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Post by Andy Howells on Nov 25, 2007 16:47:58 GMT
I remember reading somewhere that Michael Parkinson had John Lennon and Yoko Ono on his Chatshow in the early 70's but this was wiped, yet I'm sure I recently saw an excerpt or brief clip of it in John's Imagine film from the early 70's, is it possible his estate still retains a copy?
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Post by Peter Elliott on Nov 25, 2007 17:06:06 GMT
Yes, this was in Parkys' 1st series in 1971 and was Lennon's last appearance on British TV before he left for America. The BBC wiped almost all of that 1st series but it seems a film recording has survived. I have read that a copy was found in a European TV archive, but the "Imagine" movie excerpts I would guess came from John and Yokos own archive since they were in the habit of having recordings made for their own archive. When they did the BBC documentary in 1969, John and Yoko allowed the BBC unlimited access to them under the condition that they were able to have the raw footage featuring of course all the outtakes. That footage was put to good use in this movie.
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Post by Mark Tinkler on Nov 26, 2007 13:00:44 GMT
I worked on a John Lennon project last year which was still-born but I returned a copy of that Parky to the BBC made from Yoko's own copy as they had nothing in the BBC archives of it. "Imagine" was not a BBC project but certainly they had a 16mm tele-recording of that show made, and it is a copy of that recording that Yoko still has.
The copy I returned to the BBC is not great, but certainly good enough to transmit should they want to in clip form.
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Post by Andy Howells on Nov 26, 2007 13:08:45 GMT
I heard Parky's looking at the possibility of doing a retrospective series of all his classic interviews now he's technically retired, lets hope this one gets to be seen once again...
It would be a good remindewr of his classic era as well as seeing some rare John Lennon footage!
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Post by Peter Elliott on Nov 26, 2007 13:24:22 GMT
I worked on a John Lennon project last year which was still-born but I returned a copy of that Parky to the BBC made from Yoko's own copy as they had nothing in the BBC archives of it. "Imagine" was not a BBC project but certainly they had a 16mm tele-recording of that show made, and it is a copy of that recording that Yoko still has. The copy I returned to the BBC is not great, but certainly good enough to transmit should they want to in clip form. I'm sure if the 16mm footage was given over to the Doctor Who Restoration Team they would be able to restore it as close as possible to its original videotape glory. The technology is there to be able to do such work. It is interesting that Yoko had a 16mm copy of that yet had VT copies of the "Instant Karma" TOTP performances. I read that when Yoko released the elusive version the BBC didn't have on the "Lennon Legend" DVD (the "blue" version with Mal Evans on tambourine) she gave copies back to the BBC. On the DVD though, it was dubbed with the released version of the song for full stereo sound... it would be nice to see it with its original mono soundtrack since Lennon did do a live vocal on those TOTP performances. I just find it odd she didn't have the Parkinson show on VT as well, but the thankful thing is, it has survived and an opportunity to see it would be very welcome. |
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Post by lpmoderator on Nov 26, 2007 16:42:15 GMT
This is one i've always really wanted to see again myself! As you say, given it's importance, the DW team should be allowed to work their wonders on it. What is the quality of the returned copy like? Is it 16mm colour t/r transferred to broadcast tape? To get the best out of the recording though, a direct transfer from Yoko's original would be the best way to proceed. Wonder if she's been approached? It's worth her while too as she could have a pristine Vidfired / restored version out of it.
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Post by Mark Tinkler on Nov 27, 2007 3:11:28 GMT
her original is a NTSC u-matic - so it's already been converted to NTSC from a PAL tele-recording, I don't think it can be vidfired. The quality is too poor anyway , as the film was pretty grubby and a bad looking tele-recording so not worth the expense, believe me - it also has extracts missing so not worth it. Don't forget there's no performance anyway on that show, only chat.
Only one of a couple of things I returned back to copyright holders after my sojourn with the Lennon archives...
