John Lennon in Cannes, 1971

Here’s a clip from a never bootlegged TV interview with John Lennon in Cannes on the 15th of May, 1971.

Lennon was interviewed by the Norwegian director and film critic, Pål Bang-Hansen for the Norwegian broadcasting company NRK on May 15th, 1971, and a small clip was shown again last night in memory of Bang-Hansen, who passed away from a recently diagnosed cancer yesterday.

John and Yoko was in town to show their new film, “Fly”. Bang-Hansen just happened to spot the couple while walking down the parade street in Cannes, le Croisette. Since he was on the job for NRK, he thought he couldn’t pass on this opportunity, to interview a Beatle. So he introduced himself and asked for an interview. The Lennons didn’t have time that day, but they scheduled a date for an interview the next day. Bang-Hansen was not prepared, he hadn’t seen the “Fly” film and he was not in touch with Lennon’s current music, but the interview went great and Bang-Hansen later described Lennon as a wonderful person.

The full length interview was broadcast in 1971, and has not often been rebroadcast. And whenever it has been re-broadcast, it has happened without any prior warnings, just as a feature within another program.

On one occasion, I was invited as a guest on a morning news show at NRK back in 2000, to talk about the Beatles at the 30th anniversary for their break-up, and after my guest spot they showed their Lennon interview again. I cursed that I hadn’t set the timer on my VCR to record my appearance, because I then would have had a longer version of this than what’s shown here.

Source: NRK