I watched the first 3 episodes last night. First time I’ve watched it since I bought the dvd box set when it came out. So that’s almost 30 years I think. At the time I suppose it was something of a revelation but now, with so much more information out there, I found myself mentally filling in the gaps.
Also – John George and Ringo seem upfront and straightforward but McCartney just can’t help being self conscious and aware of the camera. Even in the early footage you can see him not really knowing where to look. John was half blind and probably singing into a blur and George was kind of serious but having a good time. Ringo was just having a good time.
I suppose I should really wait until I’ve watched every episode at least once, let alone six times, but I thought it a good idea to share a couple of initial thoughts
And finally, for now, I really like the Anthology 4 CD. I’ve read a lot of criticism (Apple scraping the bottom of the barrel etc) but really it’s great to hear them making mistakes and laughing and being lads.
…bump…
That’s just Macca’s way of performing. He’s having as good a time as the others, if not more.
Yes that’s true. That’s the thing with McCartney, just when you think he’s a total arse he changes your mind
I thought Anthology 4 started well but drifted into barrel scraping territory in the second half. It was also noticeable that most of the larking about happened in the first half before things turned a bit more serious.
Most of the later stuff there already came out on various SDE boxes, there is considerable repetition
Yes, you’re right. I’ve got all the 2 or 3 CD deluxe / anniversary editions, and the repetition is particularly annoying, especially as I am expecting Santa to deliver the whole remastered Anthology boxset.
My wife asked if there was any Beatles product out this Christmas that I’d like as a present and I couldn’t bring myself to tell her about the box set.
I started watching it but I’d woken at 4:30am with a massive nosebleed and fell asleep on the sofa after 20 minutes. I’ll have to start again.
Much criticism in the Beatle world about the episodes being edited down from the DVD length. Apparently it is about 2 hours shorter overall, which doesn’t sound like Peter Jackson! I find that disappointing as you would have thought streaming would have allowed more footage to be included, for instance from Shea Stadium and Get Back.
I found Anthology 4 better than reported, despite the repetition, although the Real Love remix is a mess and losses some of George, which is weird as Jeff Lynne did it. I recently played all the Anthology sets from start to finish and found them much better than memory serves too, which was a pleasant surprise.
Was Jackson involved in any directorial sense? His company may have applied MAL to some of the audio material
Giles Martin remixed the sound using MAL technology I think, but I believe Peter Jackson did the visual remastering as per Get Back etc. l would be fascinated to know why the cuts were made.
Thanks. But did Jackson make those cuts? I haven’t watched yet, maybe this weekend if I can persuade my daughter to watch with me. Some are saying that the cuts make it flow better, others are outraged and are writing down all the differences.
Worth bearing in mind that the original TV series was only about 4 hours long so this presentation is longer than that. Some things have been added too apparently
I’ve watched the first two and it looks and sounds terrific. The edits are fine and it’s a joy to watch.
Still to get Anthology 4, my first Beatles purchase for seven years, but it’ll happen soon.
I thought the 15-track ‘Alexa’ version was terrific and as that started in 1965, and the 63-64 period (my favourite stuff) as suggested above is the pick of the bunch, it must be absolutely brilliant!
I don’t mind if they put out further versions (5, 6 etc.) as the percentage of Beatles fans who bought the box sets isn’t visible without a telescope, so all that’s as fresh as a daisy.
Anthology 4 just gave me 13 tracks. Most are from Beatles For Sale/Help, which makes me believe there could be a Rubber Soul box to come.
I love Baby You’re A Rich Man better than the official version, and All You Need Is Love is great once it gets going. There are still a few Magical Mystery Tour tracks not yet remixed.
Still, I feel underwhelmed. Not watched the TV programme yet. Saving that for the holidays.
I heard Giles Martin on the wireless last week and he said he was done with the Beatles.
Of course, there could already be a Rubber Soul box in the can…
Hello Steven Wilson?
Strikes me as very much in the ‘Blue’ rather than ‘Red’ corner… and that ship’s sailed.
Excellent on prog (fab!), all he knows about the decade following Heartbreak Hotel you could comfortably jot down on the back of a postage stamp with room for a shopping list.
He remixed The Stones really well, admittedly a mid seventies album.
Watched the first two so far. I was only a young fella when they were first broadcast and wasn’t on the train yet and I have only vague memories of little snippets so from my point of view it’s great to be able to watch it for the first time.
I’ll stream 4 at least once for sure.
My only major gripe is with the re-mix of Real Love – to my ears it’s really shoddy and how it got green lit for release is beyond me. I loved the Free as a Bird remix, preferring it to the first version but this Real Love is real s*** IMHO….
