Everyone at the party was given a special 30th anniversary T shirt and all those who worked on the film were given either a Yellow Submarine watch or Corgi Yellow Submarine model.
Yellow Submarine took 11 months to create from start to finish - an incredibly short time for a full length animated film. It was a collaboration between TV Cartoons of London and King Features in America. King Features had already made the cartoon TV series of The Beatles and were approached to make a full length film.
The film had a budget of less than $1million and there were continual pressures to keep the costs down and to work quickly - the date for the premiere of the film was set long before it was even finished!! Overall over 200 artists worked on the film and produced over one million drawings between them. From the start those involved were determined that the film would not be a 90 minute Flintstones and that the spirit of The Beatles and their music would be reflected. Everyone at the party agreed that the central message of the film was 'love conquers all'.
The film is rightly regarded as one of the classic animated films of all time. It has influenced many animators and rock video makers - just look at the video for All Around the World by Oasis.
There was much pressure from the producers of the film top make it appeal more to Americans but Director George Dunning was determined that it should remain in the spirit of The Beatles and Liverpool.
Heinz Edelmann, a German, was bought in, as Art Director for the film and it was Heinz who designed the cartoon Beatles and the amazing creatures that feature so prominently. Regrettably Edelmann couldn't attend the party as he had flu. However that could have just been an excuse as he hates talking about the film and calls it 'an albatross around his neck' - a pity as his work on the film was tremendous.
There were almost as many writers on the film as animators. Many scripts were submitted to The Beatles but they were all turned down. Finally Producer Al Brodax turned to Erich Segal - who was an assistant professor of classics at Yale University.
The world that Erich moved around in could not have been more different from The Beatles. When Al Brodax tried to sell Erich the idea of working on the film he said that St Pepper had sold over 3 million copies. Erich replied 'That must be nice for Mrs. Pepper! Erich heard lots of laughter down the phone and three days later he was flying to England first class to work on Yellow Submarine. Much work had already been done on the film but with no overall plan and it was Erich's job to cobble together the many shreds of writing and animation that had been done already into a cohesive film. It was probably Erich's knowledge of the classics that led to Yellow Submarine turning into a classic/mythic hero's journey.
Erich remembered that the premiere of Yellow Submarine was an amazing occasion with lines of policemen holding back screaming fans. However the fans didn't scream for him! He also remembered that Twiggy used the premiere to announce that she was getting married and that The Beatles were upset that she had 'stolen' their publicity. The party after the premiere was held at a new disco in the Royal Lancaster Hotel called 'Yellow Submarine'. Erich took as his guests the professors of classics at Oxford and Cambridge Universities who had a great time mixing with the pop stars there.
The Beatles themselves had very little to do with the production of the film - their main contribution was four new songs - but they were delighted with the finished product. George has said that the film 'goes for every generation' and John introduced himself to Sean as a Beatle by showing him 'Yellow Submarine'.
George Martin was the Musical Director of the film. He couldn't be at the party as he was in the US promoting his own album - but he sent the following message that was broadcast on the Zoh Show:
'First of all I wish I could have been there. I have very happy memories of making Yellow Submarine. It was a strange film - a strange job of work for me as it was done very quickly, almost on a shoestring budget. But it was done with a collection of really brilliant people. I worked very closely with George Dunning, who was the Director, a Canadian, a quite brilliant man, a fine artist and animator who had this overall concept and drove the whole thing along. He used some wonderful people - English animators led by John Coates.'
The Beatles didn't even provide their own voices for the film - actors did them. One of those was John Clive, who told me at the party that it was a terrific challenge to try to retain the credibility, the authenticity and the sound and humour of The Beatles and that they wanted to stay as close to the Beatles as they could.
John Clive told me that he never met John Lennon but lived in Woolton in Liverpool at the same time and played in a band called the 'Hit Paraders' that played in the same clubs as the Quarrymen.
