Great Lost Performances

A thread on VA mentioned that part of a Beatles performance on Top of the Pops only survives b/c it was included in a Dr. Who episode. Is this true? What other Beatles performances are not known to survive? There's the Tonight Show w/ John & Paul...Any other biggies?

A few other lost performances I'd love to see found:

Velvet Underground on Upbeat

Bonzo Dog Band on Color Me Pop

Buddy Holly on American Bandstand -- Dick Clark claimed Buddy's only appearance was destroyed in a fire in the early '70s

Little Willie John on American Bandstand -- apparently no performance footage of LWJ exists

Bob Dylan in a BBC TV play (1962)

Didn't a black doo wop group appear on The Ed Sullivan Show in '53 or '54?

Then there are the local shows like Elvis' alleged appearances on Roy Orbison's program in Odessa TX or Jimmy Dean's in Wash DC (both in '55). It would be something of a miracle ithese still exist, but stranger things have happened.

And speaking of Elvis:

The Pied Piper of Cleveland »

I've only listed film or TV appearances, but feel free to include audio performances as well.

 

The Ravens, I think. Yes, I'd love to see that one.

Another American Bandstand performance I wish had survived is Simon and Garfunkel as Tom and Jerry in 1957. I'd love to see an episode or two from the original pre-Dick Clark, Philadelphia-only version, too. The still photos from that are a fascinating time capsule.

 

Bob Dylan performing Love is Just a Four Letter Word...anywhere...at anytime...in any capacity...

 

Yes:a clip the Beatles performing Ticket To Ride on TOTP only survives because it was featured in the first episode of the DW story The Chase.

The 'Bob Dylan play', 'Madhouse On Castle Street' was broadcast in January 1963. Its loss is regrettable for many reasons, not least that it features the first broadcast performance of Blowin' In The Wind, as well as one other song that Dylan never recorded ('The Swan On The River'). I believe audio recordings of part of the play still exist.

 

There are literally hundreds of filmed musical performances that are lost or missing. So many TV shows of the 50's and 60's and 70's were destroyed or re-used (if on video). This goes for every country on Earth. Here's but one example of the missing "Top of the Pops" performances:
Lost UK TV Shows Search Engine »

As for The Beatles and Rolling Stones, between them there are almost 100 performances lost/missing. Here is a fantastic piece of detective work work but ultimately very sad of all the missing TV performances from the Stones:

The Rolling Stones - LOST TV Appearances 1963 1971- Part 02 »

This should shed some light on the many missing and recovered performances through the years:
Missing Episodes (Top Of The Pops + Music Shows) (TV) | www.missing-episodes.com »

 

Holy Grail for me would be the film of Yes on their 1976 tour featuring Roger Deans great dragon heads and full laser show. Possibly even a figment of someones imagination but.....

 

I'm not sure that a missing mimed performance of Ticket To Ride is so bad, especially as we have the Intertel vids.
Mime-wise the Beatles biggie for me is Thank Your Lucky Stars 1965 where they mimed TTR / Yes It Is and Eight Days A Week.

Missing lost performances could go on forever....here's a few read 'em and weeps that I'm writing and weeping about....

The Big 3 filmed, yes filmed in colour at The Cavern. I have the date somewhere (think it's nov 63)...the film was used to promote the Cavern EP (I think) and was certainly (according to NME) broadcast on Border TV and was due to be edited in a variety of ways for broadcast on other ITV regions.

All the early live Beatles TV appearances.

The Jack Good shows Oh Boy, Boy Meets Girls and Wham broadcast in the UK 1958 to 60. 3 Oh Boys are known to exist , the rest of these are all gone unless someone's not sharing. Eddie Cochran, Gene Vincent, Billy Fury, Johnny Cash,Kidd and The Pirates etc... all live. Some audio survives from Boy Meets Girls. Wham is completely lost (audio and video) - Johnny Kidd and The Pirates (Caddy/Gregg/Cattini line-up) played Shakin All Over on a june 1960 edition and also appeared on another show. The loss of these Jack Good produced shows is a massive loss to British pop tv history possibly second only to RSGoes Live (see below).
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The Beach Boys segments of the Inside Pop reels filmed by David Oppenheim. I would possibly argue that this is the all-time top missing tv moment if it wasn't for my last selection. Several film reels of Brian and the Boys working in the studio on several Smile tracks in colour - is it even possible to dream that some now-forgotten lead vocal lines would be sung in passing, we may never know.

