Arena presents the first part of a documentary about the Beatles' controversial 1967 film, featuring archive footage unseen for over 30 years.
Browse content similar to Magical Mystery Tour Revisited. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
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This programme
contains some strong language. | 0:00:06 | 0:00:10 | |
DIRECTOR: End number, that was
a wild track, applause, clapping,
and all the rest of it, cut. | 0:01:17 | 0:01:22 | |
ANNOUNCER: Now everyone try and look
very sad. Awwww! | 0:01:22 | 0:01:26 | |
Now, everybody, run out
past the cameras. Go! | 0:01:30 | 0:01:33 | |
I haven't seen colour,
I live in a monochromatic world. | 0:01:38 | 0:01:41 | |
I can't use colour. | 0:01:44 | 0:01:46 | |
I can do everything. | 0:01:50 | 0:01:52 | |
What do you mean by everything? | 0:01:52 | 0:01:55 | |
Everything, everything... Oh, it was
shape before, but now it's colour. | 0:01:55 | 0:02:00 | |
If you look to your left, ladies
and gentlemen, the view is not very
inspiring. | 0:02:34 | 0:02:38 | |
Ah, but if you look to
your right... | 0:02:39 | 0:02:42 | |
We didn't really want to do
something that didn't represent
where we were up to. | 0:02:50 | 0:02:57 | |
However, people didn't know where
we were up to, | 0:02:57 | 0:03:00 | |
and it wasn't the kind of thing we
could say, do a disclaimer before it
and say, | 0:03:00 | 0:03:05 | |
"Ladies and gentlemen, what
you are about to see is the product
"of our imaginations, | 0:03:05 | 0:03:10 | |
and believe me,
at this point they're quite vivid". | 0:03:10 | 0:03:14 | |
You couldn't do that you know,
you just had to be, "Here it is". | 0:03:14 | 0:03:17 | |
Who is that man? | 0:03:21 | 0:03:22 | |
Anyway, I tell you something, you
ain't coming away with me any more. | 0:03:52 | 0:03:56 | |
Who bought the tickets? I did. | 0:03:56 | 0:03:58 | |
Yeah, with my money. | 0:03:58 | 0:03:59 | |
I bought them, right, I'm taking you
out, you're not taking me anywhere. | 0:03:59 | 0:04:03 | |
Oh, ain't he lovely? Look at him, | 0:04:07 | 0:04:11 | |
look, just look at him. Who's that? | 0:04:11 | 0:04:13 | |
Ringo, one of The Beatles,
he's marvellous. Oh, those fellas. | 0:04:13 | 0:04:16 | |
He's smashing, plays the drums,
goes out and earns five bob,
not like you. | 0:04:16 | 0:04:19 | |
Listen, I've heard a few
stories about those boys. | 0:04:19 | 0:04:21 | |
I don't care what you've heard,
they're smashers and you shut up. | 0:04:21 | 0:04:24 | |
If you learnt to play the drums
you could earn an extra five bob. | 0:04:24 | 0:04:27 | |
I'm not doing so bad, am I? | 0:04:27 | 0:04:28 | |
Doing so bad? | 0:04:28 | 0:04:30 | |
You're as skint as arm holes every
week, what's the matter with you? | 0:04:30 | 0:04:33 | |
What's the matter with you? You've
moaned ever since we got on this bus. | 0:04:33 | 0:04:36 | |
Well, I promised your father
I'd take you, I'm sorry now, | 0:04:36 | 0:04:38 | |
I'm dead sorry.
I'm sorry I came, believe me. | 0:04:38 | 0:04:41 | |
'Just ad lib, I mean,
there's no script. | 0:04:41 | 0:04:44 | |
'We thought we could have
something running through it | 0:04:44 | 0:04:47 | |
'and it was me and her
and we're always arguing, | 0:04:47 | 0:04:52 | |
'and it sort of got us
from one place to the next.' | 0:04:52 | 0:04:55 | |
This picture probably reflects
their state of mind more than | 0:04:56 | 0:05:00 | |
anything else
they had done at the time. | 0:05:00 | 0:05:02 | |
That's the way they perceived
the world around them | 0:05:02 | 0:05:05 | |
MUSIC: "I Am The Walrus"
by The Beatles | 0:05:05 | 0:05:08 | |
For me, the freedom of the picture
was something that was very | 0:05:08 | 0:05:13 | |
very important,
the sense of breaking all the form. | 0:05:13 | 0:05:18 | |
Obviously some of it I didn't quite
understand in terms of the humour, | 0:05:18 | 0:05:22 | |
but it's the way it was
in those days, | 0:05:22 | 0:05:23 | |
I mean, people were trying
everything | 0:05:23 | 0:05:25 | |
and whether it fully succeeded or
not was really beside the point. | 0:05:25 | 0:05:32 | |
RADIO: 'In Scotland and Northern
Ireland there'll be slight frost, | 0:05:32 | 0:05:35 | |
'leading to icy patches on roads
around dawn. | 0:05:35 | 0:05:38 | |
'Afternoon temperatures
will range from 5 degrees centigrade,
41 Fahrenheit, in northern Scotland, | 0:05:38 | 0:05:42 | |
'to about eight degrees centigrade,
46 Fahrenheit, in southern England.' | 0:05:42 | 0:05:47 | |
ANNOUNCER: 'The Val Doonican Show... | 0:05:51 | 0:05:56 | |
'Top of the Pops... | 0:05:56 | 0:05:59 | |
'These are just some of the BBC One
programmes this Christmas.' | 0:06:03 | 0:06:06 | |
# I'm in with the in-crowd | 0:06:10 | 0:06:13 | |
# I go where the in-crowd goes | 0:06:13 | 0:06:16 | |
# I'm in with the in-crowd | 0:06:16 | 0:06:18 | |
# And I know
what the in-crowd knows... # | 0:06:18 | 0:06:23 | |
'In my family, Boxing Day was more
often the party day really,
lots of relatives around.' | 0:06:23 | 0:06:27 | |
'Aunties and uncles, | 0:06:27 | 0:06:29 | |
'and my sisters and brothers would
have all been over, having had their | 0:06:29 | 0:06:33 | |
'Christmas at home together,
and then over to us on Boxing Day.' | 0:06:33 | 0:06:36 | |
'It was tradition for us to go into
the neighbour's house on Boxing Day | 0:06:38 | 0:06:43 | |
'and we used to play Monopoly
in the afternoon, and I was always | 0:06:43 | 0:06:49 | |
'allowed a snowball with Advocaat
and lemonade in, that was my treat.' | 0:06:49 | 0:06:53 | |
The Christmas schedule is always
a difficult thing to get together, | 0:06:55 | 0:06:59 | |
and on that particular year in 1967
I had a gap on Boxing Day. | 0:06:59 | 0:07:05 | |
And suddenly I got to hear of this
film the Magical Mystery Tour. | 0:07:05 | 0:07:09 | |
It was described to me
as a film made by The Beatles, | 0:07:09 | 0:07:12 | |
containing The Beatles,
and containing a lot of music, | 0:07:12 | 0:07:15 | |
and that as far as I was
concerned was good enough. | 0:07:15 | 0:07:18 | |
Sitting in front of the television,
very, very close to the screen, | 0:07:28 | 0:07:31 | |
no clue who was in the room with me
apart from my dad, because | 0:07:31 | 0:07:36 | |
he seriously didn't like The Beatles
and spent most of his time grunting | 0:07:36 | 0:07:39 | |
and saying it was a load of rubbish,
"Why don't you turn it over?" | 0:07:39 | 0:07:42 | |
and, "Why don't you talk to the
visitors because we've got guests?" | 0:07:42 | 0:07:46 | |
My dad said, "They should get
their hair cut," and I said, | 0:07:46 | 0:07:49 | |
"Dad, you "know Jesus had long hair,
don't you?" and he just didn't know
what to say. | 0:07:49 | 0:07:53 | |
My parents didn't like it,
my dad thought it was rubbish, | 0:07:53 | 0:07:58 | |
and I'm pretty sure
he turned it off before the end. | 0:07:58 | 0:08:01 | |
I loved it, it was a great movie,
to see The Beatles doing | 0:08:01 | 0:08:04 | |
something different, as wizards
and all that sort of thing. | 0:08:04 | 0:08:08 | |
I was 15 years old,
I remember we sat | 0:08:08 | 0:08:11 | |
and we watched it right the way
through in silence, and afterwards | 0:08:11 | 0:08:17 | |
we looked at each other and
we said, "What was all that about?" | 0:08:17 | 0:08:20 | |
That was the beginning of the end
of their innocence to me | 0:08:20 | 0:08:24 | |
and my innocence. | 0:08:24 | 0:08:25 | |
DAVID FROST: 'I liked it,
with reservations and so on, | 0:08:31 | 0:08:33 | |
'but why were people
so puzzled by it, do you think?' | 0:08:33 | 0:08:36 | |
I think they thought it was bitty,
which it was a bit, you know, but
it was supposed to be like that, | 0:08:36 | 0:08:41 | |
I think a lot of people were looking
for a plot, and there wasn't one. | 0:08:41 | 0:08:47 | |
I think the younger people would get
it, the people who knew what | 0:08:47 | 0:08:51 | |
was going on in society, would get
it, and the older people who | 0:08:51 | 0:08:55 | |
were expecting Morecombe and Wise
or a British Variety Show, | 0:08:55 | 0:09:00 | |
wouldn't get it and I think in a way
quite rightly would be annoyed, | 0:09:00 | 0:09:04 | |
it was like they'd been cheated
out of their Christmas special. | 0:09:04 | 0:09:07 | |
There was, it seemed, | 0:09:10 | 0:09:11 | |
very little magic about this
particular mystery tour, | 0:09:11 | 0:09:14 | |
most reporting viewers in fact
finding it virtually
incomprehensible. | 0:09:14 | 0:09:17 | |
There was no theme or storyline,
they complained, the programme | 0:09:18 | 0:09:22 | |
appearing to consist of confused,
disconnected shots of the weirdest | 0:09:22 | 0:09:25 | |
things, and suggesting a nightmare
rather than a mystery tour. | 0:09:25 | 0:09:30 | |
The following are just a few
of the many outraged comments... | 0:09:30 | 0:09:34 | |
"The biggest waste of money
since the Ground Nut Scheme." | 0:09:34 | 0:09:38 | |
"Positively the worst programme
I can remember seeing
on any TV channel." | 0:09:38 | 0:09:45 | |
The small minority who did enjoy
the programme hailed it | 0:09:45 | 0:09:48 | |
as something completely different.
