The Missing White Album

When Ringo Starr’s personal copy of The Beatles—stamped 0000001—sold at auction for $790,000, it set the record for the most expensive album in history. But for former music journalist William Shears, it only rekindled a legendary whisper from the depths of the record trade: there was one before it. Copy 0000000. The artist’s proof. The ghost in the machine. Unemployed at fifty-two and armed with little more than an obsessive eye for detail and his late father’s printer instincts, Shears sets off through London’s fading vinyl underworld to uncover whether the mythical zero ever truly existed. His search leads him from Soho’s back-alley record dens to shady dealers, master forgers, and the ghosts of EMI’s legendary pressing plant at Hayes. Yet as Shears cuts through decades of rumours, high-stakes fakes, and pop-culture mythologies, he discovers that the elusive album’s true story doesn't belong to famous rockstars, wealthy collectors, or high-end auction houses. It lies in the ordinary hands of the factory workers, shipping clerks, and fanatical line-girls who pressed the vinyl, guarded the doors, and kept the secrets. Part literary mystery, part poignant homage to the vinyl era and the forgotten labour behind music history, The Missing White Album is an immersive, atmospheric journey into passion, memory, and the extraordinary weight of the promises we keep.