Lost Beatles demo tape from 1962 found in Vancouver record shop

A Vancouver record store owner is still trying to process an astonishing and accidental discovery he made recently.

“It’s been sitting here for years,” Rob Frith, owner of Neptoon Records on Main Street, told Global News.

Frith doesn’t recall when exactly he purchased a tape he assumed was a Beatles bootleg, as it was part of a record collection he bought.

However, last week, Frith went to a friend’s house to get some of the tapes transferred and archived when they made a once-in-a-lifetime connection to music history.

The last tape simply said “Beatles demo.”

“Take it out and oh my God, jaws dropped,” Larry Hennessey, Frith’s friend and a mixing and mastering engineer, said. “It can’t be, the Beatles demo.”

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“It was so exciting and we are sort of laughing,” Frith added.

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“We can’t believe what we are listening to. I thought it was going to be off a record but it was obviously off a master tape.”

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The demo was recorded before Ringo Starr joined the band as Pete Best was on the drums.

It turns out this demo tape was a copy of the original master that the Beatles recorded at Decca Records in London in January 1962.

“Famously, Decca is the record label that turned down the Beatles,” Hennessey said.

“What I believe is that this tape is the one-to-one copy from Decca from the vault.”

Frith said there are 15 tracks on the demo and he recognized them all.

He has no idea what the demo is worth and he is not even sure he would sell it.

“If Paul McCartney comes to my store and wants it, I’ll give it to him for free.”

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