Rare finds: Beatles albums in every colour of the rainbow



It's the kind of treasure that sets collectors' hearts racing – a find so rare that there may be no limit to its monetary value.

That's just what vintage music specialists and evaluators Akim Boldireff and Aaron Keele – organizers of the annual Toronto Downtown Record Show, which takes place Sunday at the Estonian House Banquet Hall, 958 Broadview Ave. – have on their hands after they stumbled on some colourful old vinyl owned by a retired employee at Capitol Records' Toronto pressing plant.

Among the items they found is an electric-blue disc with Side A of The Beatles Revolver on one side and Side B of John Lennon's solo debut album, Plastic Ono Band, on the flipside, as well as a pressing of the Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band album in blue marble-patterned vinyl.

"I knew right away that they were special," says Boldireff, who has handled countless priceless music-related antiques in his time, but few as potentially valuable as this collection. The package also includes Beatles Love Songs on gold splatter/splash vinyl, Beatles '67-'70 on blue swirl vinyl and a one-sided metal "mother" master of Rubber Soul.

The original owner had access to Capitol Records music, pressing machines and the coloured vinyl, Boldireff says.

"When his shift was over, he'd sometimes experiment, testing techniques of mixing colour and creating patterns. Thankfully, his favourite band was The Beatles, and he took the opportunity to create pressings that are now totally unique in the world of Beatles collectibles. These are the only known copies. I'm at a loss when it comes to estimating what they might be worth."

After exhibiting them, Boldireff and Keele, a.k.a. The Record Guys, plan to auction the albums on eBay.

Other rare collectibles being exhibited today include a Rush "Moon" poster – promoting the Toronto band's first album – and one of only two known to be still in existence; an original program for the Festival Express tour, the historic cross-Canada railroad adventure featuring The Grateful Dead, The Band, Buddy Guy and Janis Joplin , among others; the Jimi Hendrix 1969 Canadian tour program; and various signed albums.



Sounds amazing. Uncle Twitchy and Fraxon...better start selling your personal belongings if you want to buy any of these.

Cool do we have any pictures?

There weren't any pics with the article, sorry, Moterhead. They're part of the sellers private collection. So we may have to wait till they're up on Ebay. However, I'll go Googling and see if they are shown in any other news articles and post them here if there are any.

My kinda thread.

I'm pretty sure many many many years ago (30 maybe?) I had a gold vinyl Beatles album. Can't for the life of me remember what it was. Pre Revolver I think. No idea what happened to it.

Weren't the red and blue collections issued on red and blue colored vinyl, respectively?

Colored-vinyl and picture-disc versions of several Beatles albums were issued in a number of territories during the 70s. In the 90s, Capitol issued a series of Beatles 45 reissues in pretty colors, intended for jukeboxes, but most found their way into the hands of collectors.

I am not surprised Herr Jimbo knows this. Not at all!

Cool, Jimbo. I wonder what they're worth?

Please send it to me, Robert. I think think I'd like that. I'll give you a crisp new (non-counterfiet Canadian) 5 dollar bill for it.

Spocked or non-Spocked?

Spocked. Of course.