From Brian White

Wakey Wakeyyyy!

This may well be unique. Colour footage of the Billy Cotton Band Show from the very early 1960’s. The young Brian stood in the dress circle at the Television Theatre and shot this on 8mm, and I imagine that it’s the only thing left of this show, let alone that it’s behind the scenes and in colour.

The original 8mm has been a number of things since it was shot. Brian has copied it to VHS, I copied that to DV, and thence to my Mac. Edited in Final Cut Pro, and slowed to 70%. Then I exported to Sorensen 3 streaming Quicktime at 320×240 18fps. Then across the network to the pc, and uploaded to the site. The resultant file is 13Mb, and it should load and play here – in 2024 it was converted to mp4 as mov is not supported.

Here’s some stills from the film while you wait for it to load –

The man himself

and guest Cliff Richard

The Mole crane, back when there was a swinger, a tracker and a motor man.

Hank Marvin of The Shadows

Where are you now, lovely lady of the chorus, more than 40 years on?

More guests – The Temperance Seven