Beatles Abbey Road BBC2 TV special 1969

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by ajsmith, Mar 5, 2017.

  1. Diego Lucas

    Diego Lucas Forum Resident

    Location:
    Brazil
    Hope for Paul and Ringo have a copy of this, and release on the Abbey Road box set next year, let me dream :cry:
     
    Derek Slazenger likes this.
  2. paulisdead

    paulisdead fast and bulbous

    How cool would that be. Only it’s so obscure that it would even be on the radar of Apple. Shame because it would make a nice period companion on the BluRay.
     
  3. nikh33

    nikh33 Senior Member

    Location:
    Liverpool, England
    I knew Jim and Liz from about 1975 on and all the video material they played was either taped from broadcasts (Magical Mystery Tour, Shea, Help, Let it Be, A Hard Day's Night, Yellow Submarine from the BBC2 screenings in December 1979) or from Fenno Workmann's collection (Paris 65, 1965 Intertel Promos, Hey Jude Promo, Around the Beatles, Braverman's Condensed Beatles, Tokyo 66, Melbourne 64, Omnibus "The Friendly Invasion" and a few other odds and ends.) The Cavern Mecca opened in January 1981 though it was being prepared as early as September 1980. Jim and Liz shared a store a few yards away in 1978-80 with second hand record dealer Trevor Hughes (no relation!) called Magical Mystery Store which led them to think a separate Beatles place was warranted. Before that, in the mid 70s, Jim ran a little bookshop cum Comic Book store 500 yards from there which had a tiny Beatles memorabilia section.
    Jim and Liz did indeed fulfil a previously disregarded or unknown need for a Beatles centre in Liverpool. The vast majority of members were teenage, I was one of the oldest at 25. (the youngest member was born on December 8th 1980 and I remember seeing her being pushed to the store in her buggy by her big sister who was 14. Sadly the youngster died early of cancer but I did speak to her a few years ago and she remembered those days as a 3 and 4 year old! )
     
  4. HerbertUK

    HerbertUK Well-Known Member

    Location:
    UK
    Abbey Road 50th Anniversary Edition/Box Set released September 2019 in UK
     
  5. paulisdead

    paulisdead fast and bulbous

    The Ole' Rocker likes this.
  6. Wayfaring Stranger

    Wayfaring Stranger Forum Resident

    Location:
    York uk
    My pal who saw that BBC2 Abbey Road special told me a while back that he thought that what he remembered as moving footage of them on the zebra crossing might have actually been a series of quick-cut stills of them walking across, but, he said, not necessarily the shots from the album cover. And then, a week or so later, that new shot by Linda emerged....
     
    caravan70 and The Ole' Rocker like this.
  7. dormouse

    dormouse Forum Resident

    Unfortunately family issues reduced the amount of time I had available for looking into this programme and I sort of dropped out of the loop some time ago. I will try to see what else is around and what can be located even for speculation. It was fun tracking down obscure items even if they did not in all cases lead to any concrete facts.
     
  8. Arnold Grove

    Arnold Grove Senior Member

    Location:
    NYC
    Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans...
     
  9. paulisdead

    paulisdead fast and bulbous

    Did Late Night Line Up screen in any other country besides the UK? There maybe another vault out there that had a kinescope.
     
  10. Remixed

    Remixed Well-Known Member

    Location:
    Olney, UK
    This is how some of the missing Doctor Who episodes were found - and the hunt continues. If the Abbey Road doc. was sold to other countries it's possible there's a reel of decaying film in a storeroom somewhere. I believe Africa and Australia have been fruitful in the Doctor Who searches.
     
    Bryan Harris and paulisdead like this.
  11. paulisdead

    paulisdead fast and bulbous

    Yes. This is what came to mind. But the question would be whether or not Late Night Line Up was screened anywhere else in the world besides the UK?

