FOOTAGE OF THE BEATLES WAS SCREENED FOR FIRST TIME IN 40 YEARS

For more than 4 decades,a canister of film lay in a damp London garage,unopened and forgotten.

Stacked among 64 other unmarked cans, it sat for decades gathering dust, without anyone suspecting the nine minutes of music gold that rested inside.

Then, after a chance look at a faded, scribbled label buried within the can, a long-lost interview with The Beatles was found.

First broadcast on Scottish Television in April1964, the film footage captured the Fab Four being interviewed on ‘Roundup’, an hour-long children's current affairs programme on Scottish television network STV.

Now, the Scottish public are being invited to view it in its entirety for the first time at the Edinburgh Filmhouse this weekend.

“We think it may be the longest surviving television interview of the Beatles on record,” said John McVie, Media Coordinator for STV.

“We have so little footage left of the 1960s, this is a rare chance for people to see this valuable interview.”

 

The archive footage offers a revealing insight into Paul and John's songwriting partnership that Beatles fans will find especially interesting.

"Sometimes we write them on old pianos or anything that's lying around, guitars and things. Normally we sit down and try and bash one out,"explains Paul in the film clip."Then again, there's no formula. He (John) can come up with one completely finished, but we still say we both wrote it though."

Paul also mentions the first song he ever composed: “We wrote funny songs then - mine was 'I Lost My Little Girl'."

Paul and John also recall the first time they met each other, at the age 13.

"I was playing at a garden fete in the village where I lived just outside Liverpool playing with a skiffle group," said Lennon. "And he came along and that's how we met."

Asked how the band likes the hordes of screaming fans, McCartney laughs, adding: "We love that ... the atmosphere in the theatres, really it's marvellous.".The full interview was screened yesterday as part of an event run by the British Film Institute.