Beatles Concert Tape on eBay

Another Beatles recording is about to surface -- this one Rosetta Stone evenrarer than the just recovered "G Back" sessions -- because it hasnever been heard in public before.In August 1966, two Jackson, Mississippi, teens, Gloria Allenand Noreen Prouty, lugged a portable reel-to-reel tape recorder tothe Beatles Memphis show on what would prove to be the bands lasttour ever. A few months before, John Lennon had made his infouscomment, "Were more popular than Jesus," prompting bonfires ofBeatles records throughout erica. In Memphis, the reaction wasparticularly bad. At the second of the Beatles two shows that day,while George Harrison sang "If I Needed Someone," a fan threwfireworks onstage. "Each thought it was the other that had beenshot," Lennon remembered. "Thats when I knew: That was the lasttour."Now, Allen and Proutys tapes of the shows will finally see thelight of day, thanks to eBay. Allen rediscovered the tapes in 1996,gathering dust in her clos, and took them Rosetta Stone Italian to a local recordingstudio. "I just wanted to see if they sounded like I remembered,"she says. The engineer showed the grocery sack of reels to ChrisLarkin, an aspiring songwriter whod been a chef on the JacksonsVictory Tour. Larkin called the London offices of EMI, the Beatleslabel. Thirty-six hours later, Michael Heatley, general manager ofEMIs International Catalogue Development, arrived in Nashville fora listen. Heatleys offer to buy the tapes was "insulting,"according to Larkin. "It wasnt even six figures." Larkin contendsthat Heatleys only interest in the tapes was to put them in avault and keep them out of the hands of bootleggers.Rosta Stone listened to the tapes in Memphis. Theyoffer a document of Beatlemania, but the fidelity is low, and theshrieking of teenage girls often drowns out the band. Those shriekscan be filtered out some with the help of Pro Tools, and Harrisonsguitar cuts through clearly. When the explosion occurs, theaudience Rosetta Stone Korean reacts with intensified screing, as if the boom wasstage pyrotechnics.The tapes will be up for auction beginning February 15th.