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Post by markdixon on Sept 3, 2020 20:23:11 GMT
I’ve found out a bit more about the evening of programmes that Granada supplied to a West German TV station in 1966. Somebody posted the TV listing on Twitter. The programmes were broadcast on the 3rd TV channel for Northern Germany and Berlin on 08 October 1966.
This is what was shown:
19:30 Teleclub: Ein Abend bei Granada TV London 19:30 University Challenge 20:00 Coronation Street 20:30 Court Martial 21:25 News 21:40 Cinema 22:10 Milly and Roy 23:00 Scene 23:30 Wrestling
The episodes of ‘Coronation Street’ and ‘Court Martial’ still exist. I’m not sure about ‘Milly and Roy’. That was a programme that starred Millicent Martin. The rest of the programmes are probably missing. Are they hidden away in a German TV archive?
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Post by markdixon on Jul 12, 2020 14:21:55 GMT
I started a thread recently about ‘The Kenny Everett Explosion’, and this got me thinking about other aspects of Kenny’s early TV career. I’ve found a few details about some of his little-known TV appearances and I thought I’d share them here.
Granada’s continuity man
Everett was hired as the continuity announcer for the Granada region for the Christmas week of 1968. This followed his success as one of the presenters of ‘Nice Time’. This was the first time Granada had ever used an in-vision continuity announcer.
There was an interview with Everett in the TV Times (Granada edition) 21-27 December 1968. It was promised that he’d be ‘feeding platefuls of laughs as Granada’s continuity man’. He was asked what he was working on for his festive presentation stint. He replied, “Something zany I suppose. That’s what they say about me isn’t it? That zany disc jockey. All good fun isn’t it …”
As far as I know, none of his links survive. Transdiffusion have audio clips of Granada TV continuity from the 60s, but they don’t seem to have anything from Christmas 1968.
‘Claim to Fame’
In 1971, Everett was the host of a 3-part series on BBC West called ‘Claim to Fame’. This was shown on Tuesday nights from 02 November 1971 to 16 November 1971. The series involved a ‘search for talent’, but it wasn’t a talent show in the traditional sense. Each episode featured filmed reports about people in the South West of England with unusual jobs or hobbies. Each week, the person with the best story became a champion. Viewers were encouraged to contact the programme if they thought they had a better claim to fame than the champions.
‘Claim to Fame’ doesn’t show up in BBC Genome because it was a regional programme. The series was mentioned briefly in the ‘Hello Darlings!’ biography, but the authors seemed to think it was a radio programme.
All that survives of the series is a black and white 45 second outtake. This was made available on the news section of the BBC website in 2017 and it’s still there (search for ‘Kenny Everett film clip discovered in BBC archives’).
Any further information is welcome.
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Post by markdixon on Jul 1, 2020 16:22:18 GMT
I had a look at previous threads that mention Kenny Everett’s early TV appearances. Someone had a vague recollection of a film insert featuring Kenny as the Pied Piper pursued by dancing actors dressed as mice or rats. There was a song by Smokey Robinson and The Miracles on the soundtrack. It wasn’t clear if this was from ‘The Kenny Everett Explosion’ or ‘Ev’.
I’ve managed to find some details regarding this clip. I can confirm that it was from ‘The Kenny Everett Explosion’. The clip was filmed on the playing field of Wembley Manor Primary School, not far from the LWT studios. Children from the school dressed up in rat costumes. During the filming, ‘The Tears of a Clown’ was played on a big speaker.
A couple of people on Twitter have written about this clip recently because they were pupils at the school at the time. Neither of them remembered the name of the programme. I looked at the British Newspaper Archive and I found an article from the Harrow Observer (10 September 1970) which included a passing reference to Kenny Everett’s recent visit to the school. A pupil was so inspired by the filming that she painted a picture featuring the Pied Piper and this won a prize in a national art competition for children.
‘The Tears of a Clown’ was released as a single in the UK on 17 July 1970, so it’s possible that the film clip was shown on ‘The Kenny Everett Explosion’ on that date.
