Pre Beatlemania

[OpenMike]

Britons thought Fab Four fell short
AP

July 23, 2007

London -- Beamed around the world in a broadcasting landmark, a 1967 Beatles performance for the first live trans-Atlantic satellite transmission was regarded as a defining cultural moment in Britain - except by the viewers.

The band, who wrote the song All You Need Is Love for the broadcast, appeared alongside opera singer Maria Callas and artist Pablo Picasso on the broadcast in June 1967. A log of viewer comments to the British Broadcasting Corp., released under Freedom of Information laws and reported in yesterday's Sunday Telegraph, shows Britain's segment was heavily criticized.

"Have we nothing better to offer? Surely this isn't the image of what we are like. What a dreadful impression they must have given the rest of the world," one comment read, the newspaper reported.

Another viewer, impressed by contributions from elsewhere, said "after all the culture ... shown by the other countries, the Beatles were the absolute dregs." Comments from viewers were not passed to the band's management, the newspaper reported. Instead, the BBC told the Beatles their performance had been well-received.