Rock 'N' Roll Music

Pressing & Mastering

First Issued	Side 1	Side 2	Side 3	Side 4	Parts
28-Jun-76	SKB01 11537	SKB02 11537	SKB03 11537	SKB04 11537	AU
Nov-80	SKB01 11537 ✎B	SKB02 11537 ✎DC	SKB03 11537	SKB04 11537 ✎B	AU
10-Aug-81	SKB01 11537	SKB02 11537 ✎C	SKB03 11537	SKB04 11537 ✎B	AU
8?	SKB01 11537	SKB02 11537	✎SKB0-3 11537-2	SKB04 11537	AU
87	SKB01 11537	SKB02 11537	✎AX 710271A-3	✎AX 710271B-2	AU

Sleeve Information

Code	Circulated	Comments
AU1	Jun-76	Gatefold. Sleeve accents printed with gloss ink. References to the source LPs for each track removed.
AU2	Aug-81	Single-pocket sleeve; Axis logo 1; cat. AXIS-6439 (V1) + AXIS-6440 (V2)
AU3	Apr-82	Single-pocket sleeve; Axis logo 2; cat. AX-1002 (V1) + AX-1003 (V2)
AU4	Mid-87	Single-pocket sleeve; Axis logo 2; cat. AX-701270 (V1) + AX-701271 (V2)

Overview
With no Apple contract to now consider, Rock ’N’ Roll Music gave EMI an opportunity to revisit The Beatles’ catalogue through their more energetic recordings. Behind the familiar songs, however, the Australian edition involved a complicated combination of British tapes, American documentation and an important last-minute instruction about stereo channels.

EMI (Australia) received production master tapes and label copy from both EMI UK and Capitol in the United States, filing the two sets under PARLO 419–422. The local artwork and labels followed Capitol’s copy—introducing the American spelling “Lizzie”—but the LP was mastered from the British tapes. The accompanying 'Got to Get You into My Life'/'Helter Skelter' single used Capitol’s tapes, as did the sixth cassette master prepared on 30 April 1980. The Capitol tapes were subsequently discarded or reused when EMI (Australia) decided that retaining both sets was unnecessary.

Contrary to a common assumption, the British tapes also had their stereo channels reversed, having been copied from the American tapes. Before local mastering, however, EMI UK sent a correction telex dated 18 May 1976, received in Australia the following day: “NOW OK TO USE TAPES. PLEASE ENSURE THAT IF VOICES APPEAR ON LEFT CHANNEL OF TWIST AND SHOUT, LEFT AND RIGHT HAND CHANNELS MUST BE REVERSED ON ALL TRACKS”. The cutting sheet accordingly carried the instruction “channels reversed all tracks”. Both the surviving paperwork and the tapes themselves confirm this sequence.

EMI (Australia) followed the instruction when cutting the lacquers on 21 May. Four sets of cassette masters and two sets of 8-track cartridge masters were prepared later that week, with the channel correction carried through the Australian formats. The same telex went to other EMI subsidiaries, but France corrected only 'Twist and Shout', leaving the remaining tracks reversed. EMI UK also failed to correct the channels when it later divided the album into two Music for Pleasure releases.

The Australian double album spent twenty weeks on the charts and reached No. 4. In August 1981, following the British and American approach, EMI (Australia) later repackaged it as two separate budget LPs on Axis Records. Once again, the artwork followed the American edition. An attempt to restore the British spelling “Lizzy” succeeded on the labels but produced “Lizziy” on the first Axis sleeves—a hybrid spelling that remained until the sleeves were reprinted in April 1982. Examples appear on the Axis label page.

The Australian budget editions avoided the British reissue’s channel problem. Bruce Hamlin, proprietor of the Australian Beatles Records Information Service and an EMI (Australia) consultant, placed a handwritten reminder in each tape box instructing the cutting engineer to check and reverse the channels. That small intervention preserved the corrected presentation on the local reissues.