Beatles Demo Found in Vancouver Returns to Paul McCartney
A lost 1962 Beatles demo, once forgotten behind a record shop counter, has found its way back to Paul McCartney thanks to a collector’s sharp ear and generous heart.
Rob Frith, owner of Neptoon Records in Vancouver, B.C., made headlines this year when he discovered a lost Beatles demo tape. Now, he and his family have personally returned the tape to the right hands: those of Sir Paul McCartney.
The reel-to-reel tape marked “Beatles Early Demos,” was part of a group of records and music memorabilia Frith had bought about 10 years ago. Assuming it was just a bootleg, he let it sit behind the cash register for years. He didn’t listen to it until March 2025, when he was working on a project with his friend Larry Hennessey, a music preservation expert, and decided to play it on Hennessy’s reel-to-reel machine.
“It was like the Beatles were in the room with us,” Frith said. The tape was clearly more significant than he had thought. Further research indicated that the tape was probably a direct copy of the Beatles’ 1962 audition recording for Decca Records.
The tape was acquired by Jack Herschorn, former owner of Can-Base Studios (later Mushroom Records) in Vancouver, during a work trip to London in the late 1960s or 1970s. He considered pressing a bootleg record but decided against it and eventually left the tape behind when he moved to California. At some point, it went to the unidentified collector, who sold it to Frith.
There are fifteen songs on the audition tape; three of which, “Like Dreamers Do,” “Hello Little Girl,” and “Love Of The Loved,” were written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney. At the time of the recording, Pete Best was the band’s drummer. Decca declined to sign the group, which “has gone down as one of the greatest mistakes in the history of the music industry.”
Frith posted a video of the tape playing on social media, which drew international attention, including from none other than Paul McCartney. A representative for McCartney reached out and set up a meeting. On September 18, Frith, his wife, and their two sons traveled to Los Angeles to meet McCartney and give him the tape.
The Friths were asked not to photograph the meeting, but McCartney’s team promised to send them photos and video taken during the visit. The superstar also signed several albums and black-and-white photos of the Beatles’ iconic performance at the PNE (Pacific National Exhibition).
In 2019, a copy of a single reel of the Decca audition tape that originally belonged to Beatles manager Brian Epstein sold for £62,500, or about $81,250, in an auction at Sotheby’s. But Frith never intended to sell his copy. He considered giving a copy to Decca or holding a listening party to raise money for charity. When McCartney’s team contacted him, giving the tape to the former Beatle seemed the right thing to do.
McCartney invited the Friths to lunch and to a rehearsal session with his band. He also signed some albums and photographs for them. For Frith, meeting one of his heroes was worth more than anything a collector might have paid for the tape. “I got paid in that I got to meet Paul McCartney,” he told CTV News. “So that was good enough for me.”
It’s been an exciting year for Beatles memorabilia. Recently, Kovels Antique Trader’s own Kele Johnson celebrated the 56th anniversary of their iconic album Abbey Road with a look at Beatles collectibles. In March, the Royal Mint honored John Lennon with a new coin celebrating what would have been his 85th birthday. Art museums in London and San Francisco exhibited photographs taken by Paul McCartney that provided a look behind the scenes of the band’s early years. And with this year’s 25th anniversary reissue of The Beatles Anthology and casting in progress for a biopic of each of the Fab Four, Beatlemania keeps going strong.
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