A schoolboy had this to say... | 0:09:48 | 0:09:51 | |
"It was one of the best Christmas
programmes we've had for a long
time. | 0:09:51 | 0:09:57 | |
"The idea was
clever as well as original, | 0:09:57 | 0:09:59 | |
"it was very funny in parts,
a marvellous programme
in black and white, | 0:09:59 | 0:10:02 | |
"in colour it would be
indescribable." | 0:10:02 | 0:10:06 | |
When they first toured they were
touring with comedians and singers | 0:10:13 | 0:10:17 | |
and stuff and it was
part of a showbiz package deal, | 0:10:17 | 0:10:20 | |
you know, so that was what,
'63 they were doing that? | 0:10:20 | 0:10:23 | |
So in the space of four years,
which is nothing, we're in the world | 0:10:23 | 0:10:27 | |
of Sergeant Pepper and kaftans
and incense and San Francisco | 0:10:27 | 0:10:31 | |
and all that kind of thing, so
I should imagine some members of the
establishment were rather sort of, | 0:10:31 | 0:10:37 | |
perturbed, because it looked like | 0:10:37 | 0:10:39 | |
The Beatles had gone
from being Take That | 0:10:39 | 0:10:42 | |
to "Take This" or something,
you know? | 0:10:42 | 0:10:44 | |
The entire nation had been
let down by The Beatles. | 0:10:44 | 0:10:49 | |
They hated it, at least the people
who wrote in the newspaper | 0:10:49 | 0:10:53 | |
hated it, you know. Don't forget
that with all the success | 0:10:53 | 0:10:59 | |
we'd had, every time something
came out, a new record or whatever, | 0:10:59 | 0:11:04 | |
they'd all try and slam it
so that, you know, | 0:11:04 | 0:11:07 | |
because once they'd built you up
that high, all they can do is | 0:11:07 | 0:11:11 | |
knock you back down again, I mean
that's what happens, that's life, | 0:11:11 | 0:11:15 | |
so they really didn't like it,
but it's understandable too because | 0:11:15 | 0:11:19 | |
it wasn't a brilliant scripted thing
that was executed well, | 0:11:19 | 0:11:24 | |
it was like a little home movie
really, an elaborate home movie. | 0:11:24 | 0:11:30 | |
I don't know, I should never have
brought you, you're really getting
on my nerves. | 0:11:30 | 0:11:36 | |
There's no pleasure for me either,
there really isn't, | 0:11:36 | 0:11:38 | |
I've had the worst
time of my life here. | 0:11:38 | 0:11:41 | |
Worst time of your life?! | 0:11:41 | 0:11:43 | |
Worst time of my life, | 0:11:43 | 0:11:45 | |
it's the draggy-ist tour I've
been on with you. | 0:11:45 | 0:11:47 | |
Good God, I don't know. | 0:11:47 | 0:11:49 | |
And it won't happen again,
it's the last time I take you out, | 0:11:49 | 0:11:52 | |
you come round to our house moaning | 0:11:52 | 0:11:53 | |
and groaning, nothing to do, I take
pity on you, "Come on, I'll take you
on this tour." | 0:11:53 | 0:11:57 | |
You take pity on me and I have to
pay for you, oh, yes, very good! | 0:11:57 | 0:12:00 | |
Well, that's fair,
I'm taking you out, aren't I? | 0:12:00 | 0:12:02 | |
Oh, you're a beautiful nephew,
yes, you are. | 0:12:02 | 0:12:05 | |
Anyway, just behave, there's
a lot of nice people on this coach
and they're all looking at us. | 0:12:05 | 0:12:09 | |
I'll smack you, don't
talk to your auntie like that. | 0:12:09 | 0:12:12 | |
Don't you smack me down missus,
I'll smack you down! | 0:12:12 | 0:12:14 | |
Don't talk to Auntie like that!
Don't smack me. Now shut up!
Please! | 0:12:14 | 0:12:17 | |
It was Paul's idea really. | 0:12:17 | 0:12:19 | |
We were hanging out in the studio,
you know, looking for stuff to do, | 0:12:19 | 0:12:24 | |
really, and he came up with
this idea, he said, "Look, | 0:12:24 | 0:12:31 | |
"I've got this idea." | 0:12:31 | 0:12:33 | |
And we said, "Great!" | 0:12:37 | 0:12:40 | |
And it actually moved from that
circle...to this...to this... | 0:12:40 | 0:12:46 | |
Then you can cut in the movie. | 0:12:46 | 0:12:49 | |
'When a man buys a ticket
for a Magical Mystery Tour, | 0:12:51 | 0:12:53 | |
'he knows what to expect. | 0:12:53 | 0:12:56 | |
'We guarantee him
the trip of a lifetime | 0:12:56 | 0:12:59 | |
'and that's just what he gets...the
incredible Magical Mystery Tour!' | 0:12:59 | 0:13:04 | |
It was basically a charabanc trip
which people used to go on | 0:13:07 | 0:13:11 | |
from Liverpool to see the Blackpool
Lights, and they'd get, you know, | 0:13:11 | 0:13:16 | |
loads of crates of beer and an
accordion player and all get pissed. | 0:13:16 | 0:13:20 | |
All the coach trips
I went on to Blackpool, | 0:13:27 | 0:13:30 | |
the lights were very fuzzy...
but that's another story! | 0:13:30 | 0:13:33 | |
INAUDIBLE SHOUTING | 0:13:49 | 0:13:51 | |
'On your marks. | 0:13:55 | 0:13:58 | |
'Get set. | 0:13:58 | 0:13:59 | |
'Go!' | 0:13:59 | 0:14:01 | |
This time I mean it.
