By way of a post-script to this blog's important guide to pop videos filmed on the slopes::
The Beatles' Ticket to Ride, filmed on the Austrian slopes of Obertauern, sees the fab four on skis, I believe for the first time. Amateur instructors will approve of their can-do attitude, and developing technique. I am sure there is a Stem Christie turn in there somewhere.
The Foals video is billed as "virtual reality". Other videos have been shot on location in actual ski resorts. For more, including Abba (in Les Diablerets), The Police, Wham (in Saas Fee), Tom Jones and the Jacksons (in Leysin) , click here.
I am sure there are more, but here are four....in honour of those who felt moved to place their music against an Alpine backdrop.
Star billing, of course, goes to Wham's Last Christmas. This is the extended, seven minute, version...
For me, the most bizarre of all is The Police doing an alternative Don't Stand So Close To Me video, complete with impeccable Santa mogul-bashing skiers, and Sting stripping off. Can this be real?
A few years earlier, we find Abba appearing on the BBC's snowtime special, with "What's the Name of the Game". February 1979, Les Diablerets. Although in this account of the shoot, Benny says he was born with "skis on his feet", I think the Swiss Ski School might have a word or two to say about their style, shoulders etc....
Also in 1979, and also in Switzerland, we have The Jacksons. I believe this was shot in Leysin.
And it was 40 years ago that we had Tom Jones in the snow, Walking in a Winter Wonderland. Can't locate the venue for this one, I'm afraid.
