Here’s a short thread on Ringo’s Get Back video camera, if anyone’s interested. https://twitter.com/beatlespod/status/1448722228657410053?s=21
The biggest challenge when dealing with older video tape formats is you really need the same machine used to record the material to play it back. These old machines had a lot of sync and alignment issues. I’d imagine that would be part of the hold up with DigMedia transferring the tape they have. They’d be doing it a section at a time, before the picture breaks down. Of course, we’re all waiting with anticipation on their progress (if any).
Thanks! Looks like the same - but the picture in GB is color and this model is b/w. EDIT: Here is a lot of info on early video cameras: https://cool.culturalheritage.org/videopreservation/vid_guide/12/12.html
From the ebay listing selling the signed Barbershop Quartet from Maxwell's Silver Hammer we have these interesting quotes from Rowan Ayers '' The BBC art department prepared the caricature '' Rowan Ayers. This involved coloring it and cutting around the heads as it was only a black and white line drawing by John. '' Tell them I am ok and do not need their money, I have no video tapes from the show or any other pieces as the BBC wiped all the tapes '' Rowan Ayers. On finding out Rowan had sold me the memento The Beatles were concerned about him and asked me through their agent Michael Heatley from EMI if he was ok or had anything else from the premier of Abbey Road.
The seller has posted here under the name VincentR. So assuming Ayers meant John Lennon - we don’t have many examples of John’s drawings of the other Beatles. But the main sketch we do have is this quick sketch: However, look at the drawing from the special again and notice the monobrow even to George: There’s another drawing from Paul of George that also has his frowning monobrow So that must of been an in-joke among them.
Hi guys, Just a quick heads up that we’re continuing to work on the Late Night Line-up video. It takes a lot of resources – repairing tape, image enhancement and lots more. As well as running a not-for-profit business and working our way through thousands of other tapes. We’ll be posting a few more clips on Socials in the coming months. Thanks for your interest in this, it’s really appreciated. Any help you can give us in boosting our profile will really help with more engagement so hopefully we can share more material. Thanks! Dig Media Archive Our Twitter Our Website
@Dig Media Archive thanks for posting here. The Beatles fans keen to continue to spread the word about the TV special as having creative input from the band makes it a semi-official program. If you could continue to post updates on how the project is going, then fans will get the word out there and I'm certain that would raise the profile of the work Dig Media does. Another place that is also posting information is the Lost Media Wiki. That is certainly a community that would love to hear from you. Late Night Line-Up (partially found Beatles "Abbey Road" special; 1969) - The Lost Media Wiki Home | Forums - The Lost Media Wiki As it stands, how much of the Late Night Line-Up special has now been rescued? Has the Maxwell Silver Hammer segment been recovered? Also some other questions fans would like to know about the recording that you may or may not be able to answer: Was the recording direct to the machine to tape or was it captured by pointing the camera at the screen. What format is the video tape? There's plenty of video and lost media enthusiast here that would be interested in those technical details. Is there anything else on that tape you've captured before the special starts? Did Jack Henry Moore record the special himself? If he did, was it for John Lennon?
For the non-technical people here: Here is a video from Obsolete Video (who posts a lot of off-air recordings from the 60's and 70's recorded to reel-to-reel) capturing a similar tape machine to what John Henry Moore may have recorded the Late Night Line-Up special on. To give you an idea of the issues of transferring these old tapes; analogue video is a very imperfect format in that the picture signal fluctuates. This makes it hard for something a PC which is used to the more stable digital signals, to capture. Things like Time Base Correctors (mentioned in the video) can help to stabilise the signal by taking a wonky analogue signal and passing out something more stable that a digital capturing device can see. In the case of the old prosumer grade reel-to-reel machines (like the one John was gifted), the signal quality can be pretty rubbish, making it harder to capture.
That's great news and thankyou for joining us all here we need patience and understand the situation am sure one day when finished if released on youtube all the 10 clips you will score millions in hits and recognition and can't wait to actually see the Maxwell's cartoon as it appeared which has been gracing this forum
https://fb.watch/e3oMaeN9lJ/ Dig Media Archive posted this video about the special on their Facebook page.