I can't breathe any more | 0:14:09 | 0:14:15 | |
MUSIC: "I Am The Walrus"
by The Beatles | 0:14:16 | 0:14:22 | |
MUSIC: "Death Cab For Cutie"
by the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band | 0:14:26 | 0:14:30 | |
The part of Magical Mystery Tour | 0:14:45 | 0:14:49 | |
that I didn't get, and which I knew | 0:14:45 | 0:14:49 | |
Americans would also not get, were
the things that were very English. | 0:14:49 | 0:14:55 | |
For example, the concept of a
Mystery Tour, America didn't have, | 0:14:56 | 0:15:01 | |
you had to know where you were
going before you got on to a bus. | 0:15:01 | 0:15:05 | |
It's a very English concept
that you have old dears that | 0:15:05 | 0:15:09 | |
you like to be around no
matter how hip you are | 0:15:09 | 0:15:12 | |
and that you have extended family
that you're not embarrassed by, | 0:15:12 | 0:15:15 | |
and the people on that coach were
old dears and extended family. | 0:15:15 | 0:15:19 | |
So it just seemed like a very odd
thing for The Beatles to want to do. | 0:15:19 | 0:15:24 | |
The Beatles were cultural
mission control, | 0:15:24 | 0:15:27 | |
they were where it was at,
culture was them, | 0:15:27 | 0:15:31 | |
they were culture...why are they
hanging around with fat old women? | 0:15:31 | 0:15:35 | |
Nothing against fat old women,
but I'm talking | 0:15:35 | 0:15:37 | |
about the prejudices of the time
of the people who would be watching. | 0:15:37 | 0:15:41 | |
I don't think Americans would
have gotten it. | 0:15:41 | 0:15:44 | |
It was made like an art film. | 0:15:47 | 0:15:49 | |
The small narrative of the bus just
sort of held it together again, | 0:15:50 | 0:15:53 | |
but again, it wasn't... You weren't
supposed to know where it was going. | 0:15:53 | 0:15:58 | |
'67, August, I arrived, I thought
it was kind of a dream come true, | 0:16:07 | 0:16:14 | |
because it was
like a gigantic...the part | 0:16:14 | 0:16:17 | |
I was focused on was a gigantic
costume ball, it seemed to me. | 0:16:17 | 0:16:22 | |
People were just dressed
outrageously, beautifully. | 0:16:22 | 0:16:26 | |
I want to do some breeches, | 0:16:26 | 0:16:28 | |
some gold breeches down to the knee
but with buttons | 0:16:28 | 0:16:31 | |
from about there upwards. | 0:16:31 | 0:16:33 | |
What is this thing you've got here? | 0:16:36 | 0:16:37 | |
This button? That's a button...
it's green, and it says "go". | 0:16:37 | 0:16:44 | |
I can see it's green. | 0:16:44 | 0:16:46 | |
Yeah, but it means "go",
instead of you know all the other | 0:16:46 | 0:16:49 | |
buttons that people wear that've
got messages on them? Oh, yes. | 0:16:49 | 0:16:53 | |
This one just says
"go ahead" because it's green. | 0:16:53 | 0:16:56 | |
What I loved was the contrast
between the new generation, | 0:16:56 | 0:17:02 | |
the music world, and the bowler-
hatted, pinstriped city gents. | 0:17:02 | 0:17:07 | |
Everything seemed to be
nicely defined, | 0:17:07 | 0:17:09 | |
which of course for an American,
was fresh, because America, | 0:17:09 | 0:17:13 | |
everything's supposed to be
equal. People camouflage
the differences. | 0:17:13 | 0:17:17 | |
In England, it was clear
what the differences were. | 0:17:17 | 0:17:19 | |
Thing is, in the '60s,
Britain was still very straight, | 0:17:19 | 0:17:24 | |
there was the
one British way of life. | 0:17:24 | 0:17:27 | |
Businessmen still wore bowler hats
and carried furled umbrellas, | 0:17:27 | 0:17:31 | |
and if you deviated only quite
slightly from how you were | 0:17:31 | 0:17:36 | |
supposed to behave then you were
very much frowned upon. | 0:17:36 | 0:17:40 | |
This is still the period
when they used to lock up | 0:17:45 | 0:17:47 | |
children's swings on Sundays, we're
talking about a very repressive, | 0:17:47 | 0:17:50 | |
admittedly very benign,
but still a very repressive society. | 0:17:50 | 0:17:53 | |
# Cool Britannia | 0:17:53 | 0:17:56 | |
# Britannia, you are cool | 0:17:56 | 0:17:58 | |
# Take a trip | 0:17:58 | 0:18:00 | |
# Britons ever ever ever shall be hip | 0:18:00 | 0:18:03 | |
# Hit me, hit me... # | 0:18:03 | 0:18:04 | |
I had a guy, and he came to paint
on my wall of the extension, | 0:18:09 | 0:18:15 | |
his idea of The Creation. | 0:18:15 | 0:18:19 | |
And anyway, it went on
and suddenly he's in the windows, | 0:18:21 | 0:18:24 | |
he's all over the place, but
anyway I come down...he's a hippie, | 0:18:24 | 0:18:27 | |
a little hippie guy, and I see
this guy and he's in the kitchen | 0:18:27 | 0:18:31 | |
and he's got a suit and tie on,
I said, "What happened?" | 0:18:31 | 0:18:34 | |
He said, "Oh, I'm going home.
Flower Power hasn't reached Leeds." | 0:18:34 | 0:18:38 | |
The London sort of underground
culture was really just a few | 0:19:00 | 0:19:03 | |
hundred people probably,
at the centre, | 0:19:03 | 0:19:05 | |
and then maybe a few thousand
all together. | 0:19:05 | 0:19:08 | |
There were an awful
lot of people who just used the sort
of '60s ideas, just to have fun, | 0:19:08 | 0:19:12 | |
I mean it was a hedonistic movement,
very much, I mean, it wasn't | 0:19:12 | 0:19:16 | |
a political movement in any
of the normal senses of the word. | 0:19:16 | 0:19:20 | |
Most of it was to do with
hanging out on the King's Road | 0:19:22 | 0:19:24 | |
and wearing frilly clothes
and taking a lot of drugs | 0:19:24 | 0:19:27 | |
and having a lot of sex basically. | 0:19:27 | 0:19:30 | |
In London, it's still embryonic, the
scene hasn't got very far at all. | 0:19:31 | 0:19:36 | |
In Amsterdam, it's reached
very large proportions, | 0:19:36 | 0:19:38 | |
it's becoming a very big force there, | 0:19:38 | 0:19:43 | |
people are getting worried by it,
the older generation. | 0:19:43 | 0:19:46 | |
But of course the answer they have is
perfect. | 0:19:46 | 0:19:48 | |
The young people are quite prepared
to wait for the older generation to
die out. | 0:19:48 | 0:19:52 | |
This is Alexandra Palace, | 0:19:56 | 0:19:58 | |
the people's palace or Ally Pally
as it's known to everyone. | 0:19:58 | 0:20:03 | |
And in the summer of 1967 we had
a big benefit here for | 0:20:03 | 0:20:07 | |
International Times, which we called
The 14 Hour Technicolour Dream. | 0:20:07 | 0:20:10 | |
It was because International Times
had been busted for obscenity and | 0:20:23 | 0:20:27 | |
we really thought that we had a big
court case on our hands and needed | 0:20:27 | 0:20:31 | |
to raise money, and 42 different
bands and performance acts | 0:20:31 | 0:20:37 | |
offered their services,
all for free. | 0:20:37 | 0:20:41 | |
Of course a huge number of people
used it | 0:20:48 | 0:20:51 | |
as an excuse to take acid, which
was nice in a way because it's | 0:20:51 | 0:20:54 | |
a beautiful location,
you know, the grounds here
are absolutely gorgeous. | 0:20:54 | 0:21:00 | |
# Revolution | 0:21:00 | 0:21:01 | |
# Revolution | 0:21:01 | 0:21:06 | |
# Revolution | 0:21:06 | 0:21:09 | |
I really wish the people who look
with anger at the weirdos, | 0:21:15 | 0:21:18 | |
at the happenings,
at the psychedelic freak outs, | 0:21:18 | 0:21:21 | |
would instead of looking with anger,
just look with nothing | 0:21:21 | 0:21:25 | |
and with no feeling you know,
be unbiased about it, | 0:21:25 | 0:21:29 | |
because they really don't realise
that what these people are talking | 0:21:29 | 0:21:33 | |
about is something that they really
want themselves, it's something | 0:21:33 | 0:21:36 | |
that everyone wants, you know,
it's personal freedom to be able | 0:21:36 | 0:21:40 | |
to talk and to be able to say things
and it's dead straight, it's a real | 0:21:40 | 0:21:44 | |
sort of basic pleasure for everyone,
but it looks weird from the outside. | 0:21:44 | 0:21:48 | |
So this is the original premises
of Indica Books and Gallery, | 0:21:52 | 0:21:55 | |
which was started
by Peter Asher, John Dunbar | 0:21:55 | 0:21:58 | |
and myself back in 1965 and it had
a lot of very close Beatles
connections, | 0:21:58 | 0:22:04 | |
Paul McCartney for instance,
helped put up the shelves | 0:22:04 | 0:22:08 | |
and paint the walls, he was very
good at filling in holes in
concrete. | 0:22:08 | 0:22:12 | |