    I’m also surprised that the animated sequence of MSH has never been seen anywhere else. Animation is usually captured on film, meaning a higher survival rate than VT (since you can’t wipe a film print).
     
    caravan70 and Remixed like this.
  12. paulisdead

    paulisdead fast and bulbous

    No pressure, family comes first. Your posts have been very informative and entertaining.
     
    caravan70 and OneStepBeyond like this.
  13. OneStepBeyond

    OneStepBeyond Senior Member

    Location:
    North Wales, UK
    Similar things happened to me about a year ago and I stayed off here for longer than I thought I would... wasn't even sure if I would return although things are a lot more settled thankfully. So I can empathise and I'd like to send my very best wishes to you and your family. I always enjoy reading your posts a great deal. Still fascinated by this topic too although I've not bought any of the reissues!
     
    Man at C&A likes this.
  14. dormouse

    dormouse Forum Resident

    Thanks everyone here and elsewhere for the kind words and support.

    It is always great to to able to swap ideas, opinions and information with music lovers here. Although my contributions to this thread were affected due to time restraints I still tuned in for regular updates on the forum in general.

    A recent contact reminded me of this thread and I will revisit it when time allows as I am sure that there is more to discuss and find out about this illusive and long lost programme.
     
  15. dormouse

    dormouse Forum Resident

    The Beatles Abbey Road BBC World Premiere - Late Night Lineup 26th Sep 1969

    There is a 53 second piece of footage that had been uploaded by DIG Media who have been administering the video library left by sixties’ counterculture figure Jack Henry Moore. This appears to be from his collection. It is in grainy black and white, silent and appears to have been recorded off a TV or monitor as the top of the screen can be seen.

    Jack Henry Moore was an associate of the Beatles and involved in such London counterculture activities as the International Times and 14 Hour Technicolour Dream and also filmed John and Yoko’s Bagism activities. I understand that he acquired an early video recorder and camera (apparently from The Beatles via Capitol Records), used this as a pioneering video artist and built up a large video library.



    This footage appears to have been from this Abbey Road Late Night Lineup programme, but whether it exists in its entirety is not known. Here is a brief outline of what appears (the footage I recognise as being from the film used for the A Day In The Life video is reversed).
    • 0.00 DIG logo watermark
    • 0.01 ABBEY ROAD BEATLES caption
    • 0.02 Children running
    • 0.06 Crowd in club or studio
    • 0.14 Paul McCartney close-up
    • 0.15 Donovan
    • 0.16 Orchestra recording session
    • 0.23 Still photo of band (Tittenhurst)
    • 0.32 Girl dancing with superimposed psychedelic lighting
    The first segment up until the still photo seems to be from the footage used in the A Day In The Life video promo. The last segment of the dancer lasts until the end of the clip. I believe that this may be dancer called Jane London who was documented as being filmed for the programme as part of the Something segment. There are also ‘slides’ documented as part of this Something section which seem to be the kind of projections that were common at this time in clubs and concerts.

    Dig Media have also uploaded a teaser documentary about Jack Henry Moore called Videohead:

    Videohead: Jack Henry Moore (Teaser)
     
  16. Diego Lucas

    Diego Lucas Forum Resident

    Location:
    Brazil
    MY GOD
    THANKS A LOT
     
  17. dormouse

    dormouse Forum Resident

    I have just re-read my previous post regarding Something as broadcast in the programme Late Night Line-Up where I speculate that the footage of Jane London may be one of the items that would be difficult to recover as it was specifically shot or broadcast live on the programme:

    "Something" footage speculation:

    It is documented that Something featured a "girl dancing" (probably in the studio) to the music and some slides superimposed or mixed with this footage. Elsewhere there is documented mention of 26 "gooey slides". This would seem to point to a Pan's People type visual accompaniment to the song with perhaps a psychedelic light-show style overlay.

    The dancer is identified as Jane London. She has proved quite illusive, however a good friend of mine has unearthed an article from The Daily Mirror newspaper from Wednesday 30 July 1969 (perfect date-matching) which reports on the dancing progress of one Julie London. With the headline "Jane Graduates To Show Business" the short report states:

    "It's obvious from Jane London's sunny smile that she is happy in her work. And she has a lot of work to be happy in - dancing, modelling, commercials and films. Jane, 23, used to be a teacher, instructing little girls in the intricacies of dance and drama at a college in Kensington. Then she decided to try practicing what she preached. She must have been paying attention to herself in class because after just 18 months in the new world of show business she is doing very nicely, thank you. And as her admirers point out, she is a most attractive subject to study."

