CLUB SANDWICH 59

MINING THE FILM AND VIDEO ARCHIVE

We continue our exploration of Paul’s video vault

HI, HI, HI

            Viewed today, the promo for Wings' 'Hi, Hi, Hi' comes across as another of those charmingly unpretentious clips from the early 1970s - before Queen's 'Bohemian Rhapsody' ushered in the hot-shot video age. Their single for Christmas 1972, this was the song that so upset the BBC and other broadcasters because of its alleged line about a "bodygun". (When one considers what gets past the censor these days, this seems quite ridiculous.)
            Wings shot promos for 'Hi, Hi, Hi' and also for the other side of the single, 'C Moon' - promoted to the A-side because of the ban - at the Southampton studios of Southern Television (used merely as an independent venue, not because Southern was especially planning to programme them) on Saturday 25 November 1972. Both were directed by Steve Turner, the award-winning director of the late-1960s BBC2 series Colour Me Pop.
            Now working at Central Television, Turner has a clear memory of the shoot and how he came to be involved, for the first and only time, in Paul's career. "I had turned freelance, setting up my own Take One Productions company, when, out of the blue, I got a call saying that I'd been recommended...would I be interested in working with Paul, and could we meet? His office sent me an early version of 'C Moon' to listen to, which was bit different from the released take, and then I went along to meet him at Trident Studios, where Wings were doing some recording. We talked, he seemed happy with what I was suggesting, and we next met up at Southampton.
            "Paul's a great ideas man and was wanting to change things as we went along," Turner recalls, "which I was happy to do because his suggestions always fitted in. The only problem was, the studio was being refurbished so I had to sit in an outdoor outside-broadcast wagon rather than in the control room. Paul likes his directors to work with him on the floor but I couldn't because it took too long to go back and forth between the two places. Still, everyone was happy with the clips in the end."
            Both promos were done to completion then and there - no post-production was necessary because they were shot on tape with three cameras, Turner cutting and mixing from one to another live. Paul left Southampton at the end of the afternoon with two video master tapes in his hand.
            Ironically, these were then transferred to 16mm film for TV distribution. How times have changed.