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IT was 50 years ago today that The Beatles famously played their final concert together on a roof in London. The Fab Four were in the throes of preparing to go their separate ways and although they had previously declared they would not be playing live again, they had apparently discussed doing so while recording their Get back and Let It Be sessions.
Due largely to the increasing acrimony among the quartet, their performance on the roof of their Apple company headquarters (note – they had that name before the other lot) did indeed turn out to be their last-ever public gig.
What producer George Martin called a “crazy idea” lasted just 42 minutes and has passed into history, largely because it was included in the film Let It Be which was released the following year and which has extensive footage of the rooftop concert.
WHY THE ROOF?
THE Beatles had continued to record studio albums even after declaring they would not be playing live any more. Although there was estrangement between Paul McCartney and John Lennon, with each of the main songwriters increasingly doing their own thing, it was George Harrison who originally walked out as he was fed up with McCartney’s bossiness and Lennon’s almost complete obsession in caring for Yoko Ono who, to be fair, had suffered a miscarriage in late 1968.
They all agreed to get together to finish the Let It Be album – which was originally titled Get Back – and the sessions were filmed as part of the Let It Be documentary. Harrison was enticed back on the condition that he could bring in keyboard player Billy Preston from the US. He is the only American to be credited on a Beatles album and he also took part in the rooftop concert.
McCartney, Lennon and Ringo Starr were all anxious to play live again, and after live sessions with Bob Dylan, Harrison became interested, as did Preston. There is disagreement as to who had the idea to go on the roof of the Apple building in Savile Row, but Preston later recalled it was John Lennon. Starr said: “There was a plan to play live somewhere. We were wondering where we could go – ‘Oh, the Palladium or the Sahara.’ But we would have had to take all the stuff, so we decided, ‘Let’s get up on the roof’.”
WHAT HAPPENED THAT DAY?
IN the basement studio, the eight-track recorders were set up by sound engineer Alan Parsons, later more famous as the producer of Pink Floyd’s iconic Dark Side of The Moon. The tech staff took up the instruments and loudspeakers while Let It Be film director Michael Lindsay-Hogg brought in the camera crew. He was anxious to “save” his documentary after recording the often acrimonious sessions in the studio.
Paul McCartney hits the heights again in New York in 2009
Up went the Fab Four just before lunchtime and the rest is history. The results can be seen on YouTube. After three takes of Get Back, two of Don’t Let Me Down, two of I’ve Got a Feeling and one of One After 909, the police came calling and the Fab Four came down. By September they had officially split up.
HOW ABOUT THE COPYCAT GIGS?
THERE have been several, but by far the most memorable rooftop concert since The Beatles’s signing-off gig was U2’s performance of Where the Streets Have No Name on the roof of a liquor store in downtown Los Angeles on March 27, 1987.
This was no spontaneous gesture, but a pre-planned gig on a specially reinforced roof that was intended from the outset to serve as the video for the song. They sang it four times in all during an eight-song session before the LA Police Department eventually intervened as the crowd numbers soared. U2 won the Best Video Grammy for a stunt which they openly admitted had been inspired by The Beatles.
U2 and others have played rooftop concerts but the last one to cause a crowd rumpus was in New York on July 15, 2009, when a guest on the Late Show with David Letterman played from the top of the marquee of the Ed Sullivan Theatre. Once again streets had to be sealed off as crowds rushed to hear the great musician. His name was Sir Paul McCartney.
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