The good Captain with John Peel, 1968

It’s not often when “new” footage of Captain Beefheart and His Magic Band turns up, but something previously unseen for decades has been recently posted to YouTube: Behold Van Vliet and crew onstage at the Rome Pop Festival performing “Sure ‘Nuff ‘N Yes I Do” at the Palazzo Della Sport on May 4, 1968

Paul Brown, the documentary researcher responsible for unearthing this gem writes on YouTube:

One obscure Beefheart performance, which has been preserved on film, is the Rome Pop Festival from May 1968 - this was broadcast by the BBC on Saturday 18th May 1968. The BBC were covering it, possibly due to the influx of UK bands, ie Julie Driscoll and The Brian Auger Trinity who were headlining it and The Move who, on the third day, were the ones to incite the police and authorities to close the Festival two days early. Captain Beefheart was the only one to represent the West Coast although there were big plans to try and get a few of the larger, and possibly at the time more well known groups to attend. (But it seems Beefheart was the only one willing to attend on the money offered. Probably because they were already in Europe). The clip with Beefheart and the band shows an unknown person, it is Krasnow?, nodding his head to what sounds suspiciously like Dropout Boogie - then the camera is on-stage and the band are performing Sure Nuff ‘n’ Yes I Do. There are closeups of Don Vliet in Top Hat and Jeff Cotton in his Yellow Leather Coat and also Alex Snouffer and Jerry Handley.