Lost footage of the Easybeats during their first performance on BBC’s Top of the Pops has been found after 55 years.
The Easybeats was formed in 1964. All five founder members were from families that had migrated to Australia from Europe. The two founding Dutch members of the group were lead guitarist Harry Vanda and bassist Dick Diamonde. Click here for the full story
Australian painter Lucy Culliton discovered the footage while sorting through the belongings of her late father, former television director Tony Culliton, at the family’s home in the Blue Mountains. Hiding at the back of a shelf were a handful of reel-to-reel audio tapes – one was marked ‘Easybeats print – Friday On My Mind’. The survival rate of 1960s Top of the Pops editions remains extremely low. Of the 315 episodes produced from 1964 to the end of the decade, only five complete episodes are understood to have survived. The National Film and Sound Archive has now digitally scanned the 16mm film. Friday on My Mind was the Easybeats’ third Australian No 1 and charted heavily in Europe and the US. More than 100 artists have since covered the song, including David Bowie .
