Beatles breakup film due on DVD
Could the end of the long, long winding road to the release on DVD of the Beatles’ 1970 breakup flick, Let It Be, actually be in sight?
According to Beatles Anthology director Bob Smeaton, the Let It Be DVD, punched up with “remarkable bonus material,” will be released in September. Smeaton told a Denver, Colo., radio station that the DVD release had been delayed due to the sheer volume of film stock shot, and colour restoration issues.
Although Smeaton did not identify any of the extra material, Beatles fans are clamoring for a 5.1 surround sound mix, and the inclusion of what’s known as the complete rooftop gig. That’s the Jan. 30, 1969, 35-minute show played by the Fab Four on the roof of their London headquarters, but which was only partially shown in the film.
Good quality audio-only bootlegs of the complete show are in circulation, but film of the mini concert has remained secure in Apple Corps vaults.
The original 80-minute Let It Be film, unavailable on home video for over 20 years, is expected on DVD to be fleshed out with original Nagra audio recordings that went missing from Apple in the early ’70s, but which were recovered in a police raid on bootleggers in the Netherlands in January 2003.
The recovered tapes would allow some film footage that was without original sound to be used for the DVD, including many Beatles takes of old time rock ‘n’ roll and jam sessions.
Also on the reissue front, George Harrison’s 1971 Concert For Bangladesh on both remastered CD and DVD will be released Oct. 25.
Early reports say that the reissued Concert For Bangladesh, perhaps the first all-star rock benefit of its time, will also contain extra material, including a song by Bob Dylan left off the original three-album deluxe box set.
Details are sketchy, but some Internet Beatles news sites suggest that the reissued Bangladesh could contain unissued material from both the matinee and evening performances of the show, held at Madison Square Garden, Aug. 1, 1971, and featuring the likes of Bob Dylan, Eric Clapton and Leon Russell.
Reportedly, Harrison had been searching unsuccessfully for the master tapes of the concert just prior to his death, but they were eventually located, and the reissue may contain a heretofore unissued Dylan song from the concert.
Finally, Sir Paul McCartney will be touring this fall behind a new release, his first since 2001. Chaos And Creation In The Back Yard, said to be “a return to basics” for McCartney, will debut Sept. 13.
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