Get all your news in one place.
100’s of premium titles.
One app.
Start reading
Liverpool Echo
Liverpool Echo
National
Aaron Curran

Forgotten Beatles tapes recorded at lost Liverpool studio

Lost tapes from some of Liverpool's biggest names of the past have been unearthed,

When Percy Phillips opened the city's first ever recording studio in Kensington out of the living room of his house, the World War One veteran probably didn't expect some of the biggest names of all time to come through the door. However, on July 12, 1958, a young band called the Quarrymen each paid in a pound to use the studio.

The Quarrymen would of course go on to form the Beatles. They weren't the only stars to use the studio however, with Billy Fury and Ken Dodd cutting their first records there.

READ MORE: Imagine a world where the Beatles didn't exist

The studio was inside the middle living room of 38 Kensington, a red-brick house that is still standing and is now marked with a Blue Plaque. In the front room was Percy’s record shop - set up around 1954 after he was charging batteries at Burtonwood Air Base and bought boxes of records from the American servicemen stationed there.

According to author and local music expert Spencer Leigh, it was not unusual for artists in the period to create several tapes before they are signed to a label, some of which have been lost to the ages. However, Mr Leigh, along with Mike Jones, have unearthed many of these tapes, including some made by the Fab Four.

Mr Leigh told the ECHO: "A lot of artists had these tapes and I've collected them over the years, in fact I've probably got the largest collection in the world."

To mark the 60th anniversary of Love Me Do, Mr Leigh teamed up with Hope University graduate Mike Jones, who had done an extensive survey on Percy Phillips studio, to create a book on these lost tapes, from the Fab Four and their fellow scouse artists.

Join our The Beatles Nostalgia group for our biggest stories about the band.

Unearthed recordings from the Beatles and their fellow musicians including Gerry and the Pacemakers, the Searchers, the Swinging Blue Jeans, Kingsize Taylor and the Dominoes, and Rory Storm and the Hurricanes can all be found within the book, along with QR codes which can be scanned, giving the reader the ability to even listen to the tracks. The book is also fully illustrated with unseen pictures of the Fab Four

The Road To Love Me Do. The Beatles & Their Liverpool Contemporaries is set for publication on September 12, retail price £25.

READ NEXT

More Beatles content from the Liverpool ECHO

When the Beatles were arrested on suspicion of arson

90s band Paul McCartney had feud with after Beatles comparisons

Bungalow where 'one of the greatest songs of all time' was written

Sign up to read this article
Read news from 100’s of titles, curated specifically for you.
Already a member? Sign in here
Related Stories
Top stories on inkl right now
Our Picks
Fourteen days free
Download the app
One app. One membership.
100+ trusted global sources.