transcript

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MARCO WERMAN: Two major British musical acts of days gone by have recently experienced contrasting fortunes in the marketplace. Here, briefly, is The World's Alex Gallafent.

ALEX GALLAFENT: When you think of the Sex Pistols, your mind doesn't automatically jump to butter – but that's what Johnny Rotten, Johnny Lydon these days – that's what he's selling on British TV.

JOHNNY LYDON: Do I buy Country Life butter because it's British?

GALLAFENT: There he is, dressed up like an old-fashioned English gentleman – albeit with trademark spiky hair. It's a funny pitch, the sight of this former Pistol wearing a tweed suit in front of a herd of cows.

LYDON: No. I buy Country Life 'cause I think it tastes the best. It's not about Great Britain – it's about great butter!

GALLAFENT: So there's the ad. And it seems to be working. The company behind it says sales of its butter are up 85 percent. A Sex Pistol selling butter – that's a whole new definition of anarchy in the UK. Still, you can always depend on the marketability of The Beatles, too, right? A rare black-and-white film of The Beatles went up for auction this week in England. Here it is. Okay, so it's a silent film. It was made during their tour of Scotland in 1964, and sound or no sound, you might expect such a film to attract some cash. The auctioneers expected it to fetch up to $17 thousand dollars. It made – going once? Going twice? Going thrice? It didn't make a penny. No one bought it. But, fret not, Beatles collectors in need of some quick cash. Other long-lost collectibles have been doing pretty well at auction. A couple of months ago, a short 8-millimeter movie of a Beatles concert in Kansas City, filmed on their first US tour, sold for nearly $6,000. And an old hand-scribbled document said to have inspired the song “Eleanor Rigby” sold for $165,000. So if you've got anything Beatle-related kept in a jar by the door, keep it.

WERMAN: That's The World's Alex Gallafent. Alex co-hosts are new best of The World podcast. It's not really a “best of” selection – more a collection of some of our favorite segments from the past week, plus a peek behind-the-scenes of our newsroom. Just head to theworld.org/podcasts and you'll find it, along with all our other podcasts.

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