45 Years ago today The Beatles Abbey Road was released


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Does anybody remember seeing the Late Night Line-Up programme show on BBC 2 on Friday 26th September about 11 o'clock?

The whole programme was devoted to a review of The Beatles newly released album Abbey Road. I've alluded to it already on another thread:

http://nottstalgia.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=9962&page=2&hl=%2Babbey+%2Broad#entry249840

It's probably lost forever because In common with many 1960s programmes any video recording was probably wiped. A few gems do still turn up like the recent Dr Who missing episodes that were found in Africa so you never know.

I bought Abbey Road on Saturday 27th Sept and still have it. I went to a workmate's party in Carlton that night and it was played over and over again. A bald headed lad called Stuart and acouple of his mates gatecrashed the party and we thought there might be trouble as he had a bit of a reputation but it was fine and everyone had a good time.

I think I've read about Stuart somewhere else on this Forum.

Abbey Road is an excellent album but not my favourite, Rubber Soul takes that accolade IMO.

I was 19 in Sept 1969 and seemed to get to a party most weekends. One weekend we went up to Middlesbrough to visit a couple of girls who'd left the Boots Labs in Beeston where I worked. They'd moved up there to work for ICI but I don't think they stayed up there long because it was so cold. The weekend we were there it snowed and that was November if I recall correctly.

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Yes. I remember that.

Shows the importance of the band that the BBC would devote a whole programme to the release of their album.

The Beatles never disappointed.

You could go and buy their latest release without even hearing it first and be in for a treat.

(Hard to imagine that happening now !).

I thought the programme was fantastic and I'd love to see it again if it still exists. If I remember rightly they had some crude kind of animation along with the lyrics to stuff like 'Maxwell's Silver Hammer'.

How many years is it since The Beatles played Nottingham Odeon ?

I enjoyed that programme on ITV last week about the 50th. anniversary of The Beatles first playing on the Ed Sullivan Show in the States.

Some great people doing Beatles songs: Stevie Wonder, Joe Walsh, Jeff Lynne, Dave Grohl etc.

Excellent - except for Alicia Keys crucifying Let It Be. (That woman is incapable of singing a song straight).

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I'm betting the Stuart you are talking about was going out with my hubby's cousin at that time. There can't be that many bald headed Stuarts around then. Nowadays it's fashionable for men to shave their heads, but he was very unusual then. I think he had alopaecia [sp?].

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  • 1 year later...

Did anyone see the programme a couple of weeks ago about the Favourite Beatles Number 1? Watched it with my grandson, trying to guess what would be the top 5 he was routing for Drive My Car and Norwegian Wood, neither of which were No 1s apparently. Good programme though, also told some of the stories behind the songs :)

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Fantastic programme, guessed that 'Hey Jude' would be No1. 'Drive my Car' and 'Norwegian Wood' were never issued as singles, that's why they weren't on there.

I recall seeing that the Beatles were going to be on the 'David Frost Show' and recall watching it as they performed 'Hey Jude' live, did the same with 'All You Need is Love' while supposedly revising for my Geography 'O' Level. One Direction and the other crap so-called 'Boy Bands', not a chance in comparison, actually quite pathetic and insulting, but the public love them, they have short memories of real talent.

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I'm with you re the modern boy bands Firbeck.

The Beatles performance of Hey Jude on The David Frost Show was outstanding. The audience participation at the end particularly.

My wife has bought me 1+ for Christmas which has all the No1's remastered plus the cleaned up videos on Blu -ray. The Hey Jude performance is on there so I'm looking forward to seeing the restored version.

Rubber Soul was an amazing album and was the start of their studio period. Revolver which followed in the summer of 1966 was also brilliant.

George Harrison said in an interview that he viewed Rubber Soul and Revolver as one album rather than two separate efforts.

I don't have a lot of time for modern music but Jeff Lynnes new album is well worth a listen and Jamie Lawson's "Wasn't expecting that" is a well crafted song. The last album I bought was James Taylor's Before This World. Great acoustic guitar and voice. Up there with Paul Simon.

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Sorry, I was very disappointed with James Taylor's last album, I found it so repetitive and pretty boring, October Road on the other hand I found very creative, original and self deprecating. Don't forget it was McCartney and Harrison that discovered James Taylor when they signed him up to Apple Records after finding him busking on the streets in London in 1968.

I thought that the gulf between the creativity of Rubber Soul and the previous album 'Help' was immense, the process had already started when Revolver was released, so George was right,they could have come out as a double album. Wouldn't have been the same though!

