John Lennon: Rare and Unseen DVD

There’s a new title in the ”Rare and Unseen” DVD series, this time featuring John Lennon. The DVD is already out in the UK and Europe, and will be released shortly in the USA. The producers claim that this DVD release is a collection of rare footage you won’t find elsewhere, and that it features original rare film and videos of Lennon, newsreels and photographs from private collections. Plus opinions from Phil Collins, Len Goodman and Tony Barrow.

Here are some of the contents:

“Man of the Decade,” a 1969 program that has circulated among collectors and, according to the press release, “aired once in 1969 and unseen since,”

“Aquarius,”  Unseen since the ’70s,

“Weekend World, Thought wiped and unseen out of the UK

“Frost”, never released on DVD.

John and Yoko were regulars on David Frost’s show, so this could refer to any one of several appearances between 1968 and 1971, but early UK reviews are suggesting 1968.

Aquarius was recorded on February 28th 1972 and subsequently transmitted by London Weekend Television in colour on the 11th of March the same year. The subject of this special edition of the British TV series was “The pursuit of happiness in Modern-day America”. Just over 3 minutes of John and Yoko footage, filmed in their apartment in Greenwich Village, was used including a brief rendition of “Attica State” plus an interview. John: “Our job now is to tell them there is still hope and we still have things to do and we must get out now and change their heads and tell them it’s OK. We can change! It isn’t over just because flower power didn’t work. It’s only the beginning. We’re just in the inception of revolution.”

Man Of The Decade was recorded on the 2nd of December 1969 and transmitted by ATV in colour on the 30th of December 1969. Although the DVD producers seem to claim that it hasn’t been aired since, I think it was re-transmitted in 1990. Here’s a full transcript of the show, which is circulating among collectors on the Telecasts 1990 DVD by FAB Productions.

Weekend World was filmed on the 6th of April 1973 by London Weekend Television. It’s a 10 minute interview, and was broadcast on the 8th.