The Search for Buried Rock Treasure : Pop music: Now that the BBC uncovered a gold mine with the best-selling Beatles album, the race is on to discover other lost classics in the vaults.

By PAUL MAJENDIE

Dec. 22, 1994 12 AM PT

REUTERS

LONDON — After the success of an album of Beatles recordings unearthed by the BBC, the hunt is on for long-lost classics from other star acts that may lie buried in the archives.

Archivist Phil Lawton, who works in the basement of the British Broadcasting Corp., has 5,000 hours of old tapes to wade through, some of which contain genuine treasures.

He has uncovered everything from live jam sessions by the Rolling Stones and Fleetwood Mac to “a stoned Bob Dylan being interviewed by a very strait-laced Swedish journalist.”

“I am like a kid in a candy store. It is brilliant, absolutely superb,” he told Reuters.

“Live at the BBC,” 56 songs recorded by the Beatles in the 1960s, soared to No. 1 on the British album charts four days after it was released here.

The tracks were discovered in the BBC archives by researchers who likened the find to the discovery of the Egyptian Pharaoh Tutankhamen’s tomb.

The album includes some of the Beatles’ greatest hits as well as cover versions of songs written by other performers such as Chuck Berry and Little Richard.

“This is stuff that has never been heard before. They are so raw. I love their cover versions,” Lawton said of the Beatles.

A record company has asked Lawton to search for a rare 1972 “Ziggy Stardust” recording by David Bowie.

“There are a couple of Led Zeppelin sessions I would like to see out (on a record). There are also a lot of Fleetwood Mac sessions I would love to see published as well as Manfred Mann and the Moody Blues.”

But some of the stars are reluctant to revive their raw youthful efforts.

“A record company comes to me to find out what we have got. But there are a lot of copyright minefields to go through. Someone like Bowie probably doesn’t want this old stuff out and probably thinks it’s rubbish,” Lawton said.

“(The rock group) Genesis, as far as I know, are not interested in putting out this material. People are trying to get them to agree.”

Lawton has already waded through 5,000 hours of tapes. With another 5,000 to go, he is not complaining.

“I have discovered interviews with stars like Jimi Hendrix, Jim Morrison and Janis Joplin, who are now dead. It is so important this stuff doesn’t get junked.

“This is a unique rock ‘n’ roll treasure. No other broadcasting organization in the world has an archive like this.”