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Signed autograph from Paul McCartney to Rob Frith.

Photo courtesy Rob Frith

Rob Frith in his store with the lost recording.

Photo courtesy Rob Frith

A long-lost recording finds its way to Paul McCartney

By Joe Leary

Published 1:05 PDT, Fri October 10, 2025

Last Updated: 1:07 PDT, Fri October 10, 2025

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I recently showcased Rob Frith, a Vancouver area record-store owner and collector and music fan. Rob’s story garnered international attention earlier this year when he discovered something of legend in his possession: a duplicate copy of the studio master recording of The Beatles, that dates back more than 60 years.

The recording session took place at Decca Records outside of London in 1962, as the Liverpool quartet auditioned for record company executives. The session was particularly notable as Decca Record, ‘passed’ on signing the soon to be legendary group, suggesting that “Guitar bands were on the way out”.

The future would eventually illustrate just how wrong their assessment would be.

The tape sat on a shelf in Frith’s Neptoon Records on Main Street for some time until he finally checked out what he had on March 17. It’s extremely rare that a vintage recording of a legendary band would be unexpectedly uncovered, over six decades later. But that’s exactly what recently happened for Rob Frith; owner of Neptoon Records on Main Street.

In this case, the recording session can be traced back to 1962. And it’s not just any old band, it’s The Beatles.

The value of such a find is incalculable. What’s even more unusual is that this recording has been hiding in plain sight in the record store, seemingly collecting dust.

“I had this tape on a shelf that had sat there for years and I never really checked what was on it,” says Frith.

That very recording finally found its way to Sir Paul McCartney recently. Frith said that the tape—potentially worth untold hundreds of thousands of dollars to an avid Beatles collector —was not for sale.

Instead, he said he would gladly hand the tape over—free of charge—to Paul McCartney if he could personally deliver it to Paul. Mission: accomplished.

The arrangements were made in large part due to the surrounding publicity the tape garnered worldwide. The Vancouver Sun article came out March 19 which started the ball rolling,” says Frith.

“The New York Times article came out April 2 and Paul’s lawyer got hold of me. I think they probably checked me out before they reached out as they seemed to know about my store and other stuff—they were probably being careful in case I was a nut”.

It turns out that the article somehow caught McCartney’s attention.

“The lawyer said that Paul loved the story and the fact that I wasn’t trying to monetize it,” adds Frith. “He told me they couldn’t come to Vancouver because he was too busy, but I could come to New York. I said that wouldn’t work for me, so a second location was mentioned: Los Angeles.”

With Frith’s family in tow, the group flew down on April 17 and met Paul the next day at a rehearsal space studio soundstage outside of Los Angeles.

“I was excited flying down to Los Angeles but I tried to not be too excited in case something happened and they canceled. The real excitement happened when he gave me a hug and thanked me saying what you’ve done is something no one does anymore”.

“He was very emotional and so nice and down to earth. It was like talking to an old friend you haven’t seen in years. He hugged my whole family”.

Frith says he was bowled over by Sir Paul’s demeanor and easygoing nature.

The scheduled time limit for the personal exchange was surpassed, and the family was even invited back to the space studio the following day to check out the band’s rehearsal as they prepare for McCartney’s upcoming tour dates.

“We basically got invited to a free and private Paul McCartney concert.”

Upon reflection, Rob Frith has lived out a true bucket list moment that also included a luncheon invite from Sir Paul. “It was a whirlwind but so unreal and so cool,” says Frith of meeting one of his musical heroes. “I felt like I was being punked.”