Milk Sea Folder.
Jackie Lomax
The Final internal package for The Black Dyke Mills Band Thingumybob Folder.
Black Dyke Mills Band
The Associate Stamps set for Our First Four.
Apple Stamps
The Apple Collection
As you can see it is a truly wonderful set, and displayed here one can only marvel at the splendour, which also includes 4 nice shiny Apple 7-inch record sleeves to protect the records still further. This only enhances the visual effect of the entire package, which was bright, beautiful and so very daring, not to mention the cost at the time either!!. This is the complete United Kingdom package, which as I explained earlier is kept out of the sunlight and very rarely opened.
Inside Number Three – The Illustrated History of Apple Records
Inside No3 takes you through that famous door, deep into the minds of all who worked there at Apple Records. This is done also in a very different way. This is not a kiss-and-tell diary, it is through fan adulation and understanding via a personal collection of artifacts and memorabilia that author Nigel Pearce has built up over the last 50 years.
“A short, sharp podcast for busy Beatles People in-the-know!”
Bruce Spizer
He has “music in his bones.” Actually, he has music everywhere – in records, in notes, in notes about records, and in books from the notes about the records…Bruce Spizer is The Beatles Music Man!
Enjoy this conversation about his latest release, The Beatles A Hard Day’s Night and More!
The Video Presentation is now fully complete and is available as the centre-piece of The Inside No 3 Experience / Presentation Evening. This event is to educate and bring to the audience that period of artistic revolution that came from within that famous white door at Number 3 Savile Row.
Apple
Using the book as the template, we show to full effect the sense of mission ideals that The Beatles had in vision for the whole organisation that was to be Apple. We all know the outcome, but what is not known is how that so nearly came about. Well you can wonder no more for it is now laid out for everyone in a bright colour and beautiful happening that reflected those marvellous aims.
Inside No 3
Inside No 3 Book
These are standard presentation photographs that extol and support the link between the book Inside No 3 and the DVD Disc to which we use on the presentation. The second photograph is a rear view of the DVD Presentation package. !!
Abbey Road
This is one of the photographs taken on the day of the shoot which was ultimately rejected. I have all of the photographs used and they make a stunning collage.
One of the Rejected Abbey Road Photos
This is a shot from 1968 and is from Hey Jude – Terrific!!
The Beatles 1968
Mary Hopkin
This is a portrait of the beautiful Welsh singer Mary Hopkin who as many know was a very successful Apple artist. She had a voice of an angel and sang as clear as a bell. She is still in the music business, only doing projects that really appeal to her. Long may she continue to do so.
Mary Hopkin
Badfinger
The final photo plate is of Apple Records most successful bands Badfinger. They were a most impressive band to hear and to see, and their sheer talent has been long hidden away, and even today when one sees old film of them it still has the power to impress shock and deliver mis-belief at their sheers talent !!
The Iveys who became Badfinger
Bookings have already been received and completed and a review is available via links to The Beatles bookstore website.
FELIXSTOWE BEATLES WEEKEND
We will be a central core to the fabulous Felixstowe Beatles Weekend at The famous Spa Pavilion on Saturday / Sunday 21st /22nd June 2025.
So book that weekend and make it a most enjoyable one as well. The Quarrymen will be appearing , alongside ex Capital Radio DJ/ Host Nicky Horne, with his very special and unique show as well as Inside No3 with the brilliant Apple Presentation!!
There is more to be added, and the Special website will be active shortly- so stay tuned, you won’t want to miss this totally awesome weekend, It will be a Beatles Fans Dream !!
Inside Number Three – The Illustrated History of Apple Records
Inside No3 takes you through that famous door, deep into the minds of all who worked there at Apple Records. This is done also in a very different way. This is not a kiss-and-tell diary, it is through fan adulation and understanding via a personal collection of artifacts and memorabilia that author Nigel Pearce has built up over the last 50 years.
