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3 Points / Joined 25 Jul 2023

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Comments (45worlds)

MemberItem Review/Comment
Grasper
27th Jul 2023		Book
Nigel Pearce - Genesis To Number Three 1957-1963		I can’t believe that anyone in their right mind is giving this joker the opportunity to inflict further assaults on the English language with yet another sodding vanity project. Honestly, has nobody fact checked or even read his previous efforts?

Gonzo need their bumps feeling, it seems that they’re intent on inflicting a whole series of this garbage on us.

Grasper
27th Jul 2023		Book
Nigel Pearce - The Apples Of Our Eyes		Here’s the review I posted on Amazon:

Where to start? On the plus side, it’s a good catalogue of Apple releases including unreleased projects. On the negative side is the infuriating writing style that’s chock full of grammatical errors, factual errors and a tendency for show boating.

Mary Hopkin is referred to either as Hopkin or Hopkins, the King of Fuh 45 is listed as King of Fah. There is more. And check out this example of the writing (from p102, referencing the Mortimer album) ’Again I have a CD copy of the full original album, and it is a very sounding good album indeed and quite pleasing listening at any time’. Or marvel at this from p212 when discussing the Abbey Road LP, ‘I might add that I have left the final track Her Majesty off of the listing as the track it appeared originally as a hidden track - so I have done it in the same way’. These are not isolated examples, in fact you can open the book at any random page and find a pearler of an example of the English language being mangled in ways you wouldn’t believe.

As for facts, the picture on p154 isn’t of the front cover of the never issued Richard Brautigan album, it’s simply a shot of the Harvest issue of the record (the giveaway is the Harvest logo top right…). And the claim that the author has a CD copy of the Apple release sounds fanciful at best. I’ll leave it at that.

Check out also p23 and the front cover of Apple 1, The Lady Is A Champ by Frank Sinatra, recorded by Frank for Maureen Starr and reportedly restricted to just one copy. And now our man is telling us there’s a 45 sleeve for it, and he has it? Yeah, sure. Not that the picture offers any conclusive proof as, like many in the book, it’s fuzzy to the extent of being worthless and simply looks like a bad photograph of Ringo and Maureen.

There’s the bones of a good book here and I don’t dispute that the author has an interesting collection but I doubt that even a fact checker and/or proof reader could salvage the mess. It really needs rewriting by someone with at least a modicum of knowledge of English grammar.

I understand that our erstwhile author has not been put off and is to release a tome called Inside Number 3 with basic copies going for £75 and the deluxe £199. Good luck with that baby.

Grasper
25th Jul 2023		Book
Nigel Pearce - Inside Number Three [Deluxe Box Set]		I had the misfortune of buying this book, not only that I was stupid enough to go for the limited edition with the reproduction memorabilia. To address that first, it’s simply the Beatlemania pack of reproduction tickets and flyers. You can easily get it on Amazon for around £10.00; so, it’s not even exclusive to this edition, it’s simply a commercially available product that’s easily obtainable independently. In addition to that, anyone who has that set will realise that it’s got nothing at all to do with Apple Records, being a collection of ephemera relating to the Beatlemania years of 1963 to 1965, and so completely irrelevant to this book and its subject. As to whether this, the addition of a box and a certificate signed by the author is sufficient to warrant the massive price differential between this and the already overpriced standard edition I will leave you to decide.

As for the book, it’s nothing short of garbage being badly written with a mangling of the English language second only to Pearce’s other travesty, The Apples Of Our Eyes.

There are elements of the book that are vague at best, in particular the photographs of the Apple 1 45 and the Sapcor 7 LP. Apple 1 was the one off pressing of Frank Sinatra doing The Lady Is A Champ for Maureen Starkey, this was given to Maureen. Our erstwhile author includes a photo of what he claims is the picture sleeve (!) He also includes a photo of the Apple record and sleeve for Sapcor 7, the Delaney and Bonnie LP. This never reached production as the band were still under contract to Elektra and no Apple sleeves were ever prepared. The sleeve Pearce includes in the book looks like it’s just the Elektra sleeve with a promo sticker on it. The promo sticker is somewhat conveniently placed where the Elektra logo is.

There is the odd, interesting item in here - the reproduction of the First Four set supposedly done by Apple during one of its relaunches for instance, although in the light of the various other homemade discs Pearce is continuing to pass off as originals it’s debatable whether this is actually an official Apple production. Others are common and easily obtainable, usually in much better condition than those in the Pearce collection. For instance, his picture sleeve of the Lennon single ‘Woman Is The…’ would likely be described as only ‘good’ by even the most optimistic of eBay sellers. Coupled with that, it’s not particularly rare. And that’s another big problem with the book, the collection isn’t half as good as Pearce thinks it is. There are much better examples out there; for instance the Applelog books by Jefferey Levy showcase material that kicks this sorry and shabby collection into a cocked hat.

The book is woefully incomplete and inadequate when it comes to Apple records and far from being the story of what went on inside number 3 it’s simply a book of photographs of records that Pearce has in his collection. He can’t even muster a complete and accurate Apple discography.

If you want an authoritative and informative history of Apple then go for the A Is For Apple series and avoid this at all costs. It’s simply a vanity project, and an expensive one at that. Utterly worthless….



Recently Rated (45worlds)

Book: Nigel Pearce - Inside Number Three - Gonzo Multimedia - Hardcover - UK (2022)

Rated 1 by Grasper
Book: Nigel Pearce - The Apples Of Our Eyes - United P.C. - Paperback - UK - 9783710344701 (2020)

Rated 1 by Grasper
Book: Nigel Pearce - Inside Number Three [Deluxe Box Set] - Gonzo Multimedia - Hardcover - UK (2022)

Rated 1 by Grasper

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