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| Possibly newly discovered footage, as noticed by our reader Jan Chmelík. |
Shea Stadium Gig to Screen as Part of Theatrical Release of The Beatles: Eight Days A Week – The Touring Years.
ONLY AVAILABLE IN THEATRES SEPTEMBER 15th
The Beatles played Shea Stadium on August 15th 1965 in what was to be the first rock concert ever staged in a stadium in front of more than 55,000 people. The event was filmed using fourteen 35mm cameras by Ed Sullivan Productions and Brian Epstein and for the very first time, the fully restored, remastered, 30-minute performance will be available to screen as part of the worldwide theatrical release of Academy Award®-winner Ron Howard’s authorized documentary feature film, The Beatles: Eight Days A Week - The Touring Years.
Only available in theatres, the 4K restoration with sound remastered at Abbey Road Studios by Giles Martin and Sam Okell, includes performances of the classic songs such as "A Hard Day’s Night,""I’m Down,""Everybody’s Trying To Be My Baby" and "Dizzy Miss Lizzy."
Order tickets for the Shea performances at thebeatleseightdaysaweek.com.
Okay, so they are not releasing the full 50 min. "The Beatles at Shea Stadium" film, we do get the Beatles concert performance from that film, losing probably just the footage of the warm up acts and possibly The Beatles' helicopter trip to the stadium and some footage from the dressing room before the show. And what's more, the restored Shea concert will be shown as a separate piece, not as part of the documentary itself. So it will not be a part of the Hulu broadcast, is what I'm reading. To see this concert in its latest incarnation, you will have to go and see it in a theatre/cinema. So if the film isn't provided on cinema in your country or area, tough luck.
Another issue is the sound. Are they going to use more of the original audio as performed on stage, or will they still be using the overdubs and re-recordings The Beatles did for the film's soundtrack in 1966? In particular, will they still be using the official record of "Act Naturally" as soundtrack to that song, like it was when it was televised? Note that one of the songs mentioned is "Everybody's Trying To Be My Baby", which should mean that they have managed to find footage from it. Alongside "She's A Woman", the song was missing when televised. Now we hear both these will be part of the new Shea Stadium concert film. According to Billboard, Dave Schwenson, the author of the concert book, The Beatles At Shea Stadium: The Story Behind Their Greatest Concert
, said there was no footage of "She's a Woman" shot for the original show because cameramen were changing films, but he said he was told footage of the song has been located from home movies taken by fans in the stands for the Ron Howard film.Through their YouTube channel, four different versions of the trailer has been published, one for UK audiences, one for German audiences, one for the French and one for Australia and New Zealand. The UK trailer was also released on the StudioCanal channel, here, and the Spanish trailer by Acontrafilms here.
It also seems the filmmakers have made good use of the various outtake footage from the "The Beatles Come To Town" 1963 colour film of the fabs performing in Manchester, as provided by British Pathé (see example here).
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| George Harrison appears through footage from The Beatles' Anthology TV series from the mid-nineties. |