I read the news today, oh boy!

It's been a funny old week.

Some of you older readers may remember a post from last Saturday called "Up On The Roof" (other titles I considered "The Rooftop Show", "Watching The Detectives") about the discovery of a Police recruitment film which includes footage shot on the training field of Mather Avenue police station, adjacent to the rear of Paul McCartney's house in Forthlin Road.

Rather than regurgitate it all again - after all it's the post directly before this one, all you have to do is scroll down the page with your mouse, or finger (if you're under 30) - Peter Hodgson spotted what we believe are Paul and his brother Michael McCartney sitting on the roof of their outside toilet in the back garden of their house, watching the show. If this is correct, it would make the police film the oldest footage in existence of at least one of the Beatles.

I say at least one because when Peter got in touch with the Liverpool Echo, they went straight to Mike McCartney and showed him the film. He got very excited:

Yep, Mike's revelation that John and possibly George were up there as well led to this story in the Liverpool Echo on Wednesday 7 March.

24 hours later it was in a national UK newspaper, The Daily Mirror:

...and Billboard in the USA!

Of course, not everyone has been impressed, as witnessed on Roger Stormo's blog The Daily Beatle:

That last comment from Pooper was typical of some of the more negative views. I think one has to remember that when Mike was "looking" at the footage he was actually recalling it from memory. Questioning his eyesight isn't really the issue here. The point is, Peter had found something nobody else had even thought about looking for until now. 

As an aside, in my last post I quoted Barry Miles in "Many Years From Now" writing "Paul and his brother would watch them training horses, knocking pegs out of the ground with lances just as they had done in the British Raj", which, by pure co-incidence, is the exact thing that we see on the police film, literally two seconds before the footage goes into the scene where the back of the McCartney's house is visible. I'm impressed with Paul's memory.

And by Friday it had even reached the main man's official forum, 

which, I'm reliably informed he reads on his I-Pad every night before bed:

Or perhaps not.

It's been interesting to see how a story (or non-story depending on your point of view) spreads from a local newspaper to the other other side of the world. The original Echo piece was lifted for the Daily Mirror (part of the same newsgroup) while the article in Billboard and the Hollywood Reporter was a mixture of the Echo and my original blog. The story as told on Paul's forum was a straight copy from Roger's blog.

What's amused me is how each publication has chosen to illustrate the story using unrelated photos of the Beatles. And who writes the captions? The Daily Mirror had one photo informatively captioned "The Beatles as a four-piece". Just in case anybody was wondering why Billy Preston wasn't in the photo.

While caption writers for national newspapers struggle to do the bare minimum of research our small band our blue badge guides, fans and local "historians" (cough) have dug a bit deeper and we now think we have an alternative date for the film.

By identifying the Lord Mayor, Jackie Spencer (no, that's not the name of the Lord Mayor - at least not yet) has found that he (Frank Cain, the Lord Mayor) was in office from around May 1957 to May 1958. Cain launched the 750th birthday celebrations in Liverpool in 1957 and you may recall that John and the Quarry Men played Rosebery Street in Liverpool 8 as part of the festivities that June.

The Liverpool Echo advertisement for the 1957 police show. Note the date. 

Taking the above into account Jackie thinks the film is almost certainly from  the 22 June 1957 police show, approximately three weeks before Lennon met McCartney at the St. Peters Summer fete and, co-incidentally the very day when John was performing with the Quarry Men in Rosebery Street.

We agree with Jackie's detective work. Although the finished film is dated 1958 we now accept that the footage was recorded at the 1957 show and therefore, contrary to previous reports, John is unlikely to be up there. 

At least it's still safe to say that Paul and Mike are up there, and George was friends with the McCartneys by 1957 so who knows. It's still a cool find though!

Of course this dating also means that Paul was unlikely to have been in the crowd at Rosebery Street watching the Quarry Men (before he met them) contrary to what some would have you believe.  

The Beatles, some deckchairs and a concrete shed type structure, similar to those described in Mike McCartney's interview.

The final shot of the film is this, a policeman stood in front of the Liver Buildings.

A good place to site a statue, don't you think?

Postscript:

To soften the crushing blow of John's absence from that  toilet roof we can at least console ourselves in the knowledge that the police dogs in the film are almost certainly the actual police dogs who took part in the actual Woolton village fete in 1957.

What'd you say?

I said, 'Woof'!

Links:

http://wogew.blogspot.co.uk/2017/03/new-first-beatles-film-discovered.html

http://www.mirror.co.uk/3am/celebrity-news/beatles-fan-historian-uncovers-first-9996208

http://www.billboard.com/articles/columns/rock/7717978/the-beatles-first-video-footage-1958-liverpool-police-film

https://www.digitalmusicnews.com/2017/03/10/beatles-1958-film/

Is this the first ever film footage of John, Paul, George - and Mike?

Liverpool Echo (Online)

7 March 2017

  

Historian is certain that 1958 film shows future Beatles.

Could this be the first piece of film showing future Beatles Paul McCartney, John Lennon and George Harrison, along with Paul’s brother, Mike McCartney?

They are on screen for just a couple of seconds – and you can’t make out the tiny figures in the distance – but local historian and Fab Four fan Peter Hodgson, from Kirkby, believes a Liverpool City Police recruitment film from 1958 contains a world first.

Peter Hodgson from Kirkby, pictured with Paul McCartney from Speke in 1995 (Photo: handout)

Peter says: “The film is called Service. The version I found that had been posted on YouTube is dated 1950 but after doing a bit of digging I discovered it was actually made in 1958. The McCartneys’ then home, in Forthlin Road, backed onto the police training centre – and the centre’s annual summer show is featured on the film.

