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.

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

Dylan and Lennon get deep in the back of a limo...

The famous footage of Lennon and Dylan in the back of a limo, May 27th. 1966 in London. John looks fantastic and comes of sharp as a knife. Poor Bob seems to have been up for a couple of days drinking Buckfast or cough mixture or maybe both. Still, strange and fascinating in a voyeuristic kind of way...

Should Animals Wear Trousers?...a short history of Vivian Stanshall.

Viv with the ever faithfull Bones in the 1970's.

Stanshall was born on March 21, 1943 in East London, England before World War II forced him and his mother to evacuate to Oxfordshire. While attending art school under the well-known pop artist Peter Blake (the designer of the Beatles' famed Sgt. Pepper album cover), Stanshall formed the Bonzo Dog Dada Band with flatmate Rodney Slater and fellow student Larry Smith in 1962.

Dubbed the "court jester of the underground rock scene in the 1960s" by influential DJ John Peel, Vivian Stanshall earned his greatest notoriety as the original tenor in the absurdist Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band, although he was also a noted artist, writer, bon viveur and comedian.

Later shortened to simply the Bonzo Dog Band, the satirical became highly successful before creative differences triggered their break-up in 1970. Stanshall quickly resurfaced with a series of short-lived and diverse projects: the first, the Sean Head Showband, issued the single "Labio Dental Fricative," while his second solo release, under the guise of Vivian Stanshall and His Gargantuan Chums, was a parody cover of Terry Stafford's "Suspicion." "Blind Date" was recorded as biG Grunt, a group also comprised of Bonzo Dog Band auxilliary members Roger Ruskin Spear, Dennis Cowan and "Borneo" Fred Munt; while the group did play a handful of live gigs, they met their premature demise when Stanshall, a heavy drinker and drug user, suffered a nervous breakdown and was hospitalized.

In 1974, Stanshall emerged with his debut solo LP Men Opening Umbrellas, recorded with Steve Winwood; Stanshall later returned the favor, collaborating with Winwood on his own self-titled debut and contributing significant lyrical ideas to 1980's Arc of a Diver. After narrating Mike Oldfield's Tubular Bells, Stanshall was tapped to guest host the BBC Radio 4 program Start the Week, where he developed his monologue Rawlinson End, which later inspired his own 1978 release Sir Henry at Rawlinson End as well as a film of the same title which starred Trevor Howard.

In 1981, Stanshall issued the autobiographical Teddy Boys Don't Knit, followed three years later by the spoken word project Henry at Ndidis Kraal. The Rawlinson saga continued with Rawlinson Dogends, a 1991 play staged at London's Bloomsbury Theatre complete with musical backing from Rodney Slater and Roger Ruskin Spear. Another autobiographical radio play, Essex Teenager to Renaissance Man, followed in 1994, along with film and voiceover work. Vivian Stanshall died in a house fire on the morning of March 5, 1995.

For a full biog. track down the brilliant book "Ginger Geezer, The Life of Vivian Stanshall" by Lucian Randall and Chris Welch.

Also, check out this brilliant short film from 1974/75. Jack De Maniac!!