Despite The Beatles’ incredible ongoing popularity almost 40 years since their demise, there have been relatively few worthwhile officially-released DVDs & videotapes, with most (such as the ‘90’s ‘Anthology’ box-set) featuring just tantalising glimpses of the wealth of material that still survives. Fortunately the bootleggers have more than made up for this, with several incredibly professional looking & sounding releases that are available unofficially! Below I’ve attempted to list some of the more essential Beatles DVDs.
A Hard Day’s Night (Miramax) (1964)
Help! (MPI) (1965)
The first two movies have both been officially released on DVD in fully re-mastered form with bonus material, & come highly recommended.
Magical Mystery Tour (Avenue One) (1967)
This is also easily available on an official DVD, though to be honest it could do with cleaning up & general re-mastering (& some bonus material would be nice too!).
Yellow Submarine (Apple) (1968)
This was fully re-mastered & issued on DVD with bonus material, but unfortunately it is long deleted & not easy to find cheaply.
Let It Be (1970)
This has never been issued officially on either DVD or VHS, though there was a Japanese official laser-disc in the 1981. My bootleg DVD (no label) is taken from this source, & quality is OK but nothing spectacular. I also have Let It Be: Homemade Cut (no label), which features a number of deleted scenes & songs. Quality varies from slightly less than the above original version to absolutely pristine, but overall I find this version far more enjoyable & the editing is very expertly done (it is also mostly in full stereo & has a full menu).
There have been quite a few “proper” Beatles bootleg DVDs in recent years (i.e. pressed discs with a label, artwork, etc), & I’ve attempted to list the more essential ones below…
Chronology 1 (Picture Perfect)
Chronology 2 (Picture Perfect)
Undoubtedly THE most essential Beatles bootleg DVDs! Each disc is approx 110 minutes running time, & these feature Promo Videos & (where no proper promos are available) TV performances in fantastic quality & in full chronological order. Many songs are repeated on both volumes, but these are different versions / edits.
On Tour 1964 (Silent Sea)
On Tour 1965 (Silent Sea)
On Tour 1966 (Silent Sea)
TV Tapes Volume 1 (Silent Sea)
TV Tapes Volume 2 (Silent Sea)
TV Tapes Volume 3 (Silent Sea)
TV Tapes Volume 4 (Silent Sea)
TV Tapes Volume 5 (Silent Sea)
TV Tapes Volume 6 (Silent Sea)
After the movies & the promo videos your next step is likely to be their filmed concert & TV performances, & the above bootlegs (more or less) collect them all in the best available quality. They’ve used a variety of sources (both official & unofficial), & edited everything together expertly & with full menus etc.
The NME Poll Winners Concerts (No Label)
I actually edited this disc together myself from 4 different sources (the artwork above is just something I found online) but strangely none of these shows are included on any of the Silent Sea ‘TV Tapes’ or ‘On Tour’ volumes. The 1964 & 1965 performances feature 5 songs each plus award presentations, & 1966 features the award presentation only, as the actual performance was never filmed due to contractual disagreements. The 1964 performance usually comes with a Time-Code counter on screen, but the version I’ve used here doesn’t have this & is in very good quality, as are the 1965 performance & presentation & 1966 presentation (only the 1964 awards presentation is in lesser quality).
Get Back…Winter Of Discontent (Picture Perfect) (2 DVDs)
The ultimate ‘Let It Be’ sessions DVDs, these feature everything that was in the original movie plus all available outtakes. The first disc is basically a visual version of the ‘Let It Be…Naked’ album (with the re-mixed audio perfectly synced to the videos) + a few extras, while the second disc features the rougher (& often incomplete) rehearsals / jams. Quality is generally excellent throughout though disc 2 is a mixture of colour and black & white footage.
