Buddy McGregor interviews the Beatles

 

May 11, 1965

Back in 1993, I bought a VHS of a Beatles "Lost Interview."   It was one of the worst Beatles VHSs ever made. It showed Buddy McGregor talking to the camera about when he met the Beatles on the set of Help! at the Cliveden House.  What I remember about the tape is that this guy goes on and on about this meeting and how the Beatles played baseball, and he says he had home movie footage of them, but it isn't shown.  Then he finally plays the "lost interview," which is a terrible interview in which he talks about how the Beatles are eating popsicles and calling them lolly ice. It was obvious to me that the Beatles had smoked something before they spoke to Buddy.  

I scanned the cover of the VHS, and those are the photos I am sharing here. I tried to find the video on YouTube without any luck, but I did come across the 4-minute "lost interview," and you can listen to it here. 

I also looked up this interview in John Winn's book  Way Beyond Compare, and this is what it says"

This would be The Beatles' last day in front of the cameras for Help!, and the last of the two day shoot at historic Cliveden House in Berkshire, which was doubling as the grounds of Buckingham Palace. Official Beatles photographer Bob Whitaker was among those allowed on teh film set, and he smuggled an American DJ, Buddy McGregor of Houston's KNUZ-AM, into what was supposed to be a set closed to outside press. The Beatles were in such a good mood that day celebrating the wrap that they probably wouldn't have cared.  They spent some time playing softball on the grounds, and challened the film crew to a relay race.  Team Beatle (supplemented by Neil Aspinall and Alf Bicknell) triumphed over three other teams, and McGregor captured some of the action on his tape recorder. 

After  lunch break, the group drove away from the set and wandered into the wooded ground for a joint or two, and returned to giggle their way through the final scenes.  McGregor was then able to corner John, Paul, and Ringo for a brief interview while they sated their munchies by sucking popsicles.  Not surpisingly, the  conversation is less than illulminating, as they recap the race, discuss Ringo's car and the Astrodome scoreboard, and debate the differences in British and American English. John explains the "Spainard/spanner" pun in his new book title, and we learn that popcicles are called "lolly ices" in Britian, although noboday can agree to the derivation of either term. 

Does anyone else remember this VHS?  I am going to have to dig through that box in my garage and see if I still have it.  (By the way -- that sentence "John Lennon is funny." has always stood out to me as a strange thing to put on the front of a VHS)