Spot on about both. Free as a Bird suddenly sounds like The Beatles.
They changed Ringo’:s leaden ELO drum sound?
There’s a fantastic series of bootleg multi disc boxed sets called Mythology which I reckon to be much better than the official Anthologies. The track listing is worth checking out (I’m pretty sure it’s online somewhere) even if the boxes themselves are a trifle elusive these days. The first box contains the entire audio of their Juke Box Jury appearance! The video of this must surely exist somewhere…
I don’t think it does – a victim of the BBC tape reuse policy I believe, always supposing it was actually video taped at all. So much was live in those days!
I heard a little (audio only) of John Lennon’s solo appearance on Juke Box Jury in 1963 on the “Buskin with The Beatles” podcast. He slammed Elvis!
Later that day he flew by helicopter to meet up with the other 3 before their performance closest to my home in Abergavenny!
Yes, I’ve heard that snippet too. There’s a cute little exhibition of photos from the Abergavenny gig in the Town Hall (ot was it in the castle? I get dizzy with age..).
Town Hall. When I was getting into The Beatles mid 70s together with another school friend, his dad told us he had been walking through the town that night, heard some music and asked the doorman if he could check it out and it was the Fabs! He was a bit of a local legend who told a lot of tall tales so we assumed this was just one of them as no way The Beatles would have ever played Abergavenny!
You’re probably right. Someone must have recorded it off the telly with a reel to reel.
Ummm, is there anything else to be said about the Fabs? A pal was saying the value of rare Elvis items is now reducing. I think we’ll see the same for the Beatles very soon. Expensive Zappa boxed sets also mystify me. Just the last juice from the orange …
Well this is a telling of the story as it was in 1995. So it’s not really expected to bring anything new. Lewisohn’s vol 2 and 3 of their biography will surely uncover lots of new things, assuming they ever come out
I’ve just watched the fourth episode, and am enjoying it immensely. I bought the Dvd boxset when it was released in 2003, in fact it was my first ever purchase on Amazon. I must have watched it about four or five times over the years, but there were still a few bits and pieces I’d forgotten about.
The first thing to say is just how happy they are recalling those early years travelling up and down the UK in Mal’s Comma van, and then recounting the madness of 63-65. You can see from the interviews that slowly but surely it was grinding them down, even though this was what they had always wanted, that is to be a successful pop group.
Looking forward to the rest of the series, but as a long time Beatles fan of over fifty years, I still can’t get my head around the fact that from the time they hit the big time in 1963, to the day it all ended in 1970, was just over seven years. That’s like going back to 2018, just two years before the pandemic. It’s a blink of an eye really, and to me that’s the fascinating thing about The Beatles. How they achieved so much in such a short time. Their work ethic was phenomenal.
Quite a lot of it was the demands upon them rather than work ethic, I suspect.
Especially in the days before Epstein’s demise.
Plenty of stamina there, though.
Pop Music acts back then thought they had a limited shelf-life.
The acts at that the singles end of the market are still seen that way.
Excellentdoc series on BBC iPlayer about what it was like to be a Girl band.
Contributors include. OMD’s Andy McCluskey (!!!) who gave us Atomic Kitten,..
Saw episode 1 last night, and I’m amazed how much is left out. Maybe that’s the ‘Lewisohn Effect’, a phenomenon not yet fully developed in 1995!
Could any another act carry an opening episode that takes us up to just their second 45, with the promise of eight more episodes still to come, even then not feeling quite enough?
Essential.
The Clash?
That’s brilliant!
Watching it with the kids, 16 and 11, is proving an absolute joy. It’s always been a Beatles household – my daughter took her DVD of A Hard Day’s Night as her ‘most treasured thing’ icebreaker on her first day of school – but this is the first time we’ve all sat and watched Anthology despite having the DVD set all this time.
Watching it through the kids’ eyes I’m amazed afresh at their cultural weight, the sheer creative growth, the speed with which they evolved. It really is extraordinary and singular.
In terms of the edits, I’ve noticed a few omissions, but mainly of the ‘hang on, he didn’t go on to say…’ nature rather any key events missing. Some delightful new snippets that have kept me on my toes too. Particularly interesting was the inclusion of John’s Yellow Submarine early demo alongside grim post-war footage, which jarred interestingly with Paul’s well-worn story of the song coming to him as he went off to sleep. Both origin stories are given equal prominence.