The entire series of Ready Steady Goes Live - I mean crikey, pretty much every decent non-Beatle British band (and the DC5) playing live plus many guest acts from the USA performing live. Clark apparently has bog all of these but you can't see what little he has because he's preserving them for future generations. Thanks Dave.

Not really missing but a construction of a complete 1966 Bob Dylan concert would be a find.

A quality film about the Beatles touring years that doesn't feature overdubbed and tinkered with soundtracks.

One more, hmmm. Drum roll please Ringo, or Giles maybe you could get another drummer to dub on a drum roll here to boost the sound........

Yes, Ash's top lost TV moment is........
From an unknown date late 1962 or early 1963, Beat In The Border (Border TV) featuring a live set by Johnny Kidd and The Pirates possibly of "Please Don't touch"; "If You Were The Only Girl In The World"; "A Shot Of Rhythm And Blues"; "A Little Bit Of Soap"; Linda Lu"; "I Can Tell"; You Got What It Takes"; "Shakin' All Over"; "Feel So Fine".
The Mick Green era Pirates with Johnny Spence on bass, Frank Farley on drums.
There is no film of the Green era Pirates.
A tape reel of this TV show (recorded by a fan off the telly) was lost after being lent to a band member. waah

 

One of the best TV shows I've heard is the Eddie Cochran 'Boy Meets Girls' TV recordings from 1960. They are brilliant, but mono, quality but the visuals don't appear to have survived but the audio has. His 'Milk Cow Blues' is a blistering performance, the guitar solo sends shivers down my spine. I also DJ'd once with the version of 'C'mon Everybody' he performed and people were coming up to me and asking where I got it from. It's much heavier, the bass is PHAT and it drives along in a way the studio version doesn't, which sounds weedy in comparison.

Such a shame the film to go with it appears to have not survived.

 

May not be so lost.. I'm attending a screening of recovered footage from this show on November 12th.

Missing Believed Wiped Central, Kaleidoscope Event »

 

It sure is:

Doctor Who: Shakespeare and the Beatles ('The Chase', 1965) - Video Dailymotion »

 

Er, here's some off the top of my head.

The Kinks playing 'This Is Where I Belong' on the Dutch show Fanclub in 1967
The Left Banke doing 'Desiree' on the Clay Cole show, 1967
The Who playing 'Dogs' on The Basil Brush show in 1968? (sure someone once told me that happened!)
Giles Giles and Fripp on Colour Me Pop, 1968,
The Kinks playing 'Shangri La' on The Peter Sarstredt show in 1969
Halfnelson on American Bandstand, 1972
Sparks on The Old Grey Whistle Test, 1972

 

I think the holy grail would be a performance on UK TV of Nick Drake. I believe I read somewhere that it may exist but has not been located yet...

 

Hendrix in the Village in summer '66, at Cafe Wha and other clubs. He recorded at number of performances himself, but the tapes are lost. Audio, of course.

 

This is from Arthur Murray's Dance Party

 

SCOTT

Scott Walker's BBC TV series - audio and photographs exist but no video.

 

Some details here: Nick Drake appearance on 'Octopus', Granada TV, March 1970? | www.missing-episodes.com »

 

Great! But how is that lost? It's THERE!

 

seems it's mislabeled. see the above post.

 

The Doors - ' Top of the Pops' !

 

Their appearance on John Zacherle's Disc-O-Teen show (a curious Bandstand knock-off where the guests do not mime but simply stand around listening to records and watching kids dance to them) is rumored to exist -- has it ever turned up?

 

This is a lovely idea but, alas, there is no evidence that it happened! It isn't such a bizarre possibility, however. The Basil Brush Show series of Summer 1968 did have a pop group guest slot each week. Other artists who did appear were the Kinks, the Move, Traffic, Amen Corner, and Manfred Mann.

After the series finished, it was replaced with Crackerjack on which The Who DID appear with "Magic Bus".

 

Thanks for the correction: don't suppose you know if they ever did play 'Dog's on TV?

 

I 'm not aware of any TV appearances to promote "Dogs". The obvious show would be Top Of The Pops and if you look at the TOTP schedules for the period during which "Dogs" was released (see link below) you'll see that The Who are absent.

http://www.kaleidoscopepublishing.co.uk/PDF/books-toppop-sample.pdf