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Post by lpmoderator on Nov 27, 2007 10:51:42 GMT
her original is a NTSC u-matic - so it's already been converted to NTSC from a PAL tele-recording, I don't think it can be vidfired. The quality is too poor anyway , as the film was pretty grubby and a bad looking tele-recording so not worth the expense, believe me - it also has extracts missing so not worth it. Don't forget there's no performance anyway on that show, only chat. Only one of a couple of things I returned back to copyright holders after my sojourn with the Lennon archives... I'm a bit puzzled! If Yoko's original is an NTSC U-matic, then it isn't a telerecording. Are you saying she then had a copy of the U-matic transferred to colour t/r for her own use while still retaining the U-matic? Why are there extracts missing too? Was it some kind of rough cut? Even if it's poor quality, i'm sure that a lot can still be done with it; the DW restoration team have worked wonders with very substandard master material indeed! A U-matic original would still offer much better source material than the t/r (if it's a generation up from that) and would contain a generation less of film imperfections etc. that had additionally been introduced into the chain. A U-matic could be RSC'd (losing the NTSC motion blur in the process) , cleaned up, vidfired. Worth a go if Yoko would let them tackle it - you seem like the ideal mediator to get the idea running too, having worked "on the inside" there, Mark! |
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Post by Andy Howells on Nov 27, 2007 12:02:59 GMT
Don't forget there's no performance anyway on that show, only chat. Even more so why its interesting! I always find John did the best interviews be it if the subject matter is serious or lighthearted... I think the restoration team have already converted back NTSC material to PAL - wasnt "The Claws of Axos" done this way? Even if there is a pcolour problem - it might be good to see it in Black and White - any Lennon footage is always a bonus! |
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Post by Peter Elliott on Nov 27, 2007 13:03:15 GMT
Don't forget there's no performance anyway on that show, only chat. Even more so why its interesting! I always find John did the best interviews be it if the subject matter is serious or lighthearted... I think the restoration team have already converted back NTSC material to PAL - wasnt "The Claws of Axos" done this way? Even if there is a pcolour problem - it might be good to see it in Black and White - any Lennon footage is always a bonus! Precisely. Any Lennon interview footage is always interesting. Look at the Bob Harris one he did in 1975. Across 15 minutes, Lennon gave one of the most entertaining interviews I've ever seen. As for the Axos process, it was processed from the NTSC videotape using RSC - Reverse Standard Conversion - which restored the original framerate as best as possible to achieve a look closer to the PAL version that was originally broadcast. "Inferno" received the same treatment, but again these were from videotape copies, not telerecordings. "Inferno" came in for some criticism but in all fairness when one considers the original source material they had to work from, the result was excellent, most notably in restoring a more convincing colour balance which had originally been very yellow based. The Restoration Team has said that vidfiring a colour telerecording would require a different process and method. |
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Post by Andy Howells on Nov 27, 2007 13:43:53 GMT
Thanks Peter!
I'm a bit vague on these matters but always appreciative of the restoration teams work - still lets hope some of this footage eventually comes to light - I've always been curious to see it!
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Post by Mark Tinkler on Nov 28, 2007 1:05:05 GMT
Trust me - after 20 years researching archive for TV I know what a tele-recording looks like. And this was a very crappy one to begin with. The BBC have a copy of it already that I gave to them so they can do what they like with it but for legal reasons I cannot go into, I cannot approach Yoko - and I'm pretty sure she wouldn't be interested anyway. I'm pretty sure that the NTSC U-matic was made from the poor telerecording print that the "Imagine " documentary team made from the original tape to us clips in their original version of "Imagine" which was shot on film, which is why they would have wanted a film of the Parky in the first place. I'm sure Yoko got a copy as the bits that are missing are the bits not in the doc. But on an upbeat point, another thing I was able to return to the current ATV archive holders was a copy of this homepage.ntlworld.com/carousel/pob02.html - it was going to be shown at a "Missing , Believed Wiped" a couple of years back but they didn't get the permission from Yoko in time. Also, it had alot of clips of Beatles archive which would need clearing from Apple. |
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Post by Peter Elliott on Nov 28, 2007 10:46:08 GMT
Thanks for clarifying the state of the telerecording.
Good to know "Man Of The Decade" does exist - I always assumed it did but didn't know it was missing. I was a bit confused by that since the BBC crew making their own documentary shot footage of the ATV crew filming their interview with Lennon!
Is it the whole show or just the Lennon section? Either way, it's a great find.
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Post by Mark Tinkler on Nov 28, 2007 11:52:32 GMT
yeah, BBC shooting an ATV crew IS confusing...
Just the Lennon section which was the final part of the programme.
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Post by Andy Howells on Nov 28, 2007 12:28:07 GMT
I was a bit confused by that since the BBC crew making their own documentary shot footage of the ATV crew filming their interview with Lennon! Yes - I had one of those unofficial Beatles documentary videos bought for me several years back which featured this clip - it begins with someone holding a clapperboard announcing John Lennon - Man Of The decade if I remember rightly and then John goes on about how excited he is about the 70's... Its interesting what found their way onto those videos, theres a similar type of documentary currently running on the mainstreet channel featuring ITN footage of The Beatles which is worth catching if you have an hour to spare, its just the terrible links you have to tolerate along the way telling you either useless information or in some cases inaccurate... Thanks also Mark for clarifying the status of the Parkinson footage |
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