There's always this gang
of people from International Times, | 0:22:12 | 0:22:15 | |
Indica and the whole scene,
you know, it's trying to do, | 0:22:15 | 0:22:18 | |
trying to see where we are now, you
know it's just a straightforward... | 0:22:18 | 0:22:26 | |
endeavour kind of thing, just to do
something, other than what's been | 0:22:26 | 0:22:31 | |
done before because what's been done
before isn't necessarily the answer. | 0:22:31 | 0:22:34 | |
John Lennon of course,
famously met Yoko Ono here | 0:22:34 | 0:22:38 | |
when we gave her her very first
show in Europe. | 0:22:38 | 0:22:41 | |
In addition to that,
we used to have a big settee | 0:22:41 | 0:22:45 | |
when it was a book shop,
on the ground floor | 0:22:45 | 0:22:47 | |
and that's where
John Lennon first encountered
the work of Timothy Leary | 0:22:47 | 0:22:51 | |
and in Leary's re-writing
of The Tibetan Book Of The Dead | 0:22:51 | 0:22:54 | |
is where he found the line, "Turn
off your mind and drift downstream." | 0:22:54 | 0:22:58 | |
MUSIC: "Tomorrow Never Knows"
by The Beatles | 0:22:58 | 0:23:01 | |
# Turn off your mind, relax and float
downstream | 0:23:01 | 0:23:08 | |
# It is not dying | 0:23:08 | 0:23:12 | |
# It is not dying... # | 0:23:12 | 0:23:14 | |
People like Andy Warhol are trying
to integrate themselves with | 0:23:16 | 0:23:21 | |
a commercial world,
to become a part of it, | 0:23:21 | 0:23:25 | |
but also do what they want to do,
this is what a breakthrough is. | 0:23:25 | 0:23:30 | |
So here we are in Duke Street
and at number 69 is where | 0:23:32 | 0:23:36 | |
Robert Fraser had his celebrated
gallery in the late '60s. | 0:23:36 | 0:23:39 | |
He introduced them
to a lot of artists | 0:23:39 | 0:23:41 | |
and people surrounding the sort of
Hollywood and New York art scene, | 0:23:41 | 0:23:45 | |
people like Andy Warhol,
Claes Oldenburg. | 0:23:45 | 0:23:47 | |
This is the story of your lives! | 0:23:49 | 0:23:52 | |
The old dreams, the left placenta... | 0:23:52 | 0:23:57 | |
I had a period of a few years,
when I was living in London | 0:23:57 | 0:24:01 | |
and I wasn't married
like the other guys, | 0:24:01 | 0:24:03 | |
they were living outside of London,
so I would kind of probably see more | 0:24:03 | 0:24:08 | |
cinema, see more theatre, go to more
events, just because I was there. | 0:24:08 | 0:24:14 | |
And one of the things that
I got was a Super 8 camera, | 0:24:14 | 0:24:21 | |
started off just doing snapshots,
doing your home movies | 0:24:21 | 0:24:26 | |
to go on holiday, but then I got
more and more interested in it, and | 0:24:26 | 0:24:30 | |
I found one that you could rewind
so you could then go through again. | 0:24:30 | 0:24:35 | |
I did a film that I wish
I had now which was out of my hotel | 0:24:35 | 0:24:39 | |
window in Paris, I filmed
a gendarme on traffic duty | 0:24:39 | 0:24:45 | |
and he's just stopping all the cars,
so that was one roll through, | 0:24:45 | 0:24:50 | |
and then the second time,
he'd gone so I then just filmed all | 0:24:50 | 0:24:54 | |
the traffic, so it looked like this
impossible job where the | 0:24:54 | 0:24:57 | |
traffic was just going through him
all the time, which was nice | 0:24:57 | 0:25:01 | |
enough for ten minutes,
it was amusing enough for me. | 0:25:01 | 0:25:04 | |
But then the nice thing was
I found a soundtrack with a jazz | 0:25:04 | 0:25:08 | |
saxophonist called
Albert Ayler who did a wonky version | 0:25:08 | 0:25:11 | |
of the Marseillaise,
so while this guy is, | 0:25:11 | 0:25:15 | |
"Oh, no, no, no, monsieur,
oh la la," you hear this... | 0:25:15 | 0:25:20 | |
HUMS THE MARSEILLAISE | 0:25:20 | 0:25:22 | |
MIMICS DRUMBEAT | 0:25:24 | 0:25:26 | |
FANFARE | 0:25:28 | 0:25:29 | |
I was doing a lot of that, which I
think is part of why I wanted to do
Magical Mystery Tour. | 0:25:29 | 0:25:36 | |
SAXOPHONE PLAYS THE MARSEILLAISE | 0:25:47 | 0:25:52 | |
McCartney always
had his antennae out, | 0:26:06 | 0:26:07 | |
so those would be the avant garde
kind of things he would do, but he | 0:26:07 | 0:26:11 | |
would also go to the various kind of
night clubs and hear torch singers | 0:26:11 | 0:26:15 | |
and he used those words, that
he always had his antennae out, | 0:26:15 | 0:26:18 | |
stuff would go in and it might not
come out for years and years. | 0:26:18 | 0:26:21 | |
I went with him for instance
to a concert by AMM,
which was a sound band, | 0:26:26 | 0:26:32 | |
which there was no noticeable rhythm
or melody or anything like that. | 0:26:32 | 0:26:38 | |
And McCartney after a
while started to join in, | 0:26:38 | 0:26:40 | |
he banged on the radiators
and stuff like that. | 0:26:40 | 0:26:42 | |
It was only a small group,
about ten people in the audience, | 0:26:42 | 0:26:45 | |
it was one of those sitting on the
floor in the Royal College of Art
sort of gigs. | 0:26:45 | 0:26:49 | |
They've got all these rules
for everything, | 0:26:55 | 0:26:57 | |
rules of how to live, how to paint,
how to make music, and it's | 0:26:57 | 0:27:01 | |
just not true any more, you know,
they don't work, all those rules. | 0:27:01 | 0:27:05 | |
I think what happened with
The Beatles is, | 0:27:05 | 0:27:08 | |
we always thought, "Ooh, the people
back home would love to know this," | 0:27:08 | 0:27:14 | |
so we felt like we were
the megaphone, | 0:27:14 | 0:27:18 | |
so if it was happening to us
and we liked it, we thought, | 0:27:18 | 0:27:21 | |
"We should let them know," because
they're not down here hanging | 0:27:21 | 0:27:24 | |
out with the artists but it would be
good to pass on the good news. | 0:27:24 | 0:27:29 | |
It was a 50/50 thing,
they were influenced by what was | 0:27:29 | 0:27:32 | |
going on in the underground but they
themselves, by taking some of those | 0:27:32 | 0:27:35 | |
ideas on board, spread the ideas
so rapidly and so quickly through | 0:27:35 | 0:27:39 | |
their fame, that they became sort
of leaders of it, in a curious way. | 0:27:39 | 0:27:43 | |
MUSIC: "A Day In The Life"
by The Beatles | 0:27:43 | 0:27:47 | |
I was going there and I asked Derek,
"Is there anything I can bring?" | 0:28:17 | 0:28:23 | |
With the emphasis on "anything",
obviously pot, | 0:28:23 | 0:28:27 | |
I was thinking maybe, and he said,
"No, no, no, we have everything," | 0:28:27 | 0:28:32 | |
so I arrived and there's Cros and
McGuinn and I was introduced to the | 0:28:32 | 0:28:38 | |
lads, and then they announced that
we were all going to take LSD, and | 0:28:38 | 0:28:44 | |
I thought, "Hmmm, far out, I wonder
how I'm going to drive this car
home?" | 0:28:44 | 0:28:48 | |
I assumed that it was the first
time that they all had taken acid, | 0:28:48 | 0:28:55 | |
it wasn't my first time, | 0:28:55 | 0:28:56 | |
I doubt it was Crosby and McGuinn's
first time either... | 0:28:56 | 0:28:59 | |
No, I know it wasn't their first
time, but for the boys, I don't
know. | 0:29:01 | 0:29:06 | |
# She said | 0:29:06 | 0:29:08 | |
# I know what it's like to be dead | 0:29:08 | 0:29:12 | |
# I know what it is to be sad | 0:29:12 | 0:29:17 | |
# And she's making me feel like
I've never been born... # | 0:29:17 | 0:29:23 | |
# Well, in a villa
in a little old Italian town... # | 0:29:32 | 0:29:38 | |
Some beautiful underground stuff was
happening, but it was underground | 0:29:38 | 0:29:42 | |
and we needed to get above ground. | 0:29:42 | 0:29:44 | |
# Many yearn to love her
but their hopes all tumble down... # | 0:29:44 | 0:29:50 | |
I was already a tremendous fan
of Bruce Conner, | 0:29:50 | 0:29:54 | |
he had a style of editing that was
very influential on me | 0:29:54 | 0:29:58 | |
as a shooter and as an editor
and as a performer, | 0:29:58 | 0:30:01 | |
because I spent a lot of time
with him looking at his films. | 0:30:01 | 0:30:06 | |
# Just a cold and lonely | 0:30:06 | 0:30:08 | |
# Lovely work of art...# | 0:30:08 | 0:30:12 | |
We had our own art, we had our own
poetry, our own music and songs,
lyrics, | 0:30:12 | 0:30:20 | |
we had our own books, we had our
own costumes, we had our own music, | 0:30:20 | 0:30:26 | |
everything, we had all these...
