B36848 – Paul McCartney And Wings The Back Yard Tape Original EMI Studios Abbey Road London 1974 Acetate Geoff Britton Collection (UK)

An incredibly rare never before commercially released single sided ‘EMI Studios, 3 Abbey Road, London’ acetate for the Paul McCartney and Wings ‘The Back Yard Tape’ that were recorded at EMI Studios. On the recording Paul McCartney performs Beatles songs, solo works and covers. McCartney can be heard at various points chatting with the then Wings drummer Geoff Britton often with humorous quips such as ‘well you wanted to do it informal’ in an American accent.

The acetate, which is housed in its original paper sleeve, was cut from ‘Reel 1’ with a running time of 25 minutes 46 seconds. The date, 18^th October 1974, has been handwritten on the label.

The acetate was cut from reel 1, this is housed is the original paper sleeve with the songs titles written on it, the running time is 25 minutes 46 seconds.

The cutting date 18^th October 1974 has been handwritten on the label. It was cut by EMI engineer Richard Langham who has added his initials ‘RJL’ at the bottom of the label.

The record starts with a brief introduction then, during the recording Paul can be heard tuning up and improvising between takes.  Paul performing several takes of ‘Blackbird’ with him tuning up and improvising around in between takes.

Paul performs various versions of the following songs:-

Blackbird – Over several takes.

Blackpool

Country Dreamer

Twenty Flight Rock

Peggy Sue

I’m Gonna Love You Too

In between the two above tracks Paul can be heard saying ‘the late great Buddy Holly ladies and gentlemen, nobody like him…’

Sweet Little Sixteen

Paul then takes requests from the small number of passers-by that were in the studio at the time.

Loving You

We’re Gonna Move

The acetate comes with a printed photograph of Paul McCartney, Linda McCartney, Wings and members of the team eating a Chinese takeaway at EMI Studios, Abbey Road, London studios that was taken on Sunday 25th August 1974. The image was supplied by Geoff Britton and he has signed it on the reverse.

The acetate plays through without any skips, there are minor pops in places. There is a minor crack to the lacquer on track 1. Some cracking to the lacquer in the run off area. Some clouding in places with a number of surface marks and surface scratches. The condition is very good minus.

Provenance: the acetate comes from the collection of Geoff Britton.