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Post by markdixon on Jun 26, 2020 17:55:38 GMT
The Rex Features website has 40 colour publicity photographs from ‘The Kenny Everett Explosion’ which capture a lot of different elements of the series. There are shots of Kenny in various guises (caveman, gangster, racing driver, test card girl, Mr Hyde etc). The Gran puppet also appears in one of the images. It looks like the series featured quite a lot of location filming. For example, there’s an image of Kenny stood in front of the Houses of Parliament holding a placard that says, ‘Ban Everything’.
Rex Features also have 11 images from ‘Ev’ showing a slightly different studio design from the earlier series. I’ve not been able to find any images from ‘Making Whoopee’ online.
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Post by markdixon on Jun 24, 2020 18:47:16 GMT
Kenny Everett made 3 different series for LWT in 1970 and these have been discussed on this forum several times. I thought I’d create a thread for the first of these series, The Kenny Everett Explosion, because very little is known about its contents.
The series was an attempt to transfer Everett’s radio show to television. The show contained jingles and short comedy sketches (such as one featuring Everett as the test card girl). There were also a few musical guests. The best and worst of the new record releases were accompanied by clips from old films selected by Philip Jenkinson. Do any of these musical sequences still survive in the Filmfinders archive? (www.milibrary.com/collections/filmfinders/)
Here’s some info about individual episodes:
10 July 1970: Nancy Banks-Smith reviewed this episode in The Guardian (11 July 1970):
I did not greatly care for three particularly tasteless ideas: a very fat lady dancing in a manner that reminded one of those exercises recommended for enlarging the bust … a lady busker doing her best in the gutter … and a joke about deafness. I could have wished it was on earlier. Its mere noisiness would have kept the children quiet while I made tea.
17 July 1970: No information available 24 July 1970: No information available 31 July 1970: This episode featured ‘Lola’ by The Kinks and ‘Lady D’Arbanville’ by Cat Stevens. Were these studio performances or Filmfinders clips? There was also a Golden Oldies spot.
James Preston reviewed the episode in The Stage, (06 August 1970):
The series is not as inventive as Granada's Nice Time, but it does contain elements of bizarre inspiration such as the fat lady dancer, the well-cut archive film which illustrate and send-up the discs as well as Mack Sennett slapstick.
07 August 1970: No information available 14 August 1970: First appearance of Crisp the butler played by Brian Colville 21 August 1970: Bruce Gowers replaced Gordon Hesketh as series director 28 August 1970: Here’s the TV Times listing for this episode:
Mr Everett adds yet another to his wide-ranging talents today – he flies. There are no wings and it’s not all done with mirrors, folks! This week’s Golden Earhole award goes to Dusty Springfield for her latest recording, there’s a number from Simon and Garfunkel’s LP, Bridge Over Troubled Water, and a clip from Yellow Submarine (remember the When I’m 64 sequence?) all-tied up with Kenny’s all-bubbling, all-bouncing zany style. Note for fans: the end-credit cartoons. Guess who draws them? Kenny Everett!
04 September 1970: Part 1 of this episode exists (the only surviving footage from the series). Has anyone seen it recently? What are the contents? I checked the relevant edition of the TV Times (Anglia edition), but it wasn’t much help because it contained details of the episode from the previous week. 11 September 1970: John Lawrence reviewed this episode in The Stage, (17 September 1970):
It included the good news that his series is to return later but, apart from that, it was a disappointing programme, which failed to improve upon the standards which it had begun to achieve in the latter half of the series. The most successful programmes in the series achieved a balance between uninhibited imagination, zaniness and technical virtuosity, which was reminiscent of radio's Goon Show, and whose nearest parallel on television was Spike Milligan's Q5. The problem with achieving this kind of balance, however, is that before getting there with any degree of regularity, one is likely to have to sit through a great deal of prurient rubbish, while director, writer and performer sort themselves out. The Kenny Everett Show has had its share of banality. It has also risked looking amateurish and slipshod in an attempt not to be influenced by other programmes, and to create its own style and way of presentation. At times it has succeeded brilliantly. The programme's use of split screen, stop-frame, Chroma-key, and other devices has been imaginative and effective.