Yeah, some quibbles about Anthology 4 and what’s left in the vaults, but I’m very much of the camp that this is all extraordinary and we live in a rich age where the Fabs’ cultural legacy is still valued and the technology is such that we can be allowed to see them with fresh eyes and ears. Fair bit of churlishness online for my tastes. “It’s great, it sold, it’s the bloody Beatles Anthology, shut up.”
Some kind person put this info up on the NIR FB page. Sorry about my terrible formatting…
Year 1995 2025
Part 1 78:52 62:35 (-16:17)
Part 2 71:43 53:16 (-18:27)
Part 3 72:56 59:34 (-13:22)
Part 4 70:33 53:30 (-17:03)
Part 5 71:47 54:29 (-17:18)
Part 6 70:49 57:26 (-13:23)
Part 7 73:40 59:34 (-14:06)
Part 8 81:59 52:35 (-29:24)
Part 9 50:48
Total 9h/52m 8h/24m
I didn’t actually notice too many cuts. Some of the 1995 Threetles footage turns up in Part 9, plus a lot more, shows you what they left out in 1995!.
And it made sense not to duplicate too much of the Get Back stuff and the Beatles 64 film or whatever it was called
I haven’t been monitoring it closely but I have been enjoying rewatching the old episodes. I noticed in the Revolver episode, they added in the early home demo of Yellow Submarine, over archive films of Liverpool poverty. I am sure that wasn’t in the 1995 version.
George did love his moustaches, didnt he
Those lovely chaps at Nothing Is Real have posted four Anthology-related episodes.
https://www.nothingisrealpod.com/podcast-links
Old ones, no doubt given a MAL upgrade
Wherever the Beatles are, MAL is there – even from beyond the grave.
I would rather ep 9 had been about Mal, Neil and Derek
That’s a great suggestion. These three were such a part of the Beatles story that an episode would have been a fitting tribute. Maybe they could have included Brian as well. I don’t think it would appeal to Joe Public, but for Beatle obsessives like myself it would have been a great end to the series. I’ve just finished watching it all last night, and I do have a soft spot for Neil Aspinall. Every time he speaks he has a great big smile, and a great sense of humour.
I wasn’t a huge fan of Neil’s recollections first time round. I thought there was a bit too much of him in it
Just wondering – apart from the Timothy Chamalet thingie, Rolling Thunder etc, why has nothing similar happened re Bob Dylan’s “Anthology” – there must be at least 45645 hours of film out there?
And that’s just the Ronaldo and Clara footage
I’ve just seen the first two so far. I remember the 1995 release of the DVDs and the prices were eye-watering at the time.
I am sure in interviews it was intended to be a “that’s that then” definitive squaring away of the Beatles story as told by the Beatles themselves and then the last couple of official songs. And yet here we are 30 years later.
My boys will definitely devour this – 16 & 22. Particularly the younger one, since we went to John and Paul homes (run by the National Trust) earlier this year.
A thought that niggles me is how Free as a Bird didn’t get to number one. I guess the demographic weren’t buying singles – but still.
DVDs came out in 2003 and had much more content than the TV series. There was also a VHS box that came out in 96 I think, was quite pricey, I seem to remember the DVD sets were fairly reasonably priced especially as they were greatly expanded from the original 4 hrs shown on ITV
From memory the VHS set (and they were also released individually, which is how I bought them) was exactly the same as the DVDs except for the additional extras disc (now Ep 9). This was a huge expansion of the TV episodes.
Interesting to recall that the TV series got shunted into later time slots as it actually didn’t do that well in the ratings.
As I’ve said above, the Dvd boxset was the first thing I ever bought on Amazon in September 2003.I’ve just checked my orders, and the price was £35.99. A very good price for the time I think.
There were lots of reasons why FAAB didn’t get to #1
a) Anthology 1 album, on which the song was available, came out before the single
b) By the time the single came out, two weeks later, the only people who were going to buy it were those who simply *had* to have the extra tracks.
c) Michael Jackson’s Earth Song came out as a 2CD set and (i see on wikipedia) one of the extra tracks was an 12 minute dance medley of “Bad”, “Billie Jean”, “Black or White”, “Don’t Stop ‘Til You Get Enough”, “Remember the Time”, “Rock with You”, “Scream”, “Thriller” and “Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin'” *(which might not be your cup of tea but it’s probably better than a not-good-enough-even-for-Anthology version of This Boy)
It’s similar to why Always on my Mind kept Fairytale off #1; the latter was on Now 10, so lots of people didn’t feel a need to buy the single.
Apropos of nothing (sounds posh that), why did Free As A Bird come out as a single a fortnight ‘after’ Anthology 1?
