To coincide with the imminent six‑part screening of the Anthology TV documentary, EMI Records is to release three double CD sets of ultra‑rare Beatles material, gleaned from the Fort Knox‑like vaults of Abbey Road Studios, private collections and other sources.

A worthy release in itself - but it only served to whet our appetite while we waited for the main event. Last year's release of the Live At The BBC collection of rare radio broadcast performances (see SOS March 1995) saw record buyers queuing overnight on both sides of the Atlantic to be among the first to own copies. The worldwide adulation for Liverpool's most famous sons has not flagged over the quarter of a century which has passed since their acrimonious break‑up. One thing was certain: it wasn't as though the story would have no audience. The message was clear: it was to be the story of The Beatles, as told by The Beatles. The story behind the Anthology began in 1989, when the three surviving Beatles, together with Yoko Ono and their Apple aides, initiated a series of business meetings where plans for the definitive television history of the band were drawn up. 'It should have stopped ringing in 1970, but I've never been so busy.' It is a phenomenon that he has expected and prepared for at a time when a television series, several videos, a book and three double CD sets, collectively known as the Anthology, are about to spread a harvest around a world starved of The Beatles for the last 25 years. 'See that phone?' he said, pointing at his twinkling extension display. 'It's a new strain of Beatlemania,' he laughed. For the past 18 months, Mark Cunningham has been keeping his ear to the ground, and can now reveal the fascinating details surrounding the Fab Four's 'Second Coming'.Īpple Corps Ltd in Knightsbridge was under telephone siege the day I called in on The Beatles' press officer, Derek Taylor. After years of rumours and myth, the fruits of The Beatles' reunion for small screen and recording projects can now be experienced by mere mortals.

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