Any further information is welcome.
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Post by markdixon on Jun 15, 2020 16:10:43 GMT
I haven’t been able to find any information about a BBC TV appearance by The Gods. However, I’ve discovered that a colour promo film was made in 1968 for their song ‘Baby’s Rich’. This is on YouTube. The promo film was made by Eyemark Films, a company headed by an ex-BBC cameraman called Mark Edwards. Eyemark Films also made a promo for ‘Legend of Xanadu’ by Dave Dee, Beaky, Mick and Tich. It’s possible that these Eyemark promo films were shown on BBC TV.
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Post by markdixon on Jun 7, 2020 10:57:12 GMT
Recently, I listened to an edition of ‘Everett is Here’ (BBC Radio 1, 13 September 1969). In this show, Kenny Everett gave ‘She Came In Through The Bathroom Window’ its first ever radio spin and then he announced details of the ‘Abbey Road’ special:
…and this coming Friday, on the 19th, Late Night Line-Up with Miss Joan Bakewell who will be discussing the album and playing every track …EVERY TRACK! Late Night Line-Up, 10:55, 19th September, in which she’ll be asking questions like, “Yes, terrific tune and wonderful words, but don’t you think the specific influence of such a paradox does make one a little aware of the transient peripherals?” to which John Lennon will probably reply, “Oh aye, there’s no telling y’know.”
My transcription doesn’t capture Everett’s funny delivery, so I recommend listening to the show on Mixcloud.
I imagine some viewers were disappointed by the ‘Abbey Road’ special because it didn't contain interviews with the Beatles.
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Post by markdixon on May 18, 2020 16:10:11 GMT
I’ll add Skip Bifferty to my ‘Firstimers’ list on the other thread. I haven’t got an exact date for their appearance on the show, but I think it probably took place in August 1967. Their debut single, ‘On Love’ was released in the UK on 11 August 1967. ‘Firstimers’ was billed as a talent contest, but sometimes the show was used as a promotional spot for debut singles.
I looked through all the relevant issues of the Northern ‘TV Times’ to compile my list and there was no sign of Skip Bifferty. It’s possible that their TV debut was mentioned in one of the music papers at the time. It’s worth keeping an eye on the American Radio History website. Their collection of scanned British music papers from the Sixties is added to almost every week.
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Post by markdixon on May 6, 2020 19:03:54 GMT
‘The Rave’ was recorded at the Granada studios on 06 March 1967. The Move performed ‘Night of Fear’ and another song, and Pink Floyd performed ‘Arnold Layne’. Apparently, Granada hoped that the show would be shown across the ITV network, but this never happened.
‘The Rave’ doesn’t appear in any TV listings and most sources say it was never broadcast. However, the following letter from the NME (18 March 1967) suggests it was shown in the Granada region (which included Yorkshire at the time):
...I've just watched the Move and the Pink Floyd on TV, and the show was great,because both these groups produce the most fantastic freak-out music! Susan Broadfield (Cleckheaton Yorks)
I’ve mentioned before in a previous thread that I believe that ‘The Rave’ was broadcast at 10:05 p.m. on 06 March 1967 as an episode of Granada’s ‘Scene’ series. ‘Scene’ is remembered as a news programme, but it often featured other formats such as documentaries, topical discussions and comedy revues. Therefore, a one-off pop show could easily have been transmitted under the ‘Scene’ banner.
A few years ago, I found this letter in the Northern edition of TV Times (25 March-31 March 1967), which seems to be about the programme.
Scene of Success
Granada should be congratulated for showing the daring experiment which made up “Scene” on March 6.
By combining things which are already in existence – free pop music, satire, psychedelic visuals, and the kind of condensed philosophy which made Bob Dylan, and now the LSD people notorious – something greater than any of these was created – something teeming with imagination – something which only TV can put over.
Tim Horrocks Leigh, Lancs
Pink Floyd also appeared in the ‘Scene Special: It’s So Far Out It’s Straight Down’ broadcast by Granada on 07 March 1967.