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Tomorrow Never Knows was Lennon's baby. He'd been reading Timothy Leary et al's book about psychedelic experiences which was based on The Tibetan Book of the Dead.

He was getting into LSD around this time and apparently read the book whilst tripping and came up with the lyrics.

For the music Lennon wanted to reproduce the sound of a hundred Tibetan monks chanting and in the end George Martin finished up using tape loops and a Leslie speaker.

The result was a quantum leap from anything The Beatles had done before.

Love it or loathe it, it was certainly the start of Lennon's avant garde conversion.

I personally didn't enjoy it when I heard Revolver for the first time. It's grown on me a bit but it's well down my list of favourites.

I've heard some describe it as one of Lennon's best. I can't agree. For me Lennon's peak was "In my Life" After that the weirdness started to develop IMO until he sorted out his head with his Double Fantasy album but then Mark Chapman came along.

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  • 10 months later...

Don't know if your still on this site. I remember the TV program that showed / played most of the tracks from Abbey Road. It started with the album spinning round on a turn table, people were dancing in a studio . When the track Because was playing they showed film from man walking on the moon. Maxwell Silver Hammer was a cartoon film. Don't think they played every track , but most of them . Show was on a Friday night and repeated on Sunday. There was no commentary. I think the BBC deleted the tape. I'd loved to see it again. I also recall ( not on this program ) an advert for Abbey Road. Where a load of school girls were standing at a bus stop and started to scream at the camera ......presumably The Beatles. 

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Hi Johnny. Thanks for your memories. I also remember the moon landings footage being used to great effect when they played "Because"

There's a bit more about the program here: http://www.britmovie.co.uk/forums/looking-video-dvd-tv/87554-late-night-line-up-bbc2-beatles-abbey-road-lp-premiere.html

I seem to recall that some clips of Georges Méliès films were used. I think there was some undersea stuff for Octopuses Garden. I also remember seeing the familiar man in the moon with a rocket in his eye clip.

I too would love to see it again should it ever turn up but I suspect it was wiped. It may still exist in one of the Beatles personal archives.

I still have my vinyl copy of Abbey Rd that I bought the following week. I chose Here Comes the Sun as one of the songs at my mums funeral. Simple words but very relevant to my mum's life.

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  • 1 year later...

This “missing presumed wiped” Beatles video has created a lot of interest elsewhere.

http://forums.stevehoffman.tv/threads/beatles-abbey-road-bbc2-tv-special-1969.654988/

There's even speculation Paul McCartney may have a copy that could surface in 2019 when the Abbey Rd LP is 50 years old.

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  • 1 year later...
On 9/5/2018 at 10:30 PM, Mess said:

This “missing presumed wiped” Beatles video has created a lot of interest elsewhere.

http://forums.stevehoffman.tv/threads/beatles-abbey-road-bbc2-tv-special-1969.654988/

There's even speculation Paul McCartney may have a copy that could surface in 2019 when the Abbey Rd LP is 50 years old.

Well here we are. Fifty years to the day when The Beatles released their swan song(s) Abbey Road and still the BBC2 special discussed in this thread hasn't surfaced.

I'm particularly disappointed because back in September 1969 I was having the time of my life. I was 19 and still living at home, doing well at college (Trent Poly) and at work (Boots QC Labs in D10 Beeston) Notts County were on the up again after years in the wilderness. The world was my oyster.

Me and several chums used to descend on The Grosvenor on a Friday night after a hard week at work and college. Most Saturday mornings there was overtime available in Boots QC labs with the bus picking up outside Toby’s on Friar Lane at 07:30 so it was important not to get carried away drinking the Home Ales bitter that the lovely fiery redhead Hazel used to dispense in the lounge. The resident gay guy Claude used to provide the entertainment. Players No6 and Embassy were the cigarettes of choice back then and the air was always thick with cigarette smoke as we accumulated the vouchers to exchange for gifts. The effects on our lungs never crossed our mind in 1969.

Goose Fair was only a week away and we all left the pub promptly at 10:30, so called drinking up time to walk back to my mum and dads house on Russell Road to watch The Beatles new LP being reviewed on BBC2. A few months earlier my dad had rented a new colour TV from Radio Rentals and we all crammed into the back room to watch and listen to the Fabs latest offering. 

I wish I could go back and see it and do it all again.

Abbey Road and Rubber Soul are Beatles albums I can feel as much as listen to. What a time, what a band.

 

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