From These Small Beginnings (British Lions) (3 DVDs)
Turn Left At Greenland (Darth Disc) (3 DVDs)
Down Under (All Green)
The Eye Of The Hurricane – American Tour 1964 (Picture Perfect) (2 DVDs)
Palais & Plazas – Telecast 1965 (Picture Perfect) (2 DVDs)
The US Tour 1965 Vol. 1 (Fab Productions)
The US Tour 1965 Vol. 2 (Fab Productions)
Live in Germany ’66 (Fab Productions) (2 DVDs)
Yesterday In The Far East 1966 Tour (Fab Productions) (2 DVDs)
Beatles On Safari - The 1966 North American Tour Vol. 1 (Fab Productions)
Beatles On Safari - The 1966 North American Tour Vol. 2 (Fab Productions)
1967 A Year In Pepperland (Capitol) (Fake)
1968 A Mad Day Out (Capitol) (Fake)
The End 1969-70 (Capitol) (Fake)
For the fans who want everything! Each disc is usually 90-120 minutes long, & all concentrate on specific periods / tours, & feature live concerts, TV appearances, promo videos, interviews, newsreels, press conferences, home movies & more. Most of the titles are self-explanatory, but From These Small Beginnings covers all of the 1962-1963 period (& is probably my personal favourite of these collections), Turn Left At Greenland covers the historic first visit to the USA in February 1964, Down Under covers the June 1964 Australian & New Zealand tour, & Palais & Plazas – Telecast 1965 covers the June 1965 European tour plus other 1965 UK events. Most of these are reasonably easy to find amongst other collectors though the British Lions & All Green collections seem a bit harder to come by. But forget the Anthology DVDs, these are the real Beatles story with (almost) everything from the earliest known Beatles footage filmed at Floral Hall in Southport on the 20th February 1962 to newsreel of Paul at the High Court dissolving The Beatles partnership on the 19th February 1971.
The Ed Sullivan Shows (Mirror Spock)
This & the next two discs do not feature any footage that isn’t on any of the other discs mentioned in this article, but instead feature ‘new & improved’ versions! The 1964-1965 Ed Sullivan Shows are available officially, but this disc has far better re-mastering with both noticeably superior audio & visuals. A great example of the bootleggers doing things better than the official companies!
Melbourne 1964 – Channel 9 Master (no label)
A couple of years ago the Australian Channel 9 gathered together all of the surviving footage from The Beatles’ filmed Melbourne concert (including support acts) & made the above programme. Not all footage of the concert survives though a complete audio does, so where footage is missing they used ‘stills’ from the concert. Presumably this was compiled ready for re-broadcast, but it remains unseen…apart from via this amazing quality bootleg!
Shea Stadium 1965 (no label)
The original 60s telecast of The Beatles at Shea Stadium included much ‘sweetening’ of the soundtrack with overdubs & re-recordings, but recently a complete un-dubbed audio surfaced. This has now been very expertly synced to the footage & is available on the disc above (also on this disc is the complete telecast version though this is also on a couple of other discs mentioned in this article). Contrary to previous speculation, the overdubs weren’t made because the original performances were inferior, but rather it was because of some sub-standard mixes (for example Paul’s harmony is inaudible during ‘Act Naturally’ & the lead guitar is often too quite), but this rawer mix is far more enjoyable!
The Complete Cartoon Series (no label) (2 DVDs)
Lastly the joker of the pack... During 1965-1967 ABC TV in the USA made three series (39 episodes) of ‘The Beatles’, a cartoon series notable just as much for the appalling accents as the music (‘John’s posh-sounding voice was particularly un-convincing!). All of these are available on the above two discs. To be honest the quality could be better as they pixel-ate a fair bit (over 9 hours has been crammed onto two discs), though they’re available for those that want to see them. But ‘Yellow Submarine’ they are not!
Do you actually own all these? If so, I'd be in absolute heaven if I saw all these on your DVD shelf. I'm a huge Beatles fan. And, to my shame, all I have on DVD is A Hard Day's Night, Beatles Anthology and Yellow Submarine (Region 1 - which doesn't work on my player). Good entry. So, I take it you have huge swathes of music memorabilia then?
ReplyDeleteYes Luke, I'm fortunate enough to have all of these. I must admit I have very mixed feelings over The Beatles; yes, they were fantastic, but at the same time much other equally good music is ignored or forgotten. Cliff Richard & The Shadow's classic singles is a good example.
ReplyDeleteIncidentally I enjoyed your Chas & Dave tribute. I'm a big fan of theres too, particularly their classic self-written albums from 1975-1984. I'm currently buying a few CDs & downloads of theirs to plug a few gaps in my collection, but as soon as I've heard them I'll write an article / review for this blog.