Whoa, we don't have our own film. | 0:30:26 | 0:30:31 | |
Paul and Brian were
sitting on a big settee, | 0:30:32 | 0:30:35 | |
very long red settee similar to this
and they had a number of papers | 0:30:35 | 0:30:38 | |
in front of them, particularly
Epstein had a pie chart | 0:30:38 | 0:30:43 | |
and they were already planning
who would do what in a film. | 0:30:43 | 0:30:47 | |
Epstein was delighted of course
because they'd just finished | 0:30:54 | 0:30:58 | |
a major album, they were no longer
touring, | 0:30:58 | 0:31:00 | |
they hadn't really got a great deal
to do, | 0:31:00 | 0:31:03 | |
and he was quite clearly very, very
enthusiastic about the whole thing. | 0:31:03 | 0:31:06 | |
He was just a beautiful fella
you know, and it's terrible. | 0:31:19 | 0:31:23 | |
What are your plans now?
Well, we haven't made any, | 0:31:23 | 0:31:26 | |
I mean, we've only just heard,
haven't we? | 0:31:26 | 0:31:29 | |
Epstein had a little office
in an ultra modern building with | 0:31:31 | 0:31:34 | |
a parking space underneath it,
and they were all in there, | 0:31:34 | 0:31:38 | |
I didn't know what the hell it was
all about, and they said to me, | 0:31:38 | 0:31:43 | |
"We've said to Epstein we want to
make this film," and I think | 0:31:43 | 0:31:47 | |
they thought that now that he was
dead they would go ahead, | 0:31:47 | 0:31:50 | |
they wanted to go ahead and make it
anyway, and this was an important | 0:31:50 | 0:31:54 | |
sort of genuflection to the work
that they had done with Brian, | 0:31:54 | 0:31:58 | |
and they did try at that point
to express, they wanted to
be free and easy and | 0:31:58 | 0:32:05 | |
not be constricted
by the studio system
and the things that were in it. | 0:32:05 | 0:32:09 | |
They had the opportunity | 0:32:09 | 0:32:10 | |
and the money to do something that
nobody else would have been | 0:32:10 | 0:32:14 | |
able to do, and therefore it is
a unique piece of filmmaking. | 0:32:14 | 0:32:18 | |
You could almost call it a vanity,
like a vanity publication | 0:32:18 | 0:32:21 | |
of what they were doing,
but it was more than that. | 0:32:21 | 0:32:25 | |
# Walking down a very narrow alley
in the street | 0:32:35 | 0:32:39 | |
# I saw an old man
standing by a wall | 0:32:39 | 0:32:45 | |
# Hastily, I ran up to the old man | 0:32:45 | 0:32:49 | |
# And I said to him in
phrases very small | 0:32:49 | 0:32:53 | |
# Get away from the wall | 0:32:53 | 0:32:57 | |
# Get away from the wall | 0:32:57 | 0:33:01 | |
# Get away from the wall... # | 0:33:01 | 0:33:06 | |
Ivor Cutler we knew, of course,
because he had those great records. | 0:33:08 | 0:33:11 | |
I'm sure somebody saw,
Nat Jackley, was his name? | 0:33:15 | 0:33:19 | |
You know, on a show or something. | 0:33:19 | 0:33:21 | |
MUTTERS QUICKLY | 0:33:39 | 0:33:42 | |
The other thing we used to do,
at night, | 0:33:46 | 0:33:50 | |
we'd go through
the Artists Need Work books | 0:33:50 | 0:33:54 | |
and we'd go, "Oh, yeah, he looks
good," or "Oh, yeah look at that
person!" | 0:33:54 | 0:33:58 | |
and we'd just pick 'em out the book. | 0:33:58 | 0:33:59 | |
# Oh, baby, you made me love you | 0:34:02 | 0:34:07 | |
# I didn't wanna do it
I didn't wanna do it...# | 0:34:07 | 0:34:12 | |
ACCORDION MUSIC PLAYS | 0:34:12 | 0:34:14 | |
APPLAUSE AND CHEERY ORGAN MUSIC | 0:34:23 | 0:34:26 | |
MARCHING BAND MUSIC | 0:34:34 | 0:34:37 | |
Good morning, lads and lasses, | 0:34:47 | 0:34:50 | |
my name is Miss Winters.
I just wanted to say, | 0:34:50 | 0:34:53 | |
if there's anything I can do
to be of assistance, | 0:34:53 | 0:34:56 | |
you know what to do. | 0:34:56 | 0:34:58 | |
I think what happened with The
Beatles was, if you were around, | 0:34:58 | 0:35:01 | |
you were on the bus, you know, | 0:35:01 | 0:35:03 | |
if you'd been wherever
the bus set off from that day | 0:35:03 | 0:35:06 | |
and they thought you were all right,
you'd have been on the bus. | 0:35:06 | 0:35:09 | |
Would you like to come on
a coach trip with The Beatles? | 0:35:09 | 0:35:13 | |
They're making a film. | 0:35:13 | 0:35:15 | |
They're making a film, that's it,
that's all we knew. | 0:35:15 | 0:35:18 | |
I think we had two days' notice | 0:35:18 | 0:35:20 | |
Yeah, we got it on the Friday
and had to go on the Monday | 0:35:20 | 0:35:23 | |
I left my job on the Friday, and
I didn't go back on the Monday. | 0:35:28 | 0:35:31 | |
And I did lose it,
but it was worth it. | 0:35:31 | 0:35:35 | |
Yeah. Yeah. | 0:35:35 | 0:35:37 | |
I don't know the rest of the words. | 0:35:39 | 0:35:41 | |
You can 'la-la' it darling. | 0:35:41 | 0:35:43 | |
Yeah, just sing, if you don't know
the words... | 0:35:43 | 0:35:46 | |
Are we on? Yeah we're running | 0:35:46 | 0:35:49 | |
# Oh, yesterday... # | 0:35:52 | 0:35:55 | |
Do you like your old Auntie,
darling? | 0:35:55 | 0:35:58 | |
Oh, you're all right,
you're one of the best. | 0:35:58 | 0:36:00 | |
# All my troubles seemed
so far away... # | 0:36:00 | 0:36:04 | |
That bus was hysterical! | 0:36:06 | 0:36:07 | |
All the people on the bus, too,
whoa, you know, what a great
thought. | 0:36:07 | 0:36:11 | |
There was something very musical,
very dance-like about the | 0:36:13 | 0:36:16 | |
editing of the Magical Mystery Tour
number on the bus. | 0:36:16 | 0:36:20 | |
The freedom of the camera along with
the restraint of the characters | 0:36:20 | 0:36:23 | |
looking towards the lens.