You’ve got, good or bad (ho-hum in reality), a new Beatles (that’s ‘Beatles’) recording.
Wouldn’t you get that little laddie off to Radio 1, 2, 3, 4 and everyone else post-haste, and definitely before the album?
It seemed completely bonkers at the time, and seems even more so now.
Who made that decision?
Regarding FAAB, wasn’t it “banned by Radio 1? Actually meaning they did play it, but it wasn’t featured on their playlist
That sounds plausible. 1995 would have been well into Matthew Bannister’s Great Radio 1 Reset, when they stopped playlisting Cliff and Quo and went chasing after the younger demographic.
There’s a very good book by Simon Garfield called The Nation’s Favourite that covers the period. How can you not like a book that contains a chapter called “Bruno Brookes was Feeling Very Tempted”?
Not playing something because the station boss deems it irrelevant to his station’s new “demographic” hardly constitutes banning it
Perhaps the reason why FaaB failed to achieve the toppermost of the poppermost is that it wasn’t in the same post code as the quality of the songs that had gone before
Yes “banned” was supposed to appear in inverted commas. I remember there was a furore when a Status Quo single was also not play listed around that time
I remember FAAB being played by Chris Evans as a first playing anywhere, and I think it did get played on R1, but Real Love didn’t make it onto the playlist.
Having watched the whole thing (*spoiler alert*) here are two things that seem odd to me
1. There is no mention of the deaths of John and George
2. There is no Paul and Ringo giving their current view of it all in 2025.
Although not mentioned directly in the series, they are mentioned first in the end credits. It’s either In loving memory of John and George, or just in memory of. I can’t quite remember.
I suppose the answer to your second point is that it’s all been said in the previous 8 hours, and even getting Paul’s or Ringo’s current view wouldn’t add anything new to it all. They couldn’t agree on dates and performances 30 years ago. God knows what their memories are like now.
Yes I did notice that in the credits
I think the producers must have surely considered having them give a current perspective and you’re probably right, it’s all been said. Until Mr Lewisham’s next volume comes out…
Frankly, there is no mention of quite a lot of things, particularly around the break up and its ramifications. I haven’t watched EP8 yet, but I assume it is largely the same as the DVD version and is a bit anticlimactic. Anyone coming to the story new will surely wonder why it all just stopped.
To cover the deaths of John and George would really mean also covering, at least in outline, the solo years..?
Writes its own copy.
“It’s 1995… it’s banned by Radio 1… THAT’S how good it is!”
Point is, why put the thing out two weeks after it was… erm… already out?
Sales of the single halved.
Completely bonkers.
Good point, forcibly made in your distinctive style. Of course, I bought both the album and the single. How else could I own Christmas Time (Is Here Again) by The Beatles?
Yes, both singles came out on CD as EPs with additional tracks not on the albums. An incentive to buy (and I did)
And the idiots at Apple couldn’t manage to get those tracks on Anthology 4 which would have made sense
Nearly finished ep 6 and I’m struggling a bit with the binge approach. Perhaps I’ll give it a rest for a bit and come back to it.
Despite being somewhat Beatled out I think I will watch this as I only ever saw it in black and white. Was back living with Mum and Dad in 95 having just graduated with no idea what to do next and they still only had our 70s black and white portable TV. I remember enjoying it. Lucky I no longer live with them as they don’t have a telly of any kind now so I’d be forced to watch it on my phone…
You can’t be Beatled out, not allowed.
The BBC have just announced a 6-part drama series on The Beatles in Hamburg!
Too little I say.
I wonder if that will be the time to release the MAL cleaned up Hamburg recordings. Red Hot is used in EP 1 and sounds terrific.
The AI processing made it a slightly surreal experience at times. Seeing the clips from 67 – 67, the tudio footage and Rishikesh etc looking as if it were filmed yesterday was mainly wonderful, despite my Luddite AI misgivings. Loads of little bits I’d forgotten too, and they must have remixed the last few episodes too work in recently released Super Deluxe Edition tracks. Such as Yellow Submarine, where we now get the work tape from the Revolver box set set to film of impoverished post war Liverpool kids playing in the streets.
The ninth episode was a bit unnecessary though, all told. Nothing particularly interesting other than for those of us tickled by such things, to see the whole thing wearing thin with George, while Macca responded with increasingly manic mugging and goofing about. Like everyone watching, I felt the poignancy of watching them in their 50s peering into their distant history of 25, 30 years ago and here we are, 30 years on from them all sitting awkwardly on George’s lawn with their ukuleles.