Historical document, but dire recording

Firstly, I'm sorry if you've already read the first half of this review on "Live at Star Club 1962, Vol. 1" - the session has been cut in two to make it into two very short CD's. Beware of the length ... never mind the quality. And let it be clearly understood that the sound quality on this CD and its partner in sin is diabolical. The songs for this and Volume 1 were recorded on an open mike, on live stage, on a reel-to-reel tape recorder in December, 1962. Hi-tech, this is not: the recording equipment is far from state of the art, the recording technique is decidedly amateurish. This is the sort of recording which gives bootleg a bad name!



The provenance of the recordings, however, is unassailable. This is the Beatles, live, shortly before they became a major phenomenon in Britain, shortly before they became international stars. What you get here is a sense of the excitement of a live band which had already garnered a significant fan base in Liverpool and Hamburg.



This is a working band. No pop idol, no manufactured talent or fame here. This is a working band. They made a name for themselves playing covers of American rock and R&B, but they had the arrogance and self-belief to write their own songs and to include them unselfconsciously in their repertoire.



So the recordings abound in energy, raw talent, and a distant sense of the excitement the band brought to the dancefloor. In the 1960's, boys and girls met on the dancefloor. From time to time, boy fought boy on the dancefloor. Everyone, however, listened to the band. There were few drugs, limited alcohol - the intoxication was in the music.



The music was live, the sound quality was basic, the acoustics were basic, the atmosphere was electric, and posers were decidedly unpopular. Venues in the 1960's paid little heed to comfort, sound quality, health & safety, or even legislation covering the care of sheep and cattle. Condensation ran down the walls. These were Spartan environments ... and they were fun!



In "Live at the Star Club" we have uptempo numbers in the main ... the role of the band was to get the punters up and dancing ... to generate enough excitement to propel even the boys onto the dancefloor. The performances are flat in places. Lines are fluffed. There are wrong notes. The recording drifts off from time to time. The balance is chaotic. But you are listening to an historical document.



As in Volume 1, of the eleven tracks on this CD, only "Ask Me Why" is a Lennon/McCartney number. The rest are US hits. But you stand at the cusp here. British bands relentlessly played American covers in the early 60's. The Beatles were no different in this. But their own songs were creeping in. You sense they are growing in confidence - that they by now knew they could write numbers which their public enjoyed. That's where the excitement of this recording comes to the fore.



However, cutting this session into two CD's is taking liberties. The total playing time is only 24 minutes, so this is hardly outstanding value. A piece of history ... but maybe something you'll not listen to very often.