For me this has always stayed, | 0:36:23 | 0:36:26 | |
it's one of my favourite
moments in movies. | 0:36:26 | 0:36:28 | |
And that stayed with me over the
years and I think actually looking
back at it, | 0:36:30 | 0:36:33 | |
has influenced a lot of the work
I've done. | 0:36:33 | 0:36:36 | |
Listen, this film. Oh, yeah | 0:36:50 | 0:36:52 | |
Tell me something about
the storyline? | 0:36:52 | 0:36:56 | |
Well, you see, it's about a group
of common or garden strange | 0:36:56 | 0:37:00 | |
people on a coach tour,
around anywhere, really, | 0:37:00 | 0:37:04 | |
and things happen to them, you see,
something will go diddly dee, | 0:37:04 | 0:37:09 | |
di diddly dee, Magical Mystery Tour,
and there's a little scene... | 0:37:09 | 0:37:12 | |
You've got them! | 0:37:12 | 0:37:14 | |
I've got what? | 0:37:14 | 0:37:16 | |
You've got them on your head | 0:37:16 | 0:37:17 | |
Oh, where are they, do you want to
knock 'em off? Yeah. Go on then. | 0:37:17 | 0:37:21 | |
It was lovely to see John being
so comfortable in playing with | 0:37:24 | 0:37:30 | |
this little girl, but it's a side
of John that you never really saw. | 0:37:30 | 0:37:34 | |
Put it on your hat! | 0:37:34 | 0:37:37 | |
And I must say I don't think I'd
really seen it much to that point. | 0:37:37 | 0:37:43 | |
I'd love to say there was this
incredible master plan, | 0:37:47 | 0:37:51 | |
but, er, there wasn't. | 0:37:51 | 0:37:53 | |
We thought it might be a good idea
to go towards Cornwall, | 0:37:57 | 0:38:01 | |
where I think we'd had fond
childhood memories. | 0:38:01 | 0:38:06 | |
I'd hitchhiked down there when I was
a kid, George and I had done that. | 0:38:06 | 0:38:11 | |
I don't think we ever really were
told the reasoning | 0:38:12 | 0:38:16 | |
behind much of it, it was just,
"This is going to happen and | 0:38:16 | 0:38:20 | |
"so and so is going to be doing
this and so and so is going to be
doing that." | 0:38:20 | 0:38:23 | |
And we just did it, to be honest,
it was...spontaneous | 0:38:23 | 0:38:27 | |
I think is the word. Yes. | 0:38:27 | 0:38:29 | |
Spontaneous. That's a very
good word, yeah. | 0:38:29 | 0:38:32 | |
You didn't have time to think about
it because it was all sort of
happening, | 0:38:41 | 0:38:44 | |
but then if you analysed what was
happening, you really didn't know
anyway, did you? | 0:38:44 | 0:38:48 | |
You couldn't really put
your finger on what was happening. | 0:38:48 | 0:38:51 | |
Paul always had a tremendous
interest in spontaneity and random | 0:38:56 | 0:39:01 | |
events and effects, a very '60s thing
of course, but random in his | 0:39:01 | 0:39:07 | |
sense would be an accidental trick
of the light or a superimposition. | 0:39:07 | 0:39:13 | |
# Oh, whoa, whoa... | 0:39:13 | 0:39:19 | |
# Round and round and round | 0:39:19 | 0:39:23 | |
# And round and round | 0:39:23 | 0:39:25 | |
# He never listens to them | 0:39:27 | 0:39:31 | |
# He knows
that they're the fools... # | 0:39:31 | 0:39:33 | |
How do you frankly feel about all
the reporters and all the rest of us | 0:39:33 | 0:39:36 | |
following you around? It's OK.
You don't mind us? Well... | 0:39:36 | 0:39:40 | |
We don't get on your nerves? No,
you're not all that bad. | 0:39:40 | 0:39:42 | |
What's the film going to
be all about? | 0:39:42 | 0:39:45 | |
It's a mystery...to me. | 0:39:45 | 0:39:47 | |
Keep back, please. Excuse us. | 0:39:50 | 0:39:53 | |
Well, what one could see very
clearly were the sequences, | 0:39:54 | 0:39:58 | |
but how the sequences related to
each other, how they juxtaposed | 0:39:58 | 0:40:03 | |
themselves in terms of an overall
story, I could never see. | 0:40:03 | 0:40:08 | |
There was almost like, | 0:40:14 | 0:40:16 | |
improvisation where everyone
gets into the groove and then | 0:40:16 | 0:40:19 | |
they start expanding on that, and to
be honest with you, I don't remember | 0:40:19 | 0:40:22 | |
if they mimed to play back, I guess
they did, actually they must have. | 0:40:22 | 0:40:25 | |
Because all of a sudden,
I remember the first time the
sound guy testing and you | 0:40:25 | 0:40:29 | |
hear one of the tracks booming out
over the Kent countryside, it was
amazing. | 0:40:29 | 0:40:32 | |
And everybody was like galvanised,
the energy that the music gave them. | 0:40:32 | 0:40:36 | |
# I am the eggman | 0:40:36 | 0:40:39 | |
# They are the eggmen | 0:40:39 | 0:40:41 | |
# I am the walrus,
goo goo goo joob... # | 0:40:41 | 0:40:45 | |
Already there was abstract qualities
in their humour and their writing | 0:40:45 | 0:40:48 | |
and their approach to all
sorts of stuff and I think the film | 0:40:48 | 0:40:52 | |
was a sort of natural progression,
all came out of that culture. | 0:40:52 | 0:40:56 | |
I thought it was brilliant, I did,
I just thought it was like anarchic. | 0:41:01 | 0:41:05 | |
# Crying | 0:41:08 | 0:41:10 | |
# I'm crying... # | 0:41:10 | 0:41:14 | |
When we were doing, what was it,
it was the Walrus scene or | 0:41:14 | 0:41:17 | |
something like that, Paul got me
up about two in the morning, | 0:41:17 | 0:41:21 | |
he said, "We want a dozen midget
wrestlers for tomorrow." | 0:41:21 | 0:41:24 | |
Dozen midgets, you know.
I said, "How the hell do | 0:41:25 | 0:41:28 | |
"I get a dozen midgets down here
in time to shoot tomorrow morning?"
He said, "I don't know." | 0:41:28 | 0:41:32 | |
I mean, it was worse than
the Hollywood system, you know, | 0:41:32 | 0:41:35 | |
because Hollywood had real power. | 0:41:35 | 0:41:37 | |
But that's what I did,
and they were produced. | 0:41:37 | 0:41:40 | |
The sequences were just suggested, | 0:41:44 | 0:41:49 | |
often by memories from
our childhood, things that we'd | 0:41:49 | 0:41:53 | |
remembered or we'd remembered
seeing or doing ourselves. | 0:41:53 | 0:41:57 | |
Action! | 0:41:57 | 0:42:00 | |
So, for instance, a tug of war | 0:42:00 | 0:42:03 | |
was something you'd see
at all the village fetes, | 0:42:03 | 0:42:07 | |
there'd often be a tug of war
between | 0:42:07 | 0:42:11 | |
the burly men of the neighbourhood. | 0:42:11 | 0:42:14 | |
So, a lot of these things
found their way in as ideas. | 0:42:14 | 0:42:18 | |
I suppose the whole film has a bit
of a village fete atmosphere to it. | 0:42:21 | 0:42:26 | |
It's all their childhood memories,
all being jumbled up | 0:42:29 | 0:42:32 | |
and juxtaposed, coming out as a
series of fairly surreal images. | 0:42:32 | 0:42:37 | |
Don't get upset, don't
expect something other than | 0:42:39 | 0:42:43 | |
The Beatles, if you expect
The Beatles, you're getting them, | 0:42:43 | 0:42:47 | |
full force, they are really there,
much more than | 0:42:47 | 0:42:50 | |
they were in Help and much more than
they were in Hard Day's Night. | 0:42:50 | 0:42:54 | |
They were really there because it
was all their thing, they were | 0:42:54 | 0:42:57 | |
shooting, they were deciding what to
say, what to wear, how to do this. | 0:42:57 | 0:43:01 | |
In that way it was
a Magical Mystery Tour of them. | 0:43:02 | 0:43:05 | |
# Sitting on a cornflake | 0:43:05 | 0:43:08 | |
# Waiting for the van to come | 0:43:10 | 0:43:14 | |
# Corporation tee-shirt
Stupid bloody Tuesday | 0:43:14 | 0:43:18 | |
# Man, you've been a naughty boy
You let your face grow long | 0:43:18 | 0:43:22 | |
# I'm the eggman, they are the eggmen | 0:43:22 | 0:43:27 | |
# I am the walrus,
goo goo goo joob... # | 0:43:27 | 0:43:30 | |
It seems to me now that Magical