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Post by markdixon on Apr 21, 2020 15:44:38 GMT
There’s been some speculation on the Steve Hoffman music forum and elsewhere about the amount of screen time that was taken up by the barbershop quartet in the ‘Maxwell’ animation. I think it was only a few seconds. Someone from Dig Media tweeted on 10 November 2019 that the animation cell signed by the Beatles was the closing frame of the clip. I think the first 3 minutes of the animation featured Maxwell and his victims, and then the final few seconds showed the barbershop quartet singing along to the ‘silver hammer man’ choral section at the end of the song.
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Post by markdixon on Apr 20, 2020 15:04:29 GMT
As far as I’m aware, Dig Media have the entire ‘Abbey Road’ special, but they’re currently working on improving the picture quality and the process is quite time-consuming. Here’s what they wrote on YouTube about a week ago:
A few clips and stills have been uploaded for viewer's curiosity and the rest needs a serious recovery. Restoration plans have been significantly slowed with covid-19, though progress is still being made. We have what we need in hand for now. Likely we'll have more to show once we're satisfied with the quality. Like many with the current pandemic, we can't put an accurate timeline on for now, apologies. We also have to keep business going to support ourselves. Thanks again for the interest, appreciated.
I’ve checked the Trove Australian Newspaper archive, and I couldn’t find any evidence that ‘Late Night Line Up’ was ever broadcast there. I doubt the Beatles special was shown in Australia as a one-off. I also searched for ‘Beatles’ and ‘Abbey Road’ and there was no sign of the programme. It’s possible that the clip of ‘Maxwell’s Silver Hammer’ was shown on Australian television at some point in the early Seventies, but it would be difficult to find out precise details.
Regarding the archival status of ‘Late Night Line Up’, I’ve looked through previous threads and it appears that there are about 470 complete or partially surviving editions in existence. This seems a lot, but when you consider that there were 3,000 editions, it’s only a small fraction of what was broadcast.
No editions of ‘Points of View’ survive from 1969 or 1970. Part of an edition of 'Junior Points of View' survives from 08 May 1970. Some fragments of ‘Points of View’ from the Sixties have turned up on surviving film recordings of adjoining live programmes, but I don’t have further details.
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Post by markdixon on Dec 18, 2019 19:27:36 GMT
Here are the dates:
17 October 1962: “Some Other Guy” and “Love Me Do”
02 November 1962: “A Taste of Honey” (“Love Me Do” was also performed on the programme)
17 December 1962: “Twist and Shout” (“Love Me Do” was also performed on the programme)
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Post by markdixon on Dec 2, 2019 20:11:55 GMT
There were a vast number of music performances on ‘Scene at 6.30’, so I’m almost certain that some missing footage will turn up one day. It’s possible that there might be clips hidden away in overseas archives. Earlier in this thread, I quoted a line from Johnnie Hamp’s ‘TV Times’ article from 1968, in which he recalled the early days of the programme:
Overnight the Mersey Sound became internationally famous. We sold thousands of feet of film of the new pop idols to TV stations around the world.
What was this footage and which countries bought it? I know that Granada sold their ‘Yeah, Yeah, Yeah’: The Beatles In New York’ documentary and ‘The Music of Lennon and McCartney’ special to countries around the world. However, I haven’t been able to find any examples so far of ‘Scene’ footage of the Beatles or other pop groups being shown on foreign pop shows during the 1960s.
I know that an episode of ‘Scene at 6.30’ was included in a night of Granada programmes shown by a West German TV station on 9th October 1965 as part of a cultural exchange. Does this episode still exist in a German TV archive?
Also, a ‘Scene’ documentary about Twiggy was sold for broadcast to New York’s WPIX station in 1967. This programme still exists in the ITV archives, but it’s possible that WPIX may have purchased other ‘Scene’ specials too.
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Post by markdixon on Dec 2, 2019 20:10:25 GMT
Hi William,
Thanks for the information.
