Born Sep 17, 1935 • Died Mar 01, 2005
Peter Goldmann
Photo: From https://beatles-chronology.ru/1967/01/21/pol-makkartni-na-vecherinke-dzhuli-feli/
Last updated on August 20, 2024
Born Sep 17, 1935 • Died Mar 01, 2005
Photo: From https://beatles-chronology.ru/1967/01/21/pol-makkartni-na-vecherinke-dzhuli-feli/
Last updated on August 20, 2024
Peter Goldmann was a film director, who directed the promotional films for “Strawberry Fields Forever” and “Penny Lane” in 1967.
In 1966, Paul McCartney was sitting in The Scotch of St James, a club frequented by rock musicians in London, and began talking to Peter Goldmann,a director at SvT (Sveriges Television AB). McCartney, inspired by recent films by Ingmar Bergman and Jean-Luc Godard, was extolling the fact that the next Beatles’ promotional films (which became a necessity after the group decided to abandon touring earlier in the year) ought to be in the emergent art cinema vein, breaking away from the faux cinéma direct of the group’s two Richard Lester films, A Hard Day’s Night (UK/USA, 1964) and Help! (UK/USA, 1965). Goldmann was also excited about this possibility and talked to McCartney about what kind of experimental films could be produced (even though he had, at that time, little to no experience with experimental cinema). McCartney thought that Goldmann ought to be hired to produce these works, and then told the band (perhaps apocryphally): “Let’s get a Swede!” McCartney later stated: “We thought that kind of surrealist art film was very appropriate for the times… We were great admirers of Swedish art films — Ingmar Bergman and the like — and we’d met a Swedish director called Peter Goldmann in a club and said, ‘Could you direct this?’ And here we were going backwards and now running forwards and now running in slow motion”. Goldmann was a slightly known quantity in the UK music scene, as he had worked as a producer for Sveriges Television’s Popside, which ran from 1966 to 1968, which featured UK-based bands such as Manfred Mann, The Troggs,The Who, and The Jimi Hendrix Experience. […]
From ‘Let’s Get A Swede!’: Peter Goldmann, The Beatles, and the Origins of Music Video | Scott MacKenzie
How in the world could I make something funny, bizarre, clever, crazy, sophisticated enough to satisfy The Beatles? It was in the plane that I came up with the idea of the horses.
Peter Goldmann – From the liner notes of The Beatles’ 1+ Video Collection, 2015
“STRAWBERRY FIELDS FOREVER” / “PENNY LANE” – Liverpool promotion films for Beatles single
THE Beatles’ long-delayed next single has at last been scheduled for release. It will be issued on February 17. The group is to make a series of film clips to promote the disc, which will be seen on British television and probably in America. Titles on the new release are “Penny Lane” and “Strawberry Fields Forever,” both Lennon-McCartney compositions. The disc is being given double A-side treatment.
Brian Epstein has commissioned a 31-year-old Swedish TV producer, Peter Goldmann, to direct the promotional films which the group is to make. They will be shot partly on the Liverpool locations referred to in the song titles, but it has not yet been confirmed if the Beatles will actually visit Liverpool for the filming.
Goldmann has previously directed several pop films in Sweden, including a programme on the Troggs during their last tour of that country, and a Donovan showcase. It is expected that the film clips will be seen on BBC-l’s “Top Of The Pops” on Thursdays, February 9 and 16.
From New Musical Express – January 28, 1967
Swedish film director Peter Goldmann tells about… TV-FILMING WITH THE BEATLES
“THE Beatles have made pop music into MUSIC,” said Peter Goldmann, the quietly spoken Swede who has been directing the Beatles for the past week in and around London and down in the countryside of Sevenoaks. “Paul and I spoke a great deal about this generation, and we are both convinced that what began essentially as a music form for young people is now for everyone. Being young is a condition of the mind, and young fashions and young music are now for everyone who can think young. When British TV realises just how wide are the appeals and horizons of groups like the Beatles, they may treat pop with the respect it now deserves.”
Peter is a living example of how to think and be young. He was dressed like an advert, for Carnaby Street in a green velvet frock coat with a yellow polka-dot flap-over tie and a snappy black cap. He is 31, and looks as if he were in his early twenties. His enthusiasm for English beat music is reflected in his imaginative Continental TV presentations of groups like the Hollies, the Small Faces and the Troggs.
It was through an early presentation of Manfred Mann in Sweden that Peter came to know Klaus Voorman, their bass player, who brought Peter’s work to the attention of Brian Epstein.
“I received a cable from Mr. Epstein and got a plane over the same day,” said Peter. “Originally, my enthusiasm for presenting English groups on TV in Sweden was fired by Dick Lester’s fine film of the Beatles in ‘A Hard Day’s Night.’ I thought that was fantastic, and wanted to try to present this music in an original and interesting manner on TV.”
Peter is now concerned that people might be expecting too much from him, and mentioned that he has shot in colour both “Strawberry Fields” and “Penny Lane” films shown on BBC “Top Of The Pops” this week, although we will see them only in black and white. He is concerned that some of the clever lighting effects will not come off in two-tone, but he was very happy about having worked with the Beatles.
“My first meeting with the group was at Ringo’s house,” said Peter. “He was very kind, and took me for a walk in his garden with his wife, Maureen, and their little white poodle dog, Tiger. I got my boots all muddy, and Ringo insisted on giving me another pair to replace them — that is really typical of him.
“Nearly everything went wrong during the filming, but the Beatles were very patient. The horses we got for the ‘Penny Lane’ clip proved to be spirited, and when the Beatles got off them they just bolted. It took us a couple of hours to recapture them from the far side of the park.
“Then when I arranged this weird tree-piano in a field, all the wires we had tied to the branches of a tree broke in a gust of wind, and we had to begin again! It was for the ‘Strawberry Fields’ clip.
“I was amazed to find that there was a ban to Britain which prevented the Beatles from miming to their disc — I cannot think that this serves any useful purpose. So I had to find settings and ideas which were sympathetic to their songs without turning them into comic actors.
“Ringo, I found, was very well informed on camera and photographic techniques, and Paul was a most entertaining conversationalist, but the group had all informed me that I was the director, and so I must direct.”
In spite of fogs, bad light, and other typically British weather conditions, Peter enjoyed his few days filming with the boys, and has an even higher regard for the Beatles as people now, In addition to his admiration for them as artists.
“They are fantastically gifted people – I heard their new LP, and that is going to surprise quite a few people. Very different from what people would expect, and very good.“
From New Musical Express – February 18, 1967
1967 • For The Beatles • Directed by Peter Goldmann
1967 • For The Beatles • Directed by Peter Goldmann
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