In Love with London

***In Love with London*** is a music documentary on the career and life of Luke Melvin which originally aired on ITV1 in the United Kingdom on 2 August 1997. It became available on VHS on 1 January 1998 and on DVD on 1 January 2004. It only became available in the United States in 2009.

## History

A documentary about his career had been on Luke Melvin's mind since 1976, after his successful album *Very Nervous* was released. He put the plan on his label Meet the Eye Records' diary and was going to title it *Nature Won't Take Anything*. He interviewed John Lennon about himself but decided that it was stupid and selfish to do a documentary about himself. The interviews with John Lennon lay scrapped at Meet the Eye Records' headquarters in Liverpool for the time being.

In January 1997, Luke Melvin decided to finally release *Nature Won't Take Anything* and he, George Harrison and Ringo Starr sat around a table and mainly talked about his career. John Lennon is shown in the scrapped interviews. But following Melvin's tour of Europe called In Love with Europe Tour, he decided to rename the documentary *In Love with London*.

## Episodes

All songs mentioned written by Luke Melvin.

### **Episode One (27 June 1940 to 12 January 1970)**

1. Birth and Early Years:

"I was born on 27 June 1940 and I was something" - Luke Melvin.

"Immediately when I was about four, I started to like noises … as in I liked singing notes and stuff and hearing notes" - Luke Melvin.

2. Discovering Guitar:

"I remember when I first saw the instrument … I knew it was me" - Luke Melvin.

"I remember my first lesson really well … I was thirteen and it was the aftermath of the war and a former Nazi was teaching me. I remember in my first lesson I learnt an A, an E and a D." - Luke Melvin.

"I remember … after three months I started to teach myself cause I knew about fifteen chords off by heart and I could now play by ear." - Luke Melvin.

3. Meeting George & the Guys

"I remember when Luke first met me, we were in erm … Liverpool in 1968 and I was getting away from the mania and we literally smashed into each other. Luke had his guitar and after a meeting I gave him my number." - George Harrison.

"I remember meeting John after I'd known George for a while and he said: 'come to our sessions for our album' and I was like: 'yes!'." - Luke Melvin.

"He came in following an argument between Paul and George. It was carnage. He then went and said hello to Ringo." - John Lennon.

### **Episode Two (13th January 1970 to 1st January 1976)**

1. Recording and releasing *Nature Will Take Everything*

"I remember something fondly, we'd just taped the orchestra for "Goodbye" but we didn't think it was enough so we had tape loops with pencils and shit making the patterns go all weird but it was nice in a way." - John Lennon.

"I remember when I finally finished doing "Fans" and the album was done. I was so happy. I wanted to get it done so quickly I didn't even contact Ringo for drums." - Luke Melvin.

2. Recording and releasing *Sweet Smell of Success*and the disaster of *Meet the Eye*

"*Sweet Smell of Success* was such a good follow-up to *Nature* and I suppose Luke tried to do something to follow *Success* up, but it didn't work. It was a disaster." - George Harrison.

3. The disastrous US tour

"Luke asked us to go on tour. I accepted. I didn't realise we'd be in so much danger with eggs and shit thrown at us." - Ringo Starr.

### **Episode Three (2nd January 1976 to 31st December 1982)**

1. Subsequent album releases

"*Luke Melvin*was so successful that I felt like retiring there and then. But I decided I was going to carry on." - Luke Melvin.

2. The death of John Lennon

"I was depressed and really thought about suicide when John died. I couldn't comprehend that I would never see him again." - Luke Melvin.

### **Episode Four (1st January 1983 to present)**

1. Luke's final album

"I wanted it to be a grand finale. With the support of the single "I Need You For Love", it really was a bang." - Luke Melvin.

2. Subsequent years

"I love touring with Luke. It's great. We've been on so many tours." - George Harrison.

"Though I am winding it down, I think I'll probably tour for the rest of my life." - Luke Melvin.

## Critical reception

Following its airing on 2 August 1997, the documentary was met with critical acclaim and praise. It did so well it was repeated on ITV1 on 12 September 1997 and ITV2 on 2 December 1997 until it was released on VHS on 1 January 1998. It was eventually released on DVD in 2004.