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Unseen Beatles footage released

SYDNEY — Never-before-seen footage of The Beatles “mucking around” in a make-up studio ahead of a television performance, shot more than half a century ago, was released by Australia’s national film and sound archive on Tuesday (April 26).

Screenshot from never-before-seen footage of The Beatles, released by Australia's national film and sound archive.

Screenshot from never-before-seen footage of The Beatles, released by Australia's national film and sound archive.

SYDNEY — Never-before-seen footage of The Beatles “mucking around” in a make-up studio ahead of a television performance, shot more than half a century ago, was released by Australia’s national film and sound archive on Tuesday (April 26).

The 49-second black-and-white silent video clip was filmed with an 8mm camera belonging to Australian dancer and make-up artist Dawn Swane, who was working at Granada TV in Manchester, UK, at that time.

The previously unreleased footage, from Nov 1, 1965, shows the four members of the legendary band having fun in front of the camera as their make-up is applied.

“I was in the make-up room. And so we were having some champagne,” Swane, now 83, said in a statement released by the National Film and Sound Archive of Australia.

“And anyway, I don’t know if it was John (Lennon) or if it was Ringo (Starr) but they took the camera off me and said, ‘This is no way to use a camera’, and they sort of jiggled it upside down and inside out a bit, and everybody was just mucking around.

“But that was great. I mean they were a nice group of people. They really were.”

The clip was donated by Swane’s daughter Melinda Doring. AFP

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