Sleeve Notes Christmas Edition — The Beatles · Rubber Soul

The Beatles — Rubber Soul

The Christmas Edition · 2 December 2026 · Doors 7:00pm · Sleeve Notes — The Listening Salon at Circle & Star
Hosted by Jonathan Wingate

Sixty-one years ago tomorrow, this was the record everyone wanted for Christmas. Rubber Soul came out on 3 December 1965, made in a month to be in the shops in time. We play it on the eve of its birthday — the story first, then the record in full. Lights low. Phones away. Fifty-five seats, listening together. This is not a gig. It's a salon, where the album is the star of the evening.

Side A · Discussion — a guided deep dive into Rubber Soul: the Christmas deadline, the sitar, plastic soul.
Interval — a short break, a light refreshment.
Side B · Listen — The Beatles' Rubber Soul, in full, in the dark, in company.

Live in the room — a guest musician joins us on Side A. To be announced.

1965. The year the Beatles stopped writing for the screaming and started writing for the listening. Folk guitars, a soul bass, a sitar on Norwegian Wood — and In My Life, Michelle, Nowhere Man. Fourteen songs, thirty-six minutes. Across the Atlantic, Brian Wilson heard it and went away to make Pet Sounds.

Your host — Jonathan Wingate
Jonathan Wingate spent years as the spokesman for David Bowie and Sir Bob Geldof before turning to journalism. He writes for The Times, the Daily Telegraph, Mojo and Rolling Stone, and has interviewed everyone from Sir Paul McCartney, Sir George Martin and Robert Plant to Björk, Smokey Robinson and Tony Bennett. A regular voice on BBC television and radio.

The perfect gift this Christmas. A seat at the salon, wrapped in a record — for the person who still reads the sleeve notes.

🗓 2 December 2026 · Doors 7:00pm · Side A 7:30pm · Out by 10:00
📍 28 Heath Street, Hampstead NW3
🎟 55 seats only · £25

STEP IN. COME UP. BE PART OF THE STORY.