Paul Angelis, who played Ringo, said that to hear how The Beatles spoke they were given a copy of one of their Christmas discs. However Paul said that it was difficult to distinguish one Beatle from another. Therefore it was decided that for the cartoon that Ringo should have a low voice, Paul a high one and John and George in between. They weren't trying to imitate The Beatles' voices but play The Beatles like an actor playing a part.
John Clive told me that originally the actors that played The Beatles weren't allowed to go to the premiere as no one was supposed to know that it wasn't The Beatles real voices. However John Clive insisted they should go or he'd tell the world. The powers that be relented but the actors were right at the front of the stalls with The Beatles at the back.
Jack Stokes, the animation director on the film, remembered that the last song that The Beatles provided for Yellow Submarine was Hey Bulldog. George Dunning had the idea of the automatic piano but strangely the whole scene was cut from the prints sent overseas and also from the subsequent video release. No one seems to know to this day why.
It was a great privilege to be in the company of those who contributed to making such a classic film.
Seeing his daughter's delight at an old print of the zany animation and then discovering that the film had been off the market since the Eighties, Markoe began to pilot a course to get the Beatles boat sailing again.
'I went to the Head of the Studio and said 'I really think this film has a tremendous potential', said Markoe, 'There is a whole newe generation who have never seen it. The movie should be renovated and re-released'.
Making the movie seeworthy required months of patient 'dust busting' as, frame by frame, scratches were repaired and scenes recoloured using the state of the art computer technology.
'The first two reels of the movie had no good film negative elements', said Markoe, 'All the film negative was fairly damaged, it had a lot of scratches and dirt. We had to digitally clean up the original negative and recolour balance the entire film - and that was a lengthy process.
'It was digitally cleaned up at Pacific Ocean Post, where they loaded all the original film negative into their computers and then digitally removed all the dirt and scratches and enhanced and cleaned up the colour.
'This was a renovation rather than a restoration. To me, a restoration is putting something bacfk the way it was originally - but renovation is when you take something that you consider to be a classic and really try to improve on it, make it better and bring it up a new standard.'
And to do that meant doing what had previously considered unthinkable - remix The Beatles songs.
'The big issue was the sound', said Markoe, 'The idea was to enhance the sound of the movie, both the picture sound and The Beatles songs. Although the movie itself was very wild for its time in terms of colour and visuals, the sound was of the sixties and in mono and sound recording technologies for a motion picture were very primitive then, compared to what we have today. My feeling was that if the picture was re-released with the original soundtrack, or even slightly modified sound, it wouldn't do it justice.
'I felt that the key to the success of the project was to enhance the sound of The Beatles songs themselves. I called Abbey Road with the idea of doing an enhancement to a six track digital sound and I was told 'Well, it's an interesting idea, but we can't really do that, you don't remix or remaster THAT!'
However Markoe's idea caught the imagination of The Beatles, who backed the proposal to remaster and remix the songs from scratch specifically for six track movie sound.
'The sonmg remixes were done at Abbey Road with The Beatles checking it out all the way', said Markoe, 'Ted Hall at Pacific Ocean Post was the one who took the original sound of the film's sound effects and dialogue.
'They were all in mono and Ted cleaned them up sonically using new digital technology and re-recording it with the songs that were provided from Abbey Road.
'My instruction to Ted was that I really wanted to be very aggressive in the remix of the sound of this movie because I felt that the visuals of the film were very, very imaginative and very wild and big, but the old sounds was very narrow and small. I wanted the sound to fill the room - as now it does, in 5.1 Surroundsound.'
The engineer at Abbey Road in charge of remixing The Beatles songs was Peter Cobbin.
'In layman's terms what we did was transfer the music from the original four track tapes onto our new multi-tracks and from there we created what was called 'splits', said Cobbin - who thankfully added, 'I should explain that'.
We have come from four track of the sixties to 48 track today. Because The Beatles had very little room to record on, oftem they might be in the middle of one song and it might be on the same track as the lead vocal.
'But we can split those now and put the guitar solo on its own track and treak it differently to the lead vocal. So once we have done the splits there is a good chance that a four track tape may end up being significantly larger, it could be 12 tracks or 15 tracks.
'The thing to understand is that when the original four tracks were recorded to the finished mix there were certain things that aren't on the four tracks, generally the effects, reverbing echo. And on the original masters there are things that aren't on the original mixes, like an alternative vocal or a guitar solo that they chose not to use.
'So the whole process about mixing was about choosing the right material, the right vocal takes, the right guitar solos. Obviously we had to recreate the mixes as everybody has heard them and then choose the right things that weren't on the four tracks, like the effects we have been able to recreate quite faithfully because for a lot of the effects that were used in the sixties - like tape delay, the echo, the plates which generate a reverb on the vocals - we actually still have that original equipment at Abbey Road.
'We still ahve some of the original equipment that The Beatles used, like microphones. You might think what is the use of a Sixties microphone now? I will give you an example - on 'All You Need is Love' there is an orchestra and of course it is in mono. They did not have mini tracks to record in stereo. But I have been able to play that mono orchestra in the studio in which it was recorded, then mike it up with the mikes they used in the sixties, but mike it up in stereo.
'I think that without getting too technical, when you listen to the new mixies they sound very full, that is partly to do with the far greater dynamic range of today's equipment - so, for instance, the bases for the top end of the instruments lie the violins and guitars is extended a little beyond what was available in the sixties.
'But the overwhelming thing that kept on striking me was how fresh the sounds are on the original multi-track. All of us have been hearing Beatles music in their original mixes for years, but when you actually have the privilege to go back to the original masters and hear for yourself the vibrancy of the of the material recorded, you realise again that they are such a fantastic band.
'When you actually hear them raw, recorded in the studio, it really strikes you how good The Beatles are by today's standards. I think there are a lot of bands that could learn a lot by listening to some of the music I have had the privilege to hear.
'And now to hear these songs in 5.1 Surrounndsound, you really are in a different world. It is an experience where you are encompassed by sound, you actually have the sound surrounding you. You really get the feeling that the sound is coming from all around you rather than just in front of you. '
Remixed, remastered and renovated, the new Yellow Submarine movie has also now been re-edited to include one of the most prized scenes, which most cinema audiences never saw when the movie was released in 1968 - that is the Hey Bulldog clip.
'I've never discovered the official reason why the Hey Bulldog sequence was cut out of the movie' said Bruce Markoe, 'All I know is that the only country it was orignally seen in was the UK when the film was first realeased theatrically. After that the decision was made by United Artists to remove the song. They didn't just pull the song out, they also added some new animation to bridge where they had cut it out.
'But when we were doing the renovation we found a clean UK version with the original animation and the original Hey Bulldog song, so we were able to take that and piec eit back together in the way that was the original director's cut of the movie.'
Hey Bulldog is a Beatles song that I was familiar with, but it wasn't until I began working on the project that I realised what a great song it is,' said Peter Cobbin.
'It's just a straight-up simple, four track recording - but it has all the energy of a great rock and roll song.
The world premiere of the new Yellow Submarine print was set for Liverpool on August 30th 1999 as part of the annual 'Beatleweek' celebrations. The event was co-organised by Cavern City Tours and Apple. Liverpool City Council announced that the day would be called 'Yellow Submarine Day'. Mike Storey, Leader of Liverpool City Council, said, 'We are very proud and excited about welcoming the world to this annual celebration of The Beatles and their music. Mr Storey added: 'Thirty years ago, through Yellow Submarine, The Beatles sent a message fo peace and love around the globe. Now, in the last summer of 1,000 years, Liverpool is ready to be part of relaunching that positive message through 'Yellow Submarine Day'.
In the build-up to the premiere the press reported that a brand new single would be released from the Yellow Submarine sessions. Apple spokesman Geoff Baker said of the song 'It's a real rocker. It's all from the Yellow Submarine sessions. John is singing on it. It is not a 'Free As A Bird' job. It is something that is already there. It's good stuff,''. He would not reveal its title.