Mystery Tour is an attempt | 0:43:46 | 0:43:51 | |
to fuse those elements
of quintessential Englishness, | 0:43:51 | 0:43:55 | |
which made The Beatles
feel like the people they were, | 0:43:55 | 0:44:02 | |
with the
advanced psychedelic elements | 0:44:02 | 0:44:06 | |
that they had introduced into
the culture. It's a graft. | 0:44:06 | 0:44:11 | |
# There's a fog upon LA | 0:44:11 | 0:44:16 | |
# And my friends have lost
their way... # | 0:44:16 | 0:44:22 | |
Well, shooting Blue Jay Way was
great, George had written | 0:44:22 | 0:44:25 | |
that song because he'd
stayed on Blue Jay Way in America. | 0:44:25 | 0:44:28 | |
And I was just always
interested in cameras and lenses, | 0:44:29 | 0:44:35 | |
and I had all those prism lenses
and close-up macro lenses | 0:44:35 | 0:44:42 | |
and things,
and so it sort of went with it, | 0:44:42 | 0:44:46 | |
"Oh, I'll bring my cameras, and
you'll sit over there, and it'll be | 0:44:46 | 0:44:51 | |
"you know, smoky or whatever, and
I'll just shoot it through these." | 0:44:51 | 0:44:55 | |
And in those days, thanks to... | 0:44:56 | 0:45:01 | |
some medication, | 0:45:01 | 0:45:04 | |
it was the most exciting
thing we'd ever seen! | 0:45:04 | 0:45:07 | |
# Ask a policeman on the street | 0:45:09 | 0:45:13 | |
# There's so many there to meet... # | 0:45:13 | 0:45:17 | |
I think you can really feel
the influence of the | 0:45:19 | 0:45:21 | |
avant-garde cinema at the time, they
all took their own home movies, etc, | 0:45:21 | 0:45:25 | |
and always experimenting with this
imagery and so it seemed natural | 0:45:25 | 0:45:30 | |
that they would try to create
something that was certainly not | 0:45:30 | 0:45:33 | |
the traditional narrative they had
worked with in the Richard Lester | 0:45:33 | 0:45:37 | |
films which were quite wonderful,
but in a very, very different way. | 0:45:37 | 0:45:41 | |
Almost like making their own movie
paintings, music pieces, | 0:45:41 | 0:45:44 | |
dance pieces, and it wasn't cinema,
it was something else. | 0:45:44 | 0:45:49 | |
# Please don't you be very long | 0:45:49 | 0:45:52 | |
# Please don't be long... # | 0:45:52 | 0:45:56 | |
There was always good songs,
there was a couple of good songs, | 0:45:56 | 0:45:59 | |
and there was a few funny scenes. | 0:45:59 | 0:46:02 | |
I mean, the scene to me that
stands out, is the one of John | 0:46:02 | 0:46:05 | |
shovelling the spaghetti
onto the fat woman's plate. | 0:46:05 | 0:46:09 | |
I mean, that was the best
bit of the movie for me. | 0:46:09 | 0:46:11 | |
Paul showed me what his idea was
and this is how it went, | 0:46:12 | 0:46:16 | |
it went round like this,
the story and production. | 0:46:16 | 0:46:18 | |
He says, "Here's the segment, you
write a little piece for that." | 0:46:18 | 0:46:23 | |
And I thought, "Fucking hell, I've
never made a film, what does he
mean?" He said, "Write a script," | 0:46:23 | 0:46:27 | |
so I ran off and wrote the dream
sequence for the fat woman | 0:46:27 | 0:46:30 | |
and all the thing with the spaghetti
and all that. | 0:46:30 | 0:46:32 | |
Action! | 0:46:35 | 0:46:37 | |
John and Paul basically would
put their heads together | 0:46:39 | 0:46:43 | |
and come back and they'd say,
"Right, this is what we want to do
tomorrow." | 0:46:43 | 0:46:48 | |
Something as simple as you know,
half a tonne of spaghetti, | 0:46:48 | 0:46:50 | |
and you have to get George Cook
out of bed and say, | 0:46:50 | 0:46:53 | |
"George, first thing you do is send
your buyer down to get as much
spaghetti as there is." | 0:46:53 | 0:46:57 | |
I do remember watching
John on rehearsal or whatever, | 0:46:59 | 0:47:02 | |
and the pleasure he got,
like a kid playing with mud. | 0:47:02 | 0:47:06 | |
Slopping out all this
spaghetti on that woman. | 0:47:06 | 0:47:09 | |
ACCORDION MUSIC PLAYS | 0:47:09 | 0:47:13 | |
I mean, there are bits of it that
are silly, and a bit self-indulgent
but on the other hand | 0:47:29 | 0:47:33 | |
it's not pretentious, I don't think
they ever were. | 0:47:33 | 0:47:37 | |
They always managed to keep
the right side of that line | 0:47:37 | 0:47:39 | |
and where you had Paul wanting
to reflect his background, | 0:47:39 | 0:47:46 | |
John would come along, literally
Spaniard In The Works and give it | 0:47:46 | 0:47:50 | |
that edge and made it sinister,
and bits of Magical Mystery Tour | 0:47:50 | 0:47:55 | |
are actually quite frightening,
and quite scary, and that's John. | 0:47:55 | 0:47:59 | |
I can hardly get my breath. | 0:47:59 | 0:48:02 | |
It's intake, Jessie, not output. | 0:48:04 | 0:48:08 | |
I am, I am! I am already,
three times this week already. | 0:48:08 | 0:48:15 | |
For goodness sake, Jessie, sit down. | 0:48:15 | 0:48:18 | |
When you talk about Bunuel, everyone
was so shocked to see that shot of | 0:48:20 | 0:48:27 | |
him apparently cutting an eye. | 0:48:27 | 0:48:29 | |
and I remember how shocking it was
to see that. | 0:48:33 | 0:48:36 | |
Now you look back on it and go,
that was a very important thing in | 0:48:36 | 0:48:40 | |
the history of cinema. You
probably couldn't have had
Psycho without that. | 0:48:40 | 0:48:45 | |
And that's the nice thing that
happens with these things. | 0:48:45 | 0:48:48 | |
I mean I don't want to elevate
Magical Mystery Tour | 0:48:48 | 0:48:51 | |
to the great heights of, you know, | 0:48:51 | 0:48:53 | |
the most important
things in cinema history, | 0:48:53 | 0:48:56 | |
but I think in a lesser way, | 0:48:56 | 0:48:59 | |
it did set a tone that then people
could pick up, | 0:48:59 | 0:49:04 | |
and sort of say, "Well, if they've
done that, we could do this." | 0:49:04 | 0:49:07 | |
It's not worrying too much about your
public image at that point I think. | 0:49:15 | 0:49:19 | |
It's about what you want to do.
Here's an opportunity to make a film, | 0:49:19 | 0:49:22 | |
what do you want to put in this
film, what scene do you want to do? | 0:49:22 | 0:49:25 | |
So, I admire it from that
point of view. | 0:49:25 | 0:49:28 | |
Ladies and Gentlemen,
when the coach stops, | 0:49:28 | 0:49:31 | |
would the gentlemen
please follow Mr Johnson,
and the ladies, stay with me? | 0:49:31 | 0:49:36 | |
It is immensely entertaining
because you don't know where | 0:49:36 | 0:49:39 | |
it's going to go next, suddenly
you're in a strip club. | 0:49:39 | 0:49:41 | |
Off we go, a jolly evening with
jolly Jimmy. | 0:49:41 | 0:49:44 | |
Come on, where are they? | 0:49:57 | 0:50:00 | |
I do remember Viv being rather
sort of miffed at the thought, | 0:50:00 | 0:50:04 | |
because Paul suggested he wore a
kind of chiffony scarf | 0:50:04 | 0:50:07 | |
to look more trendy. | 0:50:07 | 0:50:08 | |
And I don't think Viv took kindly
to that, but he did it. | 0:50:08 | 0:50:13 | |
# The cab was racing
through the night, mmm-mm-mm | 0:50:17 | 0:50:20 | |
# Baby, don't do it | 0:50:20 | 0:50:24 | |
# His eyes in the mirror, keeping
Cutie in sight, uh-huh-huh | 0:50:24 | 0:50:28 | |
# Baby, don't do it... # | 0:50:28 | 0:50:31 | |
I think we related to them because
they were mischievous and funny, | 0:50:31 | 0:50:34 | |
but we didn't care
about show business particularly. | 0:50:34 | 0:50:38 | |
# Baby, curves can kill | 0:50:38 | 0:50:40 | |
# Death-cab for Cutie...# | 0:50:40 | 0:50:42 | |
We had a lot of that kind of
art school world in common, | 0:50:42 | 0:50:46 | |
you know, we'd all
seen the art movies, | 0:50:46 | 0:50:48 | |
we'd all seen the certain paintings.
