A clip of 60’s rock icons The Beatles performing on ‘Top of the Pops’ has been unearthed in Mexico. The 11 second silent clip shows the band performing ‘Paperback Writer’ on the quintessential show back in 1966.

Any footage of the performance was believed to be lost as the BBC did not keep any tapes of it. However, this surviving footage was found by a collector in Mexico as it turned out a family in Liverpool were filming the show on their 8mm camera. The collector then handed the footage over to missing TV footage specialists Kaleidoscope, based in Birmingham, in order to authenticate the clip.

Kaleidoscope’s Chris Perry had this to say to the BBC, “I think if you’re a Beatles fans, it’s the holy grail. People thought it was gone forever because videotape wasn’t kept in 1966. To find it all these years later was stunning.”

Even though The Beatles featured on ‘Top of the Pops’ numerous times, this clip shows the band’s only live performance on the programme

Dr Dori Howard, a lecturer on The Beatles and Popular Music at Liverpool Hope University, said, “It’s crazy, what are the chances? I would say it’s a really big find.”

The clip can be seen below.