My most treasured piece of vinyl

My 1966 , gold Parlophone label, mono pressing of Revolver by The Beatles (of course).
It still plays without a jump, bit scratchy though. Finest!

"Hey Jude" The Beatles on The David Frost Show

They were the best, they still are the best and always will be the best. The Beatles on The David Frost show in 1968. David's a bit lost as John chants David Frost at him while the rest of the boys generally do what they like. This footage is priceless, the song itself, the crowd singalong, Paul's vocals, Ringo's lime green suit, George's Fender 6, the old guy in the uniform and the girl in the white dress standing beside Paul, the eye contact between John and Paul and John's obvious enthusiasm as he sings a strums along...timeless and utterly joyous.

Talking Pictures...It's a kind of Bonzo Dog Band Documentary

Dazzling, surreal, audacious, brave, stupendous, hilarious, frightening, bizarre, goonish, catchy, childish, handsome, ugly, technicolour DADA...a few words to put in a sentence about The Bonzo Dog Band for your English homework. Still Britain's second greatest pop band off all time, and you can take that to the bank, but they wont give you money for it. Don't believe me, watch this rarefied collection of true British eccentricity in full speed ahead action painting, action man, action lights, action cameras, action music... Action. They are The Beatles on laughing gas, I think.


   

Strawberry Fields Forever, Penny Lane & All You Need is Love...

Years from now, when we are all dust, these clips will still be three of the strangest bit's of music put to film, although All You Need is Love isn't really music put to film as they sang live in the studio, but it's still very odd.

There something so unreal about The Beatles at this time, that they were so huge globally, universally even, yet their music and themselves seem so personal and familiar, like they are singing and playing to us, each and everyone individually.

The movie clips themselves are noteworthy for their very oddness, strangeness and at times down right sinister quality. You have the fab four wandering around some God forsaken autumnal moor or heath, in balaclavas and furs, jumping from an impressive height, walking around backwards, drip painting and deconstructing some kind of butchered piano and all under a very witchy looking tree that I for one wouldn't hang around under after dark ..very strange.

John Lennon striding against the human traffic on a Liverpudlian high street and then the four of them meeting like some street gang, then even odder, The Beatles on horse back in some street which cuts to a decrepit ruin in the country, the four beatles decked out in red hunting jackets ride cryptically past a stage set up with drums and amps to a table where they are waited on by what look like four footmen before John Lennon upends the whole thing.

And the last clip...The Beatles elevated above a crowd made up of their musical peers including Keith Richards, Donovan, Marianne Faithful and Keith Moon, demi Gods in their own domain, Dons to the whole 60's pop gangster family, gazing down upon their minions and postulating about love and other weirdness while Mick Jagger sings and claps along looking like a sheepish schoolboy...what were these people on?

Strawberry Fields


Penny Lane


All You Need is Love