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Post by markdixon on Nov 27, 2019 18:48:09 GMT
?? Aug 65: The Almost Blues / ?? Aug 65: Chubby Checker /?? Aug 65 (?): Sylvan Mason - ‘We Don’t Belong’ /?? Aug 1965: Sonny and Cher - ‘I Got You Babe’ / 03 Aug 65: The Walker Brothers / 04 Aug 65: The Byrds – “Mr Tambourine Man” / 06 Aug 65: Carolyn Hester / 10 Aug 65: Paddy, Klaus and Gibson / 16 Aug 65: Lulu / 18 Aug 65: Herman's Hermits, St. Louis Union / 23 Aug 65: The Rolling Stones – ‘Satisfaction’ / 24 Aug 65: Jackie De Shannon / 25 Aug 65: The Hollies / 26 Aug 65: Cliff Bennett and the Rebel Rousers / 31 Aug 65: Herman's Hermits
01 Sep 65: Chubby Checker / 06 Sep 65: Manfred Mann / 07 Sep 65: Sandie Shaw / 15 Sep 65: Wayne Fontana and the Mindbenders / 16 Sep 65: Gary Lewis and the Playboys, Paul Simon / 17 Sep 65: Petula Clark / 21 Sep 65: Paul and Barry Ryan / 27 Sep 65: Bo Diddley / 28 Sep 65: The Yardbirds - ‘Evil Hearted You’ / 29 Sep 65: The Searchers
?? Oct 65: Freddie and the Dreamers / 11 Oct 65: Lulu / 12 Oct 65: Barry McGuire, The Fortunes / 13 Oct 65: The Nashville Teens / 14 Oct 65: Fritz, Mike and Mo / 19 Oct 65: The Hollies / 20 Oct 65: Ben E. King / 21 Oct 1965: Paul and Barry Ryan / 22 Oct 65: The Moody Blues / 29 Oct 65: Gerry and the Pacemakers
04 Nov 65: Billy J. Kramer and the Dakotas / 12 Nov 65: Sir Douglas Quintet / 19 Nov 65: The Fourmost / 24 Nov 65: The Hollies / 25 Nov 65: The Searchers / 26 Nov 65: The Walker Brothers - ‘My Ship is Coming In’, Wayne Fontana / 30 Nov 65: The Toys
07 Dec 65: Tom Jones / 13 Dec 65: Joe Tex / 16 Dec 65: Johnny Tillotson / 17 Dec 65: Major Lance, Esther Phillips / 20 Dec 65: Nina Simone / 21 Dec 65: Dee Dee Warwick
Also in 1965: The Koobas / Roy and The Rest – ‘Georgia On My Mind’ / Ivan's Meads
?? Jan 1966: Friday Brown - ‘Getting Nowhere’ / 03 Jan 66: Lulu / 05 Jan 66: Frankie Vaughan / 06 Jan 66: Fontella Bass / 14 Jan 66: The Exciters / 20 Jan 66: Lee Dorsey / 25 Jan 66: Dusty Springfield / 26 Jan 66: The Small Faces – ‘Sha La La La Lee’ / 31 Jan 66: Chad and Jeremy
01 Feb 66: Vic Dana, Crispian St Peters / 02 Feb 66: Eddy Arnold / 03 Feb 66: The Four Pennies / 04 Feb 66: Inez and Charlie Foxx / 07 Feb 66: Doris Troy / 08 Feb 66: Len Barry / 09 Feb 66: The Animals / 10 Feb 66: Peter and Gordon / 11 Feb 66: Billy Fury –‘I'll Never Quite Get Over You’ / 16 Feb 66: The Hollies / 17 Feb 66: Unit Four Plus Two / 21 Feb 66: Gene Pitney / 22 Feb 1966: The Walker Brothers / ?? Feb 66: The Cryin’ Shames – ‘Please Stay’
01 Mar 66: Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick and Tich / 07 Mar 66: The Bachelors –‘Sound of Silence’ , The Who - ‘Substitute’ / 10 Mar 66: Clarence "Frogman" Henry, Bob Lind / 14 Mar 66: Irma Thomas (backed by Sons of Adam) / 16 Mar 66: The Yardbirds - ‘Shapes of Things’ / 21 Mar 66: Billy Joe Royal / 22 Mar 66: Chris Andrews/ 23 Mar 66: Cilla Black / 28 Mar 66: Dusty Springfield - 'You Don't Have To Say You Love Me' / 31 Mar 66: Arthur Alexander
