The Fab Four appeared on the show in June 1966
Footage of The Beatles’ only live performance on Top Of The Pops has been found in an attic.
The Fab Four appeared on the long-running show in June 1966, weeks before their last-ever gig at San Francisco’s Candlestick Park.
David Chandler used a wind-up camera to record the band’s performance of ‘Paperback Writer’ when it aired and was compelled to try and find it after hearing about the discovery of a short 11-second clip of the appearance in Mexico last month. The footage lasts for 92 seconds and has been donated to Kaleidoscope, an organisation who specialise in locating missing TV footage.
Chandler’s footage had no sound and slowed down where the camera was wound up but has now been remastered by Kaleidoscope. The company’s CEO called the footage “phenomenal”. It will be shown in Birmingham on Saturday (June 1) at Birmingham City University.
Other performances from Top Of The Pops will also be screened, including ones by The Troggs, The Hollies, and Small Faces. For more information, visit the event site here.
Meanwhile, it was recently announced that the 2009 John Lennon biopic Nowhere Boy is set to be adapted into a musical. It will largely follow the narrative that was set out in the original film (directed by Sam Taylor-Wood), which focused on the Quarrymen-era Lennon and the relationships he had with his mother, Julia Lennon, and Julia’s older sister, Mimi Smith. Producer Dayna Lee said that, as was the case with the movie, this focus on Lennon’s aunt and mother will depict “two very different women, very powerful in different ways.”
A UK premiere is reportedly being targeted for “the next few years”. As with the film, the stage musical will not include Beatles songs, utilising rock’n’roll hits from the late 1950s instead.