A previously unseen video shows the Beatles in color at the 1965 Barcelona concert.
The UB recovers an anonymous recording of the concert they gave at Monumental Square in 1965.
BarcelonaCoinciding with the 60th anniversary of the Beatles' concert at Barcelona's Plaça de la Monumental, the University of Barcelona (UB) has recovered previously unseen color footage. The project, led by Magí Crusells, a professor at the Faculty of Geography and History and director of the Film-History Research Center at the University of Barcelona, shows a two-and-a-half-minute amateur recording of the British group's performance on July 3, 1965. According to the university, it is the most valuable surviving visual document of the group.
The video was recorded by an anonymous spectator who attended the concert from the dance floor. This was the area with the most expensive seats (they cost 400 pesetas, at a time when the minimum wage was just over 2,000 pesetas). According to Crusells, "having access to a camera that filmed in color and from such a good position indicates that the owner belonged to a very wealthy social class." The footage shows images of the atmosphere in the square before the Beatles' appearance, with the Modern Jazz Dancers and the Florida Orchestra. At one point, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr are also seen on stage, tuning their instruments.
Analysis of the images has allowed the identification of five songs performed during the concert: Twist and shout, She's a woman, Can't buy me love, Baby's in black and Long Sally cut"That concert represented a burst of freedom for an entire generation immersed in the gloom of Franco's regime. The Beatles symbolized spontaneity, modernity, and a new way of understanding the world," says Crusells. The family that owns the video, who wish to remain anonymous, has deposited the footage with the Filmoteca de Catalunya for preservation reasons.