“Hey Jude” promo film premieres on UK TV

HOW ALIVE IS LIVE? – Frost’s Sunday Beatles did their part on Wednesday

When David Frost introduced the Beatles on his Sunday night TV show, were you among those who thought he meant they were appearing “live” that very instant?

They were not. The Beatles’ version of their current hit: “Hey, Jude” was recorded four days earlier… by Apple, the group’s own marketing organisation. It was made in colour at Twickenham studios for world-wide sale. And the very same recording is likely to be shown on BBC’s “Top of the Pops” on Thursday. Both Frost’s London Weekend Television and the BBC are paying for the right to screen it.

To be fair, Frost was at Twickenham when the television recording was made. His introduction, again recorded by Apple, will naturally be missing from the recording offered to the rest of the world… including the BBC.

So how live is live? London Weekend were adamant last night… A spokesman said: “This was a live performance by the Beatles at a studio, recorded a few days before it was screened.“

A SPOKESMAN for the Beatles said last night: “This was a live performance before a live audience — even though it was recorded for later TV-showing. But it was live, compared with lots of artists who have their discs played on Television to a film accompaniment of them jumping in the air, walking on the seashore, riding on horseback or scooters. The Beatles were accompanied in the studio by 300 extras and a thirty-six-piece orchestra. This was a live performance.”

What do TV’s pop men think about the issue?

Johnnie Stewart, producer of “Top of Pops,” said: “I don’t think the public could care less.”

Because of a ruling by the Musicians’ Union, groups and solo singers are no longer allowed to mime to their own records. But they can use a backing track of their latest hit recorded earlier at the TV studios. If extra musicians have to be brought in, then the whole performance must be pre-recorded, including the voices. So don’t be fooled when you see a singer with a microphone on the screen. He may not be singing into it. Even though the implication is that he is.

But who cares? asks Johnnie Stewart. “A group may make a record with ten members of an orchestra. But the label on the disc doesn’t say so. This is all part of the very complicated pop scene. If you hear a group playing a date at your local cinema, or club, they will probably sound very different to the way they do on their disc. Recording involves all sorts of jiggery-pokery, like echo-chambers and voices that have been over-tracked three times. I don’t think it matters. The general public couldn’t care less if the artists are appearing live, miming, or standing on their heads.”

My only comment is that if they don’t, they ought to.

It’s time that the TV boys stopped these tactics. And in the pop field, it’s very simple to play the game.

If a singer is seen using a microphone, then it is reasonable to suppose that the sound we hear— good, bad, or indifferent — is his own and made at that very moment. And if somebody — David Frost, David Jacobs or Uncle Tom Cobbleigh — says that, you’re seeing something “live,” then let it be truly live. Not something put in the can a day, a week, or a year earlier.

From Daily Mirror – September 10, 1968