    The article features a large photograph of a blonde-haired girl who could almost be the mystery mini-skirted model on the rear sleeve of the Abbey Road album. Again there is no confirmation that this dancer is the actual Jane London from the programme but all evidence does point to it being a distinct possibility.

    This segment of the programme is probably going to be one of the few that cannot be recovered in any form as it was essentially played live into the broadcast. Other footage may exist in film libraries and could be synched to the music tracks to produce an approximation of the programme as broadcast.

    How odd therefore that the first potential footage that surfaces does include (probably!) video of this dancer along with the superimposed psychedelic light show! Just goes to show that we should never assume anything.

    One other interesting item that comes out of this recently uploaded footage is the use of the group photograph taken at Tittenhurst. In the running order list for the programme there are items called 'Turntable Link' at the end of each song which I guess I assumed were perhaps a close up of the album playing on a turntable to separate the individual song presentations. Perhaps 'Turntable Link' is just a generic industry term for connecting items between? Anyone out there come across the term before particularly in relation to TV studio documentation? In the silent footage we see the photo of the band in front of trees zooms in on John Lennon and then fades into the 'dancer' sequence which is indicated as being used for the song something. There is a handwritten note on documentation for the 'Turntable Link' between You Never Give Me Your Money and Golden Slumbers which states "Group - zoom to George". Obviously this does not tie in with songwriter credits for either of the songs it falls between but perhaps it does give an indication of what the 'Turntable Link' was. Apple apparently supplied two stills. Perhaps they used these photos in a similar fashion between each song zooming in on a different band member each time. Interestingly if you go through the 'Turntable Links' as documented some do have words handwritten next to the typed running order:

    The 'Turntable Link' at the end of Here Comes The Sun has "Paul McCartney" written alongside (this link separates a Harrison song and Because)
    There is no annotation after the Because link but after the next broadcast track Octopus's Garden we get "Ringo' handwritten.
     
  18. Wayfaring Stranger

    Wayfaring Stranger Forum Resident

    Location:
    York uk
    Well done on unearthing this clip and info after half a century.
     
  19. Arnold Grove

    Arnold Grove Senior Member

    Location:
    NYC
    Yes, very well done.

    And on behalf of everyone here, we will give @dormouse another 50 years to provide us with some more clips... ;)
     
    BeatleJWOL likes this.
  20. Crunchie

    Crunchie Forum Resident

    Location:
    England
    Brilliant! I still remember watching this back in 1969 being mesmerised by the shots of the Apple logo on the LP spinning round on a turntable intersperced with dancers and different lights and zooms (we only had B&W TV at the time but it would have been in colour).
     
    caravan70, culabula, dormouse and 2 others like this.
  21. dormouse

    dormouse Forum Resident

    To be fair I did not discover the footage, I was just told about it and have passed it on here! I am not convinced I have another 50 years so looks like I will have to try a lot harder!
     
  22. paulisdead

    paulisdead fast and bulbous

    WOW!!! Nice detective work!
     
  23. paulisdead

    paulisdead fast and bulbous

    It looks like it was either filmed from a monitor with a black and white video camera or recorded using an early VTR recorder like the one below.



    The problem with these machines is you need the same machine you recorded the content on to get decent playback, as the calibration on those things wasn't great.
     
    xilef regnu likes this.
  24. edenofflowers

    edenofflowers A New Stereophonic Sound Spectacular!

    Location:
    UK
    Could the footage be from the fade of Come Together (hence the zoom to John) and the start of Something as they are consecutive on the album?
     
  25. LSP2003

    LSP2003 Senior Member

    Location:
    Los Angeles
    ajsmith and xilef regnu like this.

Share This Page

molar-endocrine