“You can see four or five people in the distance watching the action from on top of the concrete shed in the back garden of 20 Forthlin Road, where Paul and Mike lived.”

Paul McCartney arrives in Liverpool, at Speke airport. 28th November 1984.

In the biography, Paul McCartney: Many Years From Now, Barry Miles writes: “The back of the house overlooked the grounds of the Police Training College, headquarters of the Liverpool Mounted Police. Paul and his brother would watch them training horses, knocking pegs out of the ground with lances just as they had done in the British Raj.”

And Paul told him: “We used to sit on the concrete shed in the back yard and watch the Police Show every year for free.”

After we showed him the film, Mike McCartney told the ECHO: “Wow! That could definitely be us. It was a really big occasion in Liverpool and that’s what we used to do every summer – take deckchairs and climb onto the concrete shed and watch a free show. And I think there is every chance John would have been there that year – absolutely. His friend, Pete Shotton, was a police cadet. And George could easily have been there, too. It’s bloody mad – absolutely fascinating and unbelievable!”

John, Paul and George were in The Quarrymen at the time – indeed, on July 12, 1958, The Quarrymen recorded two songs at Phillips Sound Recording Services, a home studio owned and run by Percy F, Phillips at 38 Kensington, Liverpool. It was the first recording session featuring John, Paul and George.

Peter Hodgson says: “I love watching old films about Liverpool on You Tube and I made the connection with Forthlin Road when I saw the Mather Avenue police show footage. Then I worked out which house was the McCartneys’ and thought ‘Bingo!’ I nearly fell off my chair when I saw it. I consulted two local experts, Blue Badge tour guide Jackie Spencer and historian Mark Ashworth – and then I found the information on a Merseyside Police website which confirmed it was 1958.

“I have also been in touch with author Mark Lewisohn, regarded as one of the world’s leading authorities on the Beatles, and he emailed back to say ‘What a find!’”

The Beatles (Photo: Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images)

By Paddy Shennan

Link to the Echo's webpage:

http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/liverpool-news/first-ever-film-footage-john-12703422

Up on the Roof

Police Training Ground

Mather Avenue

Liverpool,
L18

Paul McCartney's final home in Liverpool, 20 Forthlin Road, near the corner of Mather Avenue, Allerton, was a small two-floor brick-built terrace house in a 1950s council housing estate of the type being thrown up quickly all over the country to replace the houses destroyed by German bombs.

It had a lavender hedge bordering a pocket-handkerchief lawn and a small mountain ash growing outside the glass-panelled front door. The living room led off to the left from the tiny front hall and a door led through from the living room to the dining room, overlooking the back yard. The dining room was connected to the kitchen, which in turn connected to the hall. 

Paul: 'It was an all-round plan: if you kept turning right, you would get back into the hall, which is a feature I've used in the house I've designed for myself, because people used to be so amazed to get back to where they started. The architects who helped me design my house have now incorporated that idea in their new houses. It was an amazingly good design for the suburbs in those days.' 

Paul had the small bedroom at the front of the house above the front door. His parents had the big bedroom next to it, above the living room, overlooking the street, and Paul's brother Michael had the bedroom at the back, overlooking the back yard. Next to Michael's room was the bathroom. This was a great luxury; their previous council houses, despite being built since the war, all had outside lavatories, as did most working-class housing in Britain at the time. The roof of this outbuilding had its uses, especially in Forthlin Road.

The back of the house overlooked the grounds of the Police Training College, headquarters of the Liverpool Mounted Police. Paul and his brother would watch them training horses, knocking pegs out of the ground with lances just as they had done in the British Raj. 'We used to sit on the concrete shed in the back yard and watch the Police Show every year for free,' Paul remembered. 'One year, Jackie Collins came to open it and we were entranced at the sight of her comely young figure.' 

I bet she's a good swimmer

Anyway, this isn't a post about life inside Forthlin Road but merely a device to highlight some more extraordinary detective work from Peter Hodgson (you may remember him from previous posts on this blog such as "Oglet Shorts" and "Oglet Shorts part 2").

Peter alerted me to this rare and fascinating Police recruitment film entitled "Service" directed by the Chief Constable of Liverpool City Police, J.W.T. Smith. As the person who posted the video commented, contrast this with modern policing and you'll see how much Britain has changed in the last 60 years.

Or you may just wish to fast forward the film to around the 34.33 mark. This is film of the 1958 (not 1950 as claimed on youtube) Police Show on the training ground at Mather Avenue Police Station. Across the back of the field is the rear of Forthlin Road.

The McCartney's home, no.20 was/is the third house to the left from the three storey flats seen on the right. Count three chimneys along. To help you get your bearings, here's a shot from the FRONT of the house. No 20 is to the right of the house with the red roof.

Now, remembering Paul McCartney's comments at the top of this post what's very exciting about all this, seen more clearly on my screenshot, is that Peter has noticed several figures on the roof of no. 20s' outside toilet, watching the show.

It's 1958. Is that Paul and Mike on the toilet roof? No doubt there's a few pals with them attempting to disrupt the proceedings.

Click map to enlarge 

Is this the earliest film of the McCartneys?! Well spotted Peter!

As an added Beatles related bonus trivia point another Fab friend of mine Jackie Spencer has pointed out that the police dogs seen in the training video could very well be the same ones that performed at the Woolton Village Fete on 6 July 1957, you know, the one where John met Paul.

You just don't get this level of triva in books do you?

The roof of the outside toilet / shed featured in a Beatles' photo session with Dezo Hoffmann on 25 March 1963

Note:

Introductory paragraphs adapted from "Many Years From Now" by Barry Miles.

Link to Merseyside Police history page which includes some background to the film:

https://www.merseyside.police.uk/about-us/our-history/liverpool-city-police-1958/