Beatles 1 and Beatles 1+ press launch

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Richard Porter attended the press launch for “Beatles 1” and “Beatles 1+” in London. Here is his report:

“It was held in a special screening room in the basement of the Soho Hotel in London – just yards from Trident Studios, where Hey Jude was recorded.

Unfortunately, none of the Beatles turned up, but there were many well known Beatles writers and DJs, including Mark Lewisohn, Philip Norman, and Paul Gambaccini.”

“As we went in, we were each given a copy of the very nice book, that will be included in the ‘Beatles 1+‘ set. It is very nice, with details of how each song was recorded and also how the videos were made.”

“We were then given a talk by Jonathan Clyde from Apple, who told us about each video, and then shown the clips on a big screen. The quality of the videos is awesome, as is the audio.

It’s was interesting that Jonathan told us that Apple didn’t have good quality copies of some of the videos, and that some came from an unnamed ‘American Collector‘.

The stand-out video was definitely Strawberry Fields Forever, which looked like it had been shot yesterday. It is in totally amazing quality.

Another highlight was Don’t Let Me Down, taken from the infamous ‘rooftop concert’. Also brilliant was Paperback Writer, filmed in the grounds of Chiswick House.”

“I’d seen nearly all the videos before (but not in such good quality). The only one shown to us which I don’t think I had seen was Rain, from Abbey Road Studios.”

Shot at Abbey Road Studios. Photo: © Robert Whitaker

The Beatles Live Project slated for this time next year

“During the event, I had a brief chat with people at Apple, who told me the Ron Howard ‘Beatles Live Project’ film is slated for release about this time next year. Mention was made of when we can expect ‘Let it Be‘, ‘Live at Shea Stadium‘ and ‘Hollywood Bowl‘ to be released, but was told ‘Apple work slowly‘ – so hopefully we will see these in our lifetimes!”