The Beatles - A Day In The Life.

 

 

 

The Beatles and friends with The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra filmed at Abbey Road Studios,
London 1967 while recording "A Day in the Life' track for Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band Album.

Director Vic Singh -Editors Vic Singh, Keith Green - Produced Apple Records and Vic Singh Studio Ltd 1967.

Peter Brown from the Beatles management telephoned me and said the boys would like me to shoot a film to go with the track of 'A Day in the Life' the last track on The Sergeant Pepper Album and could I make myself available for the shoot at Abbey Road Studios in three days time. The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra would be present and to celebrate friends were invited to make the day into a party atmosphere.

Thinking - I've only got three days to pull it together, I said "I'll do my best o.k."

The next day I had a production meeting with Paul McCartney in his house at Abbey Road, Neil Aspinall was also present he looked after the band. We decided to shoot in a 'cinema verite' style which at the time was a new concept to go with music.

Abbey Road Studios is a large space and needed film lighting, I got in touch film lighting companies and one after another they responded negatively, being unwilling to light such a large area at such short notice, not deterred I went ahead and ordered movie cameras film.

The next day I spent shopping at party shops and bought fun hats, masks, false noses etc. to give the film a more surreal party atmosphere and was still not having any luck with the lighting companies.

Finally late in the day before the shoot I was given the good news that the lighting could be done, my memory is not absolutely clear but I think the BBC came to the rescue with the lighting.

Some members of The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra were unsure about wearing joke noses, hats and being asked to play their instruments with a funny face but once they started joining in the party atmosphere they really enjoyed themselves.

I ended up in a Soho cutting room with film editor Keith Green, editing in those days meant splicing the film and joining it with cello-tape, there was no digital technology all you had to work with was acetate.

The film was never shown, it was banned because of the lyrics in A Day in the Life.

The music track in this film is the banned original. On the 'Sergeant Pepper Album' some words have been taken out of the track, I prefer the original film version.