Sorry for the delay on getting back to you guys! We'll be more active on this forum in the coming weeks and we will reply to your questions in detail soon. Thanks for all your patience, we appreciate it
I suggest to you to contact Apple and tell them if they don't already know what you are doing as publishing rights on youtube or elsewhere would be 50% Apple 50% BBC. tell them you would like to dub in the perfect audio as probably that audio sounds RatS...... you must do this otherwise they will not allow your cleaned up restored job to see the light of day
I also suggest to call Apple and ask them to donate some money to you to help with the costs of restoration
I would have thought either of those two would have been interested in the tape. The rights would fall to the BBC. They're always looking for missing gaps in their catalogue and have a special arrangement with Apple to be able to use The Beatles music. Apple may be interested in a copy for their own archives, but would still need to seek permission from the BBC before releasing anything. If Apple would have done anything with this, it would have been in 2019 for Abbey Road's 50th Anniversary. That's not to say the ship has sailed and certainly, hardcore fans have been wanting to see this special for years. Apple have the colour film print of the "Come Together" segment in their archives already (they supplied it the BBC for this program). A video tape copy of that reel leaked in 2017 on the TMOQ Gazette DVD The 1967 Sgt. Pepper Commemorative Issue.
Dig media is very busy with Jack Henry's archive, it's a treasure trove of great importance to music and art lovers capturing all the amazing highs of the 60s, 70s culture movement. they have so many rare performances of all major artists and we owe a lot to Jack Henry RIP
Do we know if there is a plan for this? I'm guessing that without Apple's approval they will not be able to issue anything commercially. Very little that is less than pristine quality seems to get issued. From what I have seen this will be pretty rough in terms of video quality and even with dubbed sound there will limited Beatle involvement in terms of visuals. I think if we had to choose between this or another 10 hours of Get Back from Peter Jackson I suspect that there would not be much of a contest. That said I am glad that Dig Media are archiving the collection. There is a slight difference between an archive and a commercial company issuing products. I guess that when they are ready Dig Media will advise what their intention is. Perhaps a documentary could present and contextualise the footage.
Or be purchased by Apple and buried in an unused railway station right next to all the extra Get Back footage and the original Let It Be, never to be seen again
You are right about this. Unlike Pink Floyd have been doing with their YouTube, Apple Corps are only interested in what can be sold in a big package with the high profile media cycle that goes along with it. On the one hand, I see their thinking of keeping the fans keen for new material and not turning off the causal fan with anything that's not technically up to a commercial level standard. On the other hand, I feel when this attitude extends to things like the Super Deluxe Box Sets that are aimed at the super fans, they end up disappointing the market for those boxes. This also applies keeping fans engaged by releasing things like TV appearances or other media that falls outside of the box sets onto platforms like YouTube.
It does seem to me that the SDEs that are being released now are probably the last opportunity to tie up the remaining unreleased items for the original generation of fans. Yes, there are some new fans out there but they are perhaps less likely to wish to hear or see obscure items connected with an album than the original generation that they may vaguely remember experiencing them first time round or missed at the time and never did experience. I was pleased to see the recovered, albeit damaged, footage of Syd Barrett performing See Emily Play on Top Of The Pops that was included on the Early Years set. What a special piece of footage that was. A beautiful time capsule. I understand that Apple have been more reluctant to include less than perfect items items (perhaps the Woolton Fayre recording, Star Club tapes etc.) on archive releases but why not. It would not do their reputation and harm to perhaps include a scrapbook DVD with a selection of oddities related to an album (with an Apple health warning if they so wish). For Abbey Road, they could have included the recovered BBC programme for example and I understand that there were specially recorded audio segments by band members for Radio Luxemburg. Yes, these may have been niche recordings aimed at hardened fans, but archival excavations such as these may as well 'Dig' deep while the original fans are still around to enjoy them. What a pleasure it has been to view the band recording Let It Be in pristine condition courtesy of Peter Jackson. To know that he has another 10 hours of this already prepared that we will not see is very irritating. In 50 years time when they look again this may appear. But there will be no first generation fans around to see it. What a shame. I do understand the quality aspect that the band tend to adhere to, but as a bonus archive dive some of these items would be greatly treasured. I am so glad to have been able to experience the Star Club tapes. They ultimately did not embarrass the band. As long as presented in an appropriate way these type of recordings can offer so much from a historical perspective. Even some of the less musical items from the Get Back films (the discussions about the TV science fiction play from the previous evening or the Northern Songs publishing catalogue for example) were fascinating glimpses that add a human factor to the proceedings.
