Radio X gets out the map and takes a look at where some of the most iconic promo films in history were shot: featuring Bob Dylan, The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Queen and more Shot on Saturday 8th May , before Dylan's pair of shows at London's Royal Albert Hall, this classic sequence opened the documentary film Don't Look Back and has been mimicked, imitated and spoofed many times in the intervening six decades.
The clip was shot in a tiny alleyway behind London's five star Savoy Hotel on The Strand, where Dylan was staying at the time. The brick wall immediately behind Dylan is actually a buttress at the rear of the King's Chapel of the Savoy, built in the s. The Fab Four were much in demand in the mid s, so they were early adopters of the promotional film.
The follow-up single Paperback Writer and its b-side Rain received the same treatment, with a number of performances of both tracks at Abbey Road Studios captured on video. This was accompanied by a pair of promos shot on 35mm colour film, the location being the ornate gardens at Chiswick House in West London.
The Fabs were pictured in among the trees and statues, then the camera followed them making their way through the fabulous glasshouse. The gardens date back to the s and were sold to Middlesex Council in A major restoration project was completed in A fairly sedate Who promo for this early single from the Mod legends.
Ray Davies' dour tale of poverty was accompanied by a tongue in cheek promo film, which saw the band members dressed as undertakers - and various other characters. At the start of the promo, the band are pictured walking under a bridge that still carries the old North London Line between Gospel Oak and Hampstead Heath. At the climax, the "dead body" a Kinks roadie jumps out of the coffin the quartet are carrying and hares off back through the pedestrian tunnel.
