The Beatles in Sweden
The Karlaplan studios recordings - 24th of October 1963
The sound engineers nightmare became a success'
The Beatles best live recording ever was made in Stockholm 1963. In Sveriges Radios
studio at Karlaplan.
- I wasn't satisfied with the sound. But The Beatles were very delighted with the
distortion, the technician Hans Westman remembers.
Five of the songs that were recorded in Sweden at this occasion is present on the CD
"The Beatles Anthology 1".
The 24th of October 1963 the Swedish Radio recorded a concert by The
Beatles.
A concert in a crowded Karlaplansstudio, made just straight of. The recording was about to
be broadcasted "live" later in the Swedish radio. (See
tape protocol )
The producer Klas Burling (a personal friend of The Beatles) went up on the stage and
introduced the new group from Liverpool. And at the same time Hasse Rosén with his
"The Northmen".
Then The Beatles began to play for an enthusiastic public of mostly teenage girls.
When the concert was broadcasted in November, the Beatles fever had broken loose. John,
Paul, George and Ringo had conquered the whole western part of Europe.
Specifically John Lennon liked the Karlaplan recordings.
He said often that the seven songs that they recorded at Karlaplan were the best live
recordings that The Beatles ever made, as well as for the sound and for the feeling.
The last statement about this was during an interview made by BBC, just a couple of days
before he was so tragically murdered in 1980.
"We love distortion"
- I wasn't satisfied with the recording and I apologised The Beatles for the high
distortion. But they seemed very delighted, says Hans Westman, the guy who were Sveriges
Radios sound engineer during the recordings.
With the words "We love distortion" John Lennon tried to get Hans Westman in a
good temper when they listened to the tapes shortly after the session.
.
The technique equipment in Sveriges Radios studio at Karlaplan was already old and aged
way back in 1963. It was for easy listening programs with talk, singing, harmonica,
acoustic guitars and things like that.
When John, Paul, George and Ringo came along with their guitars, Vox-loudspeakers and
heavy equipment the whole place was nearly going to peaces.
- The worst recording I've ever made. Totally chaotic, says Hans Westman. No time for rehearsals
Quite a big part of the day was offered to try to connect all the cables The Beatles
had with English connections, to the Swedish (S-marked - a security code) equipment and
electric net.
There was practically no time left for The Beatles to rehearsal or for Hans Westman to
calibrate the equipment.
Hans Westman did use the microphones he had available. It was some old and aged RCA-
and Velocity microphones.
Two of them was used as singing microphones, a third one was in front of Ringo's drums,
the fourth by Paul's bass guitar loudspeaker and number five and six was placed in front
of George's and John's guitar loudspeakers.
A few microphones were used to pick up the responding sound and the sound from the
audience. Totally there were ten microphones. The mixer didn't have room for more.
The amplifiers between the microphones and the mixer were the worst problem. They were
made by the Swedish telephone company Televerket, old glastube amplifiers with an effect
on less than 15 watt.
- I lost control over the height of the sound. The amplifiers couldn't make it when The
Beatles started to play.
It was the highest recording level I had seen and certainly the worst distortion I ever
had heard, says Hans Westman.
For a Swedish sound engineer the year of 1963, distortion was something you by any coasts
had to avoid. That was in Hans Westmans cord, who not was used to record rock- and pop
music.
- Now, when I've seen the result, I can understand why The Beatles was so delighted. They
had, already way back in 1963, started to use the distortion to create a very special
sound.
Some years later Jimi Hendrix entered the scene and made music out of pure distortion.
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The tracks The Beatles recorded at the Karlaplansstudio were:
Intro (DOWNLOAD:
410 kb intro by Klas Burling and Paul's intro to 'I
Saw Her Standing There' in mp3 format)
1. I saw her standing there
2. From me to you
3. Money (that's what I want)
4. Roll over Beethoven
5. You really got a hold on me
6. She loves you
7. Twist and Shout.
The first five tracks are present on the CD "The Beatles Anthology 1".
On the broadcasted show on Swedish Radio The Beatles started the show with the first 3
songs then Hasse Rosén with his "Northmen" played 3 instrumental tracks.
Finally The Beatles rounded up the show with the last three songs.
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Ny Teknik no. 47-1995
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are constructed by Lasse Bengtsson.