CLUB SANDWICH 79

MINING THE FILM AND VIDEO ARCHIVE

Silver rain falls and rozzers pound their beat as Mark Lewisohn heads into London Town to watch the video of the same name

LONDON TOWN

            With few exceptions, the thousands of pop promo videos made in the last 30 years fall into four categories: direct enactments of a song's lyric, straight-to-camera performances, storyboard/impressionistic interpretations, or amalgamations of two or more of the above. 'London Town', for sure, is an "enactment". The song paints an audio picture, the promo faithfully transfers the audio images to video.
            Wings were a trio at the time the video was shot, during the afternoon of Tuesday 21 March 1978. 'London Town', the song, and London Town, the album, had been recorded when the band was a five-piece unit, but between its taping and release a pair Wings - Jimmy and Joe - had taken flight. Not for the first time, Paul, Linda and Denny Laine were left to hold the fort, although drummer Steve Holly was about to round out a foursome once again. Indeed, the morning of the 'London Town' video shoot had seen the filming of the promo for 'With A Little Luck', in which Steve made a fleeting appearance.
            Because it's an "enactment" video, one need only take a look at the lyric for 'London Town' to guess the content of the promo. Amid the light of a "purple afternoon", the three Wings members sashay down a London street, dressed in raincoats, scarves and hats but, oddly, without shoes. Linda, in the middle, has an arm through the men flanking her.
            Soon enough they encounter "a barker playing a simple tune upon his flute". Rather unkindly, or so it appears, the musician is nudged off the kerb by Paul, to fall in a heap by the side of the road. Closer inspection, however, reveals that, lurking underneath the flat cap and inside the Wellington boots, the barker is none other than John Hammel, Paul's "roadie" cum assistant.
            As "silver rain" (actually glitter) falls, and "ordinary people" pass by, the camera focuses on an "out of work actor entertaining his wife". The thespian, his face whitened as a Pierrot and his actions greatly hammed up, turns out to be Victor Spinetti, Paul's good friend, whose talents graced not one or two but three Beatles films: A Hard Day's Night, Help! and Magical Mystery Tour. The 'London Town' video, indeed, was shot in the same place as the first two of these - Twickenham Studios, south-west of London - so the McCartney/ Spinetti reunion must have seemed just like old times.
            And speaking of reunions, the director of the 'London Town' video