BTW, was it the same Decca tape that was hawked to George Martin? If so, thank goodness he was a bit "hungrier" than the Decca dudes!
As far as I know, yes. Epstein had an acetate made of it at HMV in Oxford Street, London, which is where, I believe, he was recommended to George Martin.
There are a few contributory factors in the poor performance at Decca. Whilst Brian had traveled the day before, by train, our heroes were tightly packed into a van with all their equipment, in snowstorms, for 10 hours. I doubt there was much sleep to be had. Epsteins first big mistake, with regard to The Beatles, in my opinion. And probably the cause of John's cold, which is why George sings a lot.
Upon arrival at Decca they were made to wait for an hour by Mike Smith, who was supervising, making them even more nervous. Smith also made them use unfamiliar studio amplification, against their will.
All the songs are done in one take. It is, essentially a live show in the studio. And I believe Smith rushed them, as he had to supervise another audition (Brian Poole And The Tremelos).
The songs were selected by Brian Epstein for as much variety as possible, so instead of doing what they did best, they performed a hotch potch of cabaret material in amongst some old favourites, and a few original numbers. Yes, I like The Sheik Of Araby as well, but it shouldn't have been in there. Quite why Epstein thought he knew better than them, I've never known. Still, at least he had a tape to hawk around the record labels.