At the beginning of November the Liverpool Beatles Museum was delighted to host the world premiere of a previously unheard track featuring George Harrison and Ringo Starr in an exclusive event at the museum.
The track, known as Radhe Shaam, was originally destined to feature on “East Meets West”, a documentary film being produced by Suresh Joshi, a renowned international journalist. Radhe Shaam was recorded in Trident Studios, where George Harrison and Ringo Starr were also based at the time. Suresh knew George through Ravi Shankar and Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, both of whom had been influential on the Beatles in recent years. Suresh was delighted when George and Ringo joined the recording, the Beatles duo bringing the track to life with their guitar and drum contributions.
The track already boasted guide vocals from renowned Indian classical musician and peformer Ashish Khan, who had featured on George’s ‘The Inner Light’, the b-side to The Beatles’ number one hit ‘Lady Madonna’. Surprisingly this star studded track was never released, and was stored in Suresh’s loft, forgotten about until 2020 when family friend Deepak Pathak persuaded Suresh to let him hear the track.
Once recovered, Deepak sent the master tape to music producer Suraj Shinh, who immediately began working on restoring the track and getting it ready for release. Deepak approached the Liverpool Beatles Museum, as he felt it was the perfect place to launch the song, and we were so excited to be a part of this moment in Beatles history!
The museum welcomed guests, along with national and international press, for a listening party in our India exhibition. As expected, the song was loved and quickly became worldwide news.
The song was an even bigger success than Suresh anticipated, and we are happy to announce that the proceeds from the track will be donated to charity.