I got the BBC set pretty much when released here, at Xmas '94. The cover material was a discovery for me, after all these years! Not only was I unfamiliar with most of those songs, and not only did I loved 'em, but I thought the Boys' performance was fabulous!! More than 10 years later, I slip out the CDs again, put my favourite tracks on a tape for the car, and still can't get over it: I LOVE THAT STUFF!! Young Blood... Soldier of Love... Glad All Over... Hippy, Hippy Shake... A Shot of R&B... the Chuck Berry numbers... etc. And just how fabulously tight can you get as a RnR band!? It's when I heard that that I got some understanding of what Lennon had meant way back when he told that Rolling Stone reporter that in their days of Hamburg (I know this isn't really the same era, but it's not too far away) no one could touch them as a live band.
Oh you can't imagine how you need it! Especially if you, like me, had never heard any bootlegs from those sessions and the likes... Killer Macca bass... Killer George guitar solos, and also several excellent rockabilly lead vocals by him... Killer Ringo shuffling and rocking, and last but not least a tear-jerkingly moving Lennon on the Berry R'n'Rers, and also that incredibly beautiful Soldier of Love, that really should have been a serious contender for the 1st LP! Check out those vocal harmonies there: shivers guaranteed!! The Lennon-McCartney tracks are good too, but, for me, they don't really add that much to the studio versions we all know and love. The liner notes booklet is well detailed, also.