Live! At The Star-Club in Hamburg

Pressing & Mastering

First Issued	Side 1	Side 2	Side 3	Side 4	Parts
9-May-77	✎2 SMX 51025 ··2A	✎2 SMX 51028 51026 ··2A	✎SMX 510267 4 SMX 51027. ··2A	✎1 SMX 51027 51028 ··2A2	AU
May/Jun 1977	✎3 SMX 51025 ··2A	✎1 SMX 51028 51026 ··2A2	✎SMX 510267 4 SMX 51027. ··2A	✎3 SMX 51027 51028 ··2A2	AU
May/Jun 1977	✎SMX 51025 ··2A2	✎SMX 51028 51026 ··2A2	✎SMX 510267. 8 SMX 51027··2A	✎11 SMX 51027 51028 ··2A2	AU
May/Jun 1977	✎SMX 51025 ··2A2	✎SMX 51028 51026 ··2A3	✎2 SMX 51026 SMX 51027. ··2A2	✎SMX 51027 51028 ··2A2	AU
May/Jun 1977	✎SMX 51025 ··2A3	✎SMX 51028 51026 ··2A3	✎2 SMX 51026 SMX 51027. ··2A2	✎SMX 51027 51028 ··2A3	AU

Sleeve Information

Code	Circulated	Comments
AU1	May-77	Laminated gatefold sleeve similar to some European releases

Overview
Australian buyers encountered two competing live Beatles releases within days of each other in May 1977. Festival’s Live! at the Star-Club in Hamburg appeared four days after EMI’s The Beatles at the Hollywood Bowl, placing these much earlier performances beside EMI’s heavily promoted, “Beatles approved” album.

Festival issued the set on its broad-ranging Interfusion imprint under a licence from the American Double H Licensing Corporation, acting for England’s Lingasong Ltd. It benefited from the attention generated by EMI’s campaign, while offering its own attractions: the publicity surrounding “lost tapes” and “unreleased tracks”, and two records for $9.99 against the Hollywood Bowl album’s single record at $6.99. It spent nine weeks on the Australian charts, reaching No. 24.

The first labels also carried an old publishing error. 'Kansas City' was listed without the accompanying 'Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey', an omission originating in EMI UK’s copyright department when the medley appeared on Beatles For Sale in 1964. The error came to light in 1975 after Venice Music, the American publisher of Little Richard’s 'Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey', noticed the recording’s entry in All Together Now: The First Complete Beatles Discography 1961–1975 (Michigan: Pierian Press, 1975). The omitted portion actually ran six seconds longer than 'Kansas City'.

Following lengthy settlement negotiations, EMI UK corrected the credit on reissues from early 1977. EMI (Australia) amended it when Rock ’N’ Roll Music became two budget volumes in 1981, although one “Hey” was still missing. The Australian Beatles For Sale LP and Beatles For Sale (No. 2) EP were never corrected.

Lingasong advised Festival of the change in June 1977, and pressings from approximately July carried the corrected title. The sleeve remained unchanged; examples of the revised labels appear on the Interfusion label page.

This release began a long succession of Australian repackagings of the Star-Club performances. Among the more notable vinyl-era successors was Telmak’s Historic Sessions in 1982, covered on its own album page. Click the sleeve image above to view the original inner gatefold.