Mono Mixes of Let It Be and Abbey RoadMono Mixes of Let It Be and Abbey Road
Rare Beatles Recordings in Mono
This gives us all concrete proof that rare Beatles recordings in Mono mixes were done, mixed and produced for Abbey Road and the Let It Be albums. Although these mixes have never been officially released, here are my personal CD copies of both of those mixes and the EMI Tape boxes used to house them in. The labels are shown here for those stored recordings, and as per their contract situation prevailing at the time they were seeded to Parlophone Records. The recordings actually are excellent as well!! Should be available to purchase, I 100% believe.
Badfinger
Badfinger in ConcertBadfinger in Concert
This CD came direct to me from a contact at the BBC. This is straight from their archives and is a copy of a live concert programme for Badfinger. Recorded and Broadcast from Wales in 1972. It is an extremely good concert with only possibly two songs that might need some editing or enhanced production. Badfinger was indeed a well-knitted and tight band, and this is one of the few excellent recordings of them in concert. It would have made an excellent live album !! It might have given the band a big push!!
Balls
Fight For My Country by Balls
This is another rare to find, and well-lost Apple Studios demo recording. The artist is Balls, and the song is titled Fight For My Country. Its a good progressive slab of rock, quite well played, and it is well produced in Mono. Again there is no details of personnel of the Band, and finding them is very difficult, or perhaps nigh on impossible. Another one from that under the Floor No 3 Savile Row Vault.
Paul McCartney The White Album Interview
Paul and John Interviews
John Lennon Abbey Road Interview
Paul and John Interviews
These are really the Pieces de Resistance of this little bunch. The ideals of Apple were to promote the product as works and pieces of art, for that is what they most certainly were. It was EMI etc that counted the money that was to be coming in from each well-made product!
The Beatles at this time undertook a lot of promotion in order to fulfill that Operational Mendi of giving the artist a better deal. They were also doing this to their own products, and we have two fine examples here. The first one is an interview by Paul to promote the White Album released in November 1968. He gave an exclusive interview to Radio Luxemburg Host/ DJ Tony Macarthur, with sponsorship from the Daily Express. The discussion is very open and he concentrated on his tracks but gave a lot of mention to John’s Goodnight.
The second one is John accompanied by Yoko giving a discussion on Abbey Road just after the album was released, and again the discussion was very warm and open, with no hints of the problems at Apple which were bubbling away. Both interviews are given in full, but the tracks have been cleaned to provide pure listening pleasure, and they most certainly do just that. John also mentions the version of Golden Slumbers/Carry That Weight from the album covered by Trash, Apple 17, and that single is also contained here, which is a very rare occurrence. The cases and labels are complete and unaltered, as per the originals, and they make a wonderful extra to these albums.
One wonders why they could not have been included in the re-boxed sets. They would have made an excellent addition or side dish as Paul likes to call odd examples. If anyone is listening, I have my copies stored safely away
This is a great little set of demos and extras from Apple Records at No 3 Savile Row, and there is still more to have, all in good time too!!
Inside Number Three – The Illustrated History of Apple Records
Inside No3 takes you through that famous door, deep into the minds of all who worked there at Apple Records. This is done also in a very different way. This is not a kiss-and-tell diary, it is through fan adulation and understanding via a personal collection of artifacts and memorabilia that author Nigel Pearce has built up over the last 50 years.
Want the latest think piece canvassing The Beatles’ World, without having to invest a ton of your time? Check out the new “Tell Me Why” podcast with host Jude Southerland Kessler, author of The John Lennon Series of narrative biographies. Kessler interviews Beatles personalities, authors, artists, influencers, playwrights, filmmakers, historians – interesting Beatles people – in a succinct 20-minute format.
The Tell Me Why Podcast
Described as a “short, sharp podcast for busy Beatles people ‘in-the-know’…or busy Beatles people who want to be ‘in-the-know,’” “Tell Me Why” offers the latest perspectives and happenings without monopolizing too much of your time. Come together with Jude and her fab guests right here, bi-monthly, on The Beatles Bookstore.
The first four shows feature May Pang, Ruth and Angie McCartney, Terry Crain, and the great Ivor Davis! 😍
Here are the links for the first FOUR incredible shows:
