On 27 January 1968 Captain Beefheart and The Magic Band performed on the beach at Cannes, France, in front of the Martinez Hotel. They were in Cannes to perform at the MIDEM music festival. It was filmed for the French TV show Bouton Rouge.

The videos of Electricity and Sure ‘Nuff ‘N Yes I Do are a fantastic document of a tight band on the rise:

(Note: this film of Sure Nuff is in black and white – not sure why – but good quality as it’s been uploaded by Ina.fr who own the original footage. Sadly they haven’t made Electricity available.)

This video of Electricity is in colour but not the best quality:

 

Theses videos can be found on the enhanced disc included with Grow Fins (Rarities 1965-1982)

Band members

  • Jeff Cotton
  • Jerry Handley
  • Don Van Vliet
  • John French
  • Alex St. Clair Snouffer

Photographs

The above photo was taken by photographer Herman Selleslags.

Other shots were features on the 1970 French reissue of Safe As Milk and a 10″ repackaging of Safe As Milk and Mirror Man called Music In Sea Minor:

4 Comments

  1. Hey, 50 years ago today!

    Lifes a beach, you know!

    Dedicated to Don and Alex.

    Steve.

  2. wish I could have been there or seen this whole concert on vhs at least. So little live footage of this amazing band. First vinyl of theirs I bought was this one (Safe as Milk followed by Clear Spot), I wish ehey had put one more song on that beach recording “dropout boogie”. I also agree with Matt Groening (and others) about my favorite album Trout Mask Replica when I finally bought and listened to it… Maybe not terrible, but terribly confusing, then wow I am seeming to “get” or “appreciate” it a bit more in about one or two listenings further, then WOW this record is actually REALLY amazing. I wish there was more live footage of some of the first records (especially Trout Mask Replica).

  3. ran out of writing space…

    I still remember listening to the Trout Mask Replica house sessions on a portable cd player (just the instrumental parts no lyrics as they were added later) on my porch (portland, oregon) during the Alberta Street fair, and how the cd and the noise from the fair including our local marching band March Fourth (http://www.marchfourthband.com/) mixed perfectly for some reason (a good reason obviously).

  4. Apparently, on the same day, Beefheart & Co jammed with Paul McCartney and Penny Nichols in the Martinez hotel nightclub.

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