01 Apr 66: Alan Price / 04 Apr 66: Martha and the Vandellas / 13 Apr 66: Wayne Fontana, The Searchers / 14 Apr 66: Lewis Rich / 18 Apr 66: Lee Dorsey / 27 Apr 66: The Mindbenders / 29 Apr 66: Manfred Mann
02 May 1966: The Small Faces / 12 May 66: Sandie Shaw – ‘Nothing Comes Easy’ / 13 May 66: Tom Jones – ‘I'm Not Responsible’ / 16 May 66: Johnny Cash, Jimmy James and the Vagabonds / 17 May 1966: Gary Walker / 18 May 1966: The Troggs / 30 May 1966: Marianne Faithfull
06 Jun 66: Jay and the Americans / 10 Jun 1966 – Marianne Faithfull / 13 Jun 1966: The Beatles - ‘Paperback Writer’ (this promo still exists) / 14 Jun 66: Chris Farlowe / 15 Jun 66: The Hollies – ‘Bus Stop’ / 17 Jun 66: Dave Berry / 22 Jun 1966: The Kinks - ‘Sunny Afternoon’ / 27 Jun 66: Billy Stewart
Music performances from Scene (missing unless otherwise specified)
06 Jul 66: Dusty Springfield, Norma Tanega / 13 Jul 1966: Simon and Garfunkel, Geno Washington and the Ram Jam Band / 20 Jul 66: The Alan Price Set – ‘Hi-Lili,Hi-Lo’, Geno Washington and the Ram Jam Band / 27 Jul 66: Manfred Mann – ‘Just Like A Woman’
24 Aug 66: The Mindbenders
07 Sep 66: Lulu / 28 Sep 66: Small Faces special (this possibly exists in a private collection)
?? Oct 66: The Easybeats /?? Oct 66: Carolyn Hester
09 Nov 66: Dai Francis - 'Almost Persuaded', Elkie Brooks / 23 Nov 66: Little Richard / 25 Nov 66: Wayne Fontana
Also in 1966: John Andrews and the Lonely Ones – ‘A Rose Growing In The Ruins’ / The She Trinity / The Dimples / The Chuckles / Wee Willie Harris ‘Scene’ special (this still exists) / several performances by Friday Brown / The Measles / Tony Merrick
01 Feb 67: The Who / 15 Feb 67: Paul Jones, Sandy Posey / 08 Feb 67: Julie Felix / 18 Feb 67: PJ Proby / 22 Feb 67: Alan Price /01 Mar 67: Georgie Fame, Keith / 06 Mar 67: ‘The Rave’ pilot featuring The Move ('Night of Fear') and Pink Floyd ('Arnold Layne') / 07 Mar 67: ‘Scene’ special featuring Paul McCartney, Pink Floyd (this still exists) / 17 Mar 67: Georgie Fame - ‘Because I Love You So’ / 07 Apr 67: Manfred Mann / ?? Jul 67: Ruth Saxon /?? Aug 67: Foggy Dew-O / 17 Aug 67: Anita Harris / 27 (?) Sep 67: Yoko Ono – ‘Music of The Mind’ -performance art piece (this still exists)
Also in 1967: Feature about the Lemon Line (this exists) / Feature about the King Mojo Club in Sheffield (this exists) / Ethna Campbell / Adge Cutler and The Wurzels / several appearances by Foggy Dew-O
Early 68: Annie Bright / 16 Jan 68: Marty Wilde - ‘By The Time I Get To Phoenix’ / 19 Jan 68: Amen Corner / 19 Feb 68: Tim Rose – ‘I Got A Loneliness’ / 26 Feb 68: Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich - 'The Legend of Xanadu' / 15 Mar 68: Jimmy Powell and the Dimensions /?? Apr 68: Barclay James Harvest – ‘Mr Sunshine’ (this 10-minute film still exists)
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