The archive
Below is a list of all Beatles and Beatles-related production master tapes held by EMI (Australia) as at the end of 1981 (missing numbers relate to non-Beatles/non-Beatles related artists). The tapes were stored in the basement of EMI (Australia)'s 301 Castlereagh St premises. The basement was not airconditioned: climate control was facilitated by opening the stair doors or back door!
To visualise, tapes were predominantly 1/4" 15ips on 10.5" reels. All tapes (not just Beatles) were stored in about 15 rows of 10m long compactus, each with about 6 or so shelves. Studio tapes (2" masters of local acts) were stored separately in a smaller unit. Tape boxes had a light blue strip applied to the spine with the catalogue number or name of the artist handwritten in blue or black texta.
The tape numbering system commenced at the end of 1970. It did not apply to individual single or EP tapes (although there are examples of compiled tapes of both). The few singles tapes that existed had a single shelf to themselves.
Tapes were sorted by label, which for Beatles and Beatles-related meant PARLOphone, CAPitol, HMV and COLumbia. Digital masters were not part of this numbering system and were stored separately at EMI (Australia)'s Homebush factory.
You'll notice only two sets of mono tapes remained; they were sourced from Abbey Road back in 1964 to cut the Aussie mono releases of A Hard Day's Night and Beatles For Sale. All other mono production master tapes were purged over the years as redundant.
Commencing in the early 1970s, EMI (Australia) would secure tapes from both EMI UK and Capitol US, even for the same title.
By the late 1980s, most of the production master tapes had been relocated to the old factory area at Homebush. Around this time, EMI UK issued a recall for Beatles (analogue) production master tapes that existed across its worldwide subsidiaries. EMI (Australia) dutifully responded, sending an unknown number of tapes "back home".
When EMI (Australia) closed Homebush at the end of 1990, the tapes were moved to EMI (Australia)'s cassette factory at Silverwater. However, not all tapes made the move. EMI (Australia) decided that production master copies of international acts that had been deleted from the catalogue were considered expendable, and thus about two shipping containers' worth of production masters were sent to the tip. This included analogue Beatles tapes that were not sent to EMI UK as per their recall request. And, despite some effort to sort through the tapes, it's believed the cull also included obscure/old Australian artists.
EMI (Australia) later outsourced the remaining storage to a private storage company. Again, not all tapes made the move with many more ending up at the tip.
It's evident that not all the discarded tapes ended their life as landfill. A number of tapes ended up in private hands. Indeed, in recent years more than a handful have found their way to international auction houses, selling for thousands of dollars each.
Please view each album page for individual master tape details.