For weeks reports persisted in the press that a previously lost Beatles track was going to be released. However Apple then issued a statement saying the single wasn't 'new' at all - in fact all that had been found had been footage of The Beatles recording Hey Bulldog at Abbey Road in 1968. Then, even more bizarrely, The Sunday People newspaper reported that Paul, George and Ringo were going to re-unite in Liverpool for the premiere on a Yellow Submarine on the River Mersey. Amazingly the story spread around the world like wildfire - even making the front page of Japanese newspapers. Organisers Cavern City Tours were swamped by calls from fans and press alike asking whether it was true. Of course it never happened - but hundreds of media people arrived in Liverpool for the premiere - many undoubtedly there because of the rumours.
At the press conferenceThe US Postage Service's new Beatles Yellow Submarine postage stamp was unveiled. The special ceremony was performed by the US Postal Service Senior Vice President of Government Relations Deborah Willhite and the Lord Major of Liverpool.
'During the 1960s, the Beatles influenced virtually everyone' said Willhite. 'They dominated the worlds of music, fashion, entertainment, and pop culture for millions of people around the globe.'
In a statement Paul McCartney commented: 'It is great, its a huge honour, it's lovely for the Yellow Submarine to become a postage stamp and I'm going to send lots of letters to people with little Yellow Submarines on them. The letters will be winging around everywhere with this stamp on them.'
'I like postage stamps, I've always liked stamps,' said George Harrison. 'I used to collect them when I was a kid; it's something to do with the fine art of stamps and the they print them is very good quality. I've seen stamps of all kinds of people and things, so why not a Yellow Submarine?'
The stamp was issued on September 17th.
At the ceremony Deborah Willhite presented a special framed certificate and copy of the stamp to Geoff Baker, on behalf of The Beatles, and to the Lord Major of Liverpool. After the ceremony a huge poster of the stamp was unveiled over the balcony of the Town Hall, which the Beatles had stood on at their civic reception in 1964 when they came to Liverpool for the premiere of A Hard Day's Night.
The Yellow Submarine Day was then declared open by the Lord Major and the fun began, only to be interupted by a giant Blue Meanie invading the main Yellow Submarine stage, who ranted for a few minutes before being led away by the police! The meanie was played by Paul Angelis, who did the voice of the chief Meanie in the film.
Throughout the afternoon many of the people involved in the making of the film were on hand at the Town Hall to answer questions from the press. Those present included designer Heinz Edelmann, Producer Al Brodax, animation director Jack Stokes, uncredited writer Roger McGough, and Paul Angelis, the voice of the head Blue Meanie and Ringo.
During the day an estimated crowd of 100,000 watched scores of Beatles soundalike and other bands playing all over the Cavern Quarter with a huge stage outside the Town Hall. Unfortunately the size of the crowds made it very difficult to get in to the many venues that put on music. The size of the crowds also brought out some unsavoury elements. When we arrived at the 'Last Summer of Love' stage a big fight was going on among local youths. We made a quick getaway.
The premiere of Yellow Submarine was held at the Philharmonic Hall. The guest of honours at the Premiere were Sir George Martin and Neil Aspinall. None of The Beatles attended. The film was great - it was the first time I'd seen it on a big screen - but the acoustics of the Philharmonic meant that the new surround sound mix didn't work as well as it could. Although the music sounded good some of the dialogue seemed to fade away. The film was well received by those there was special applause for the restored Hey Bulldog section.
After the film ended Lenny Pane, one of the leading Beatles soundalike bands in the world, did a great performance of all the songs on the Yellow Submarine songtrack. However many of the audience left before Lenny Pane came on, including the guests of honour. In hindsight it might have been better putting Lenny Pane on before the film.
The hype of Yellow Submarine didn't end with the premiere. A Eurostar train, that runs from London to Paris under the Channel Tunnell, was covered with illustrations from the film. Apparently Apple spent £100,000 to cover all 18 carriages of the train and I must say it looked great. The first Yellow Sub train left on September 8th and ran for three months.
Despite some newspaper reports Paul George and Ringo were NOT on the train.