All You Need Is Love

The Beatles: Our World

Our World was the first live, international, satellite television production, which was broadcast on 25 June 1967. Performers, including opera singer Maria Callas and artist Pablo Picasso, from nineteen nations were invited to perform in separate segments featuring their respective countries, and the two-and-half-hour event had the largest television audience ever up to that date: an estimated 400 million people around the globe watched the broadcast.
Today, it is most famous for the segment from the United Kingdom starring The Beatles. John Lennon brought his newly painted Gibson J160E to the broadcast, and can be seen on the studio floor in the stills above.

Performing at the height of the Vietnam War, the group wanted to spread a message of peace and love to the world. They gave a live performance, transmitted at 8:54 p.m. GMT, performing a new song written by John Lennon, "All You Need Is Love", composed especially for the occasion. The Beatles invited many of their friends to the event to create a festive atmosphere and to join in on the song's chorus. Among the friends were members of The Rolling Stones, Eric Clapton, Marianne Faithfull, Keith Moon and Graham Nash. The performance required only a single rehearsal.

John Lennon's Gibson J160E 1967

The Gibson J-160E was the only instrument Lennon used faithfully on recordings, in movies and for live performances. Many afficionados equate the guitar with Lennon, the Beatles and the British Invasion. As Lennons life changed, so did his guitars. The three different guitars document three momentous periods of Johns life and music: the Fab Four Model (Lennon Model 1 on the left in the photograph), the Magical Mystery Tour Model (Lennon Model 2 in the center) and the Bed-In Model (Lennon Model 3 on the right).

John Lennon's psychedelic (Magical Mystery Tour) Gibson J160E guitar painted by Dutch duo 'The Fool' in 1967. This photograph was taken in John Lennon's attic music studio at Kenwood.