We knew Magritte and things | 0:50:48 | 0:50:51 | |
like that, and you know, when you're
twentysomethings, you like them | 0:50:51 | 0:50:56 | |
so you want to kind of embrace them
in a way and use them in things. | 0:50:56 | 0:51:00 | |
And so if, you know, we had, | 0:51:00 | 0:51:02 | |
robots or masks or things like
that, we offered them up as images. | 0:51:02 | 0:51:07 | |
# Someone's gonna make you pay your
fare | 0:51:07 | 0:51:11 | |
# Someone's gonna make you pay your
fare | 0:51:15 | 0:51:19 | |
# Someone's gonna make you
pay your fare! # | 0:51:22 | 0:51:29 | |
We have no idea what the film was
going to be like, but there was | 0:51:33 | 0:51:38 | |
a kind of clue in the title,
you know, Magical Mystery Tour, | 0:51:38 | 0:51:42 | |
it's a clever title because you can
pretty much do anything, you know. | 0:51:42 | 0:51:45 | |
# Death-cab for Cutie | 0:51:45 | 0:51:47 | |
# Death-cab for Cutie...# | 0:51:47 | 0:51:51 | |
I was sitting in front
of my dad on the floor, | 0:51:51 | 0:51:53 | |
he was sitting in the chair
and I was like, | 0:51:53 | 0:51:55 | |
resting against the arm of the chair
and the stripper came on and | 0:51:55 | 0:51:58 | |
as it started to get sort of, more
and more risque I suddenly found | 0:51:58 | 0:52:01 | |
this hankie being draped across my
eyes, which was quite embarrassing | 0:52:01 | 0:52:05 | |
for me because obviously I thought
I was so grown up at 11 years old. | 0:52:05 | 0:52:07 | |
Magical Mystery Tour, I think it was
telling the older generation | 0:52:09 | 0:52:14 | |
that things were changing,
that's how I felt, | 0:52:14 | 0:52:17 | |
that the old routines were
going to change. | 0:52:17 | 0:52:21 | |
I think probably my dad may have
found it a bit scary. | 0:52:21 | 0:52:24 | |
Sir, I am sorry that Mr Norman Hare
disliked Magical Mystery Tour. | 0:52:48 | 0:52:53 | |
We are an elderly couple and had
never seen or heard of The Beatles. | 0:52:53 | 0:52:57 | |
The film entranced us
and was all too short. | 0:52:57 | 0:53:02 | |
I thought it a clever blend of all
too real life and pure magic. | 0:53:02 | 0:53:06 | |
They achieved the atmosphere
of a coach tour perfectly, | 0:53:07 | 0:53:10 | |
the surge of humanity from the coach
at each stop, the sad wet sands | 0:53:10 | 0:53:14 | |
of the inevitable dead low
tide on West Country beaches. | 0:53:14 | 0:53:18 | |
These and other points were cleverly
heightened by the fantastic | 0:53:19 | 0:53:22 | |
dream or nightmare sequences, | 0:53:22 | 0:53:25 | |
also familiar to the coach tourer
who has nodded off. | 0:53:25 | 0:53:27 | |
The photography was imaginative
and original | 0:53:29 | 0:53:31 | |
and I laughed till I cried
several times. | 0:53:31 | 0:53:36 | |
But I fear they will not make
another film like it, | 0:53:36 | 0:53:39 | |
and perhaps they had better not try. | 0:53:39 | 0:53:42 | |
Yours faithfully, Ann Lee
Michelle (Mrs). Milverton, Somerset. | 0:53:42 | 0:53:47 | |
FIDDLE MUSIC | 0:53:50 | 0:53:53 | |
I think there is within them, a kind
of English idea of subversion, | 0:54:09 | 0:54:15 | |
rather than the American idea
of subversion, of stone throwing | 0:54:15 | 0:54:19 | |
and that sort of thing,
so it's much subtler, | 0:54:19 | 0:54:22 | |
because England as itself is
a very different place, | 0:54:22 | 0:54:25 | |
observing it for 50 years
as a foreigner, an outsider. | 0:54:25 | 0:54:29 | |
The way the English respond
and change is quite different | 0:54:29 | 0:54:34 | |
from the way other nations, they
don't actually go at it head on. | 0:54:34 | 0:54:37 | |
It's a sort of travelogue,
it's a sort of documentary, | 0:54:46 | 0:54:50 | |
it's a sort of slice of British
working class life. | 0:54:50 | 0:54:53 | |
It has so many goodies in it, but
I can understand why establishment | 0:54:53 | 0:54:58 | |
felt threatened by what The Beatles
were doing, because you know, | 0:54:58 | 0:55:02 | |
if everyone grows their hair long
who's going to be in the army? | 0:55:02 | 0:55:05 | |
Get your bloody hair cut! | 0:55:05 | 0:55:09 | |
For me, it certainly still holds up. | 0:55:10 | 0:55:12 | |
The imagery was created without
CGI at a time when it was | 0:55:12 | 0:55:17 | |
all photochemical, and some of it
we may have gotten used to now. | 0:55:17 | 0:55:21 | |
Now of course, the emphasis
on professionalism, | 0:55:21 | 0:55:23 | |
and polish and politeness is very,
very...has come back now | 0:55:23 | 0:55:27 | |
with a vengeance, it's expected
and there's a tendency to forget | 0:55:27 | 0:55:32 | |
that's really only one choice,
you know, one way of going. | 0:55:32 | 0:55:36 | |
I think it's brilliant, I think it's
just a laugh, | 0:55:40 | 0:55:42 | |
and I don't think that's just
because of our memories, | 0:55:42 | 0:55:45 | |
I think it's just a piece of film
that would be enjoyable. | 0:55:45 | 0:55:48 | |
I don't care what the people
think about it, I'm still proud to
be part of it. Yes, yeah. | 0:55:48 | 0:55:53 | |
THEY SING | 0:55:53 | 0:55:57 | |
It's a charming acknowledgement,
and indeed perhaps a profession, | 0:56:01 | 0:56:07 | |
in a very positive way,
of these are the people we are, | 0:56:07 | 0:56:11 | |
and these are the people
we've become, mixed together. | 0:56:11 | 0:56:14 | |
# Let's all get up
and dance to a song | 0:56:18 | 0:56:21 | |
# That was a hit before
your mother was born | 0:56:21 | 0:56:24 | |
# Though she was a born
a long, long time ago... # | 0:56:24 | 0:56:30 | |
Ha. God, he's the worst dancer! | 0:56:30 | 0:56:32 | |
# Your mother should know | 0:56:34 | 0:56:37 | |
# Sing it again... # | 0:56:37 | 0:56:40 | |
Yeah, Your Mother Should Know,
the dancing boys. | 0:56:40 | 0:56:43 | |
How great. | 0:56:43 | 0:56:46 | |
# Before your mother was born...# | 0:56:46 | 0:56:50 | |
Who choreographed that? | 0:56:50 | 0:56:52 | |
I don't know if we did that or not,
it looked too real for us, | 0:56:52 | 0:56:55 | |
because it was all...you know, I'd
like to say I did but I don't know. | 0:56:55 | 0:57:01 | |
You can see that in some
of the segments we'd had no idea, | 0:57:14 | 0:57:17 | |
there's just a smiley face
in number four, | 0:57:17 | 0:57:19 | |
so that was like,
"We'll think of something fun." | 0:57:19 | 0:57:22 | |
And I think we thought that just to
have an improvised film would give | 0:57:28 | 0:57:32 | |
us a lot of freedom and would also
show the kind of playfulness and the | 0:57:32 | 0:57:39 | |
freedom that we were experiencing
as The Beatles at that time. | 0:57:39 | 0:57:43 | |
However, we realised we had to have
something to show people, | 0:57:44 | 0:57:48 | |
and when the cameraman would say,
"Where do you want me to be?" | 0:57:48 | 0:57:50 | |
you'd say, "On the coach,
in the morning, 9 o'clock," | 0:57:50 | 0:57:54 | |
and then we thought, well,
that's enough information. | 0:57:54 | 0:57:56 | |
# Your mother should know | 0:57:56 | 0:57:59 | |
# Your mother should know | 0:57:59 | 0:58:03 | |
# Your mother should know... # | 0:58:03 | 0:58:05 | |
You know, you could argue that,
oh, The Beatles caught the bus, | 0:58:05 | 0:58:08 | |
but The Beatles didn't catch
the bus, they were the bus. | 0:58:08 | 0:58:12 | |
# Roll up | 0:58:12 | 0:58:15 | |
# Roll up for the mystery tour | 0:58:15 | 0:58:19 | |
# Roll up
And that's an invitation | 0:58:19 | 0:58:23 | |
# Roll up for the mystery tour | 0:58:23 | 0:58:27 | |
# Roll up
To make a reservation | 0:58:27 | 0:58:30 | |
# Roll up for the mystery tour | 0:58:30 | 0:58:33 | |
# The magical mystery tour
is coming to take you away | 0:58:33 | 0:58:41 | |
# Coming to take you away | 0:58:41 | 0:58:45 | |
# The magical mystery tour
is dying to take you away | 0:58:45 | 0:58:52 | |
# Dying to take you away
Take you today. # | 0:58:52 | 0:58:57 |
Arena presents the greatest Beatles story never told, a blockbuster double-bill. Beginning with a documentary full of fabulous Beatles archive material never shown before anywhere in the world.
Songs you'll never forget, the film you've never seen and a story that's never been heard. In 1967, in the wake of the extraordinary impact of Sgt. Pepper, The Beatles made a film - a dreamlike story of a coach daytrip, a magical mystery tour. It was seen by a third of the nation, at 8.35pm on BBC1 on Boxing Day - an expectant public, hoping for some light entertainment for a family audience.
Magical Mystery Tour was greeted with outrage and derision by middle England and the establishment media.
'How dare they', they cried, 'They're not film directors, who do they think they are?' they howled. Where were the four lovable moptops of Help! and A Hard Day's Night?
What propelled The Beatles to make this surreal, startling and - at the time - utterly misunderstood film?
Roll up roll up for the Mystery Tour!