Beatles News | Page 173 | Fab Forum | The Beatles Bible

Vivendi, owners of Universal Music Group (current owners of The Beatles catalogue), have put out their financial report for UMG in 2018.

The following chart, listing their top ten earning releases of 2018, appears on page 13:

So, even though it was released with less than two months of the year left, the reissue sold enough to make it their fourth most profitable release of 2018.

We could look at it cynically, @Ahhh Girl, in that it is earnings related. However, one could also be impressed that 50 years after it was released, in less than two months (9 November to 31 December) it sold enough to make it their 4th most valuable release of the year. The Pepper deluxe, released much earlier in 2017 than the White was in 2018, and with not wildly differing pricing, came in 8th in the 2017 financial report.

I’m also sure that many of those other releases had more expensive versions of their albums released.

That a 50 year old archive release, with some admittedly high price points, can crack the top five in under 60 days when competing with the labels most successful current artists, is surely impressive.

@50yearslate, @Ahhh Girl spent a couple of weeks over here in April 2015. I was her companion on the trip as the Forumpudlian she had planned to travel with had to drop out and she had already made bookings for two. First few days in London seeing Beatley sites, then moved onto Cardiff (via Salisbury – to visit Stonehenge, and Bath – to visit, erm, the Roman baths) so she could meet Joe. Weekend in Cardiff and then we moved onto Liverpool, where most of the second week was spent visiting Beatley places.

I was pretty much on a free ride because of the late notice I got that I was being dragged along.

Finding myself better off the next year, I invited her back in October 2016 to repay the favour. Again, a couple of weeks, first in London doing more Beatley sites and fitting in some non-Beatley things (Bletchley Park, Buckingham Palace tour, Dover Castle), before heading for Cardiff to meet up with Joe and family, then onto Liverpool for the second week to be there for John’s birthday, which saw us and another forum member going to the Cavern Club John’s Birthday gig, along with more Beatley sites we’d not had time for on the previous visit.

Glad you didn’t do that, Fiddy. Remember, for all the joy of visiting Beatley places, AG had to put up with 4 weeks of Nasty, only occasionally able to escape my dour presence!

Anyway, the real reason for my being here is the sad news that the National Trust have turned down the opportunity to add Ringo’s birthplace, 9 Madryn Street, to their portfolio of managed buildings, and having it join John and Paul’s childhood homes.

This will see it boarded up again as it attracts thousands of fans to the Welsh Streets every year and it’s not felt fair to put anyone into a property that attracts so many visitors. While Ringo’s main childhood was around the corner at 10 Admiral Grove, almost opposite the Empress pub pictured on the cover his Sentimental Journey album, it’s Madryn Street Ringo remembers in Liverpool 8:

Liverpool I left you, said ‘goodbye’ to Madryn Street
I always followed my heart, and I never missed a beat
Destiny was calling, I just couldn’t stick around
Liverpool I left you, but I never let you down

It’s a shame that after part of the reason the Welsh Streets were saved was because they contained Ringo’s birthplace, and they were considered important enough by the Government to save for that reason, that the National Trust refuses to consider it as important:

The trust can only take on those properties where funds are in place to pay for the up-front purchase price and where it is confident that the property can generate sufficient funds to cover all the costs of looking after it in future.

None of these criteria apply in the case of No. 9 Madryn Street.

So far as I understand it, neither Mendips or Forthlin Road is run at a loss, and there is no reason to believe Madryn Street would, especially with visitors able to pop round the corner for 10 Admiral Grove and a drink in the Empress (just as AG, FabFourEmily and I did in 2015). And it’s important because done-up as it would have been in the ’40s, it would reflect the poverty that existed in Liverpool at the time in a way that John and Paul’s middle class childhood homes just cannot.

A sadly missed opportunity that could have brought more tourist money into what is still one of the poorer districts in Liverpool. There is a suggestion, which can only be hoped for, that the City of Liverpool takes it on itself.

What strikes me as perverse, @Ahhh Girl, is that when we visited every house bar one was boarded up, and the street was saved because of one of those boarded up houses, and it looks set to become a street with one house still boarded up, the one that prevented its demolition and was considered the real treasure.