{"id":442780,"date":"2025-09-22T07:36:21","date_gmt":"2025-09-22T07:36:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/442780\/"},"modified":"2025-09-22T07:36:21","modified_gmt":"2025-09-22T07:36:21","slug":"the-beatles-disaster-was-all-caught-on-film-but-it-led-to-iconic-moment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/442780\/","title":{"rendered":"The Beatles ‘disaster’ was ‘all caught on film’ but it led to iconic moment"},"content":{"rendered":"

Not all of the band were sold on the ideaDan Haygarth<\/strong><\/a> Liverpool Daily Post Editor and Regeneration Reporter<\/p>\n

20:43, 21 Sep 2025<\/p>\n

\"TheThe Beatles perform on the rooftop of the Apple offices at Savile Row, London. (Image: Handout)<\/p>\n

The Beatles decided to stop touring in 1966, tired after years on the road, playing to huge crowds of screaming fans. Their final tour, which was across the United States and Canada that summer, was marred by controversy around John Lennon’s<\/a> comment that the band was “more popular than Jesus”.<\/p>\n

John had made the comment in an interview with the Evening Standard in July 1966 and it didn’t even cause a stir in the UK. However, when it was reproduced by US magazine Datebook later that month, there was outrage directed toward The Beatles<\/a> from American Christians.<\/p>\n

The band had grown tired of the media attention, heavy security and the demands that Beatlemania brought with it<\/a>. They knew that the tour’s final night – at Candlestick Park in San Francisco, would be their final gig.<\/p>\n

About the decision to stop playing live, George Harrison<\/a> later said: “We’d been through every race riot, and every city we went to there was some kind of a jam going on, and police control, and people threatening to do this and that… and (us) being confined to a little room or a plane or a car.<\/p>\n

“We all had each other to dilute the stress, and the sense of humour was very important… But there was a point where enough was enough.\u201d<\/p>\n

Retiring from playing live allowed the band to focus their effort on recording, trying exciting and inventive things in the studio.<\/p>\n

The following years saw them reinvent popular music with ‘Sgt Pepper\u2019s Lonely Hearts Club Band<\/a>‘ before ‘The White Album’ was recorded during tetchy and difficult sessions, marked by John bringing Yoko Ono into the studio and serious creative differences within the band emerging.<\/p>\n

The difficulties during ‘The White Album’ saw Ringo Starr leave the band for two weeks<\/a>, so Paul McCartney<\/a> wanted to soothe relations and take things back to basics with their next project. \u2018Get Back\u2019 was meant to mark a return to performing live for The Beatles as they embraced their early rock and roll style.<\/p>\n

The Beatles convened at Twickenham Film Studios in London in early January where they would prepare and record a new album. The idea was that their rehearsals would be filmed for a TV special to accompany their return to the stage. However, it did not go to plan.<\/p>\n

In ‘The Beatles Diary’, Barry Miles wrote: “It was a disaster. They were still exhausted from the marathon The Beatles (White Album) sessions.<\/p>\n

“Paul bossed George around; George was moody and resentful. John would not even go to the bathroom without Yoko at his side… The tension was palpable, and it was all being caught on film.”<\/p>\n

George left the group for a period during those Twickenham sessions, returning to Liverpool completely fed up with his role. Amid a tough atmosphere, the plans for touring again were quickly ripped up and they went back to the familiar surroundings of their Apple Studios to continue working on the new album.<\/p>\n

The mood improved after a while, George returned and they recorded what would become ‘Let it Be<\/a>‘ – their final album, which was released in May 1970.<\/p>\n

As they worked on the album, the band agreed to one final live performance – their iconic rooftop concert on January 30, 1969.<\/p>\n

Paul very much wanted to stage a concert<\/a>, believing it was vital to retain a connection with the fans. Ringo and George were not keen on the idea, however.<\/p>\n

The band\u2019s road manager Mal Evans wrote in his diary on January 26 that the idea was thought about “after we’d taken a breath of fresh air on the roof after lunch”.<\/p>\n

\"JohnJohn Lennon, Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr and George Harrison at the home of manager Brian Epstein, in London 1967(Image: Jeff Hochberg\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

In Peter Jackson\u2019s \u2018Get Back\u2019 documentary, Paul<\/a> is shown to be excited about the idea after audio engineer Glyn Johns and director Michael Lindsay-Hogg suggested it to him.<\/p>\n

George and Ringo took some convincing on January 29 and the following day The Beatles took to the roof of their Apple Corps headquarters on Saville Row, central London for their final ever public performance. A stage was set up by Mr Evans and it was recorded and filmed.<\/p>\n

Despite this, the band were still unsure about committing to it until the last minute. According to Mr Lindsay-Hogg, they had a chat about it, went silent and John then said: “F**k it \u2013 let’s go do it.”<\/p>\n

Along with guest keyboardist Billy Preston, the band stepped onto the roof around 12.30pm. They began playing loudly, startling nearby office workers on their lunch break.<\/p>\n

The concert included nine takes of five songs – \u2018Get Back\u2019, \u2018Don\u2019t Let Me Down\u2019, \u2018I\u2019ve Got a Feeling\u2019, \u2018One After 909\u2019 and \u2018Dig a Pony\u2019. Some of the recordings were used in the \u2018Let it Be\u2019 album.<\/p>\n

As The Beatles<\/a> began their second take of ‘Don\u2019t Let Me Down’, Metropolitan Police officers stormed the roof, having received noise complaints. Initially Apple staff refused to let them into the building but they were threatened with arrest.<\/p>\n

With police officers approaching the band, Paul<\/a> thought on his feet and changed the lyrics he was singing. He sang: \u201cYou’ve been playing on the roofs again, and that’s no good, ’cause you know your Mummy doesn’t like that… she gets angry…. she’s gonna have you arrested.\u201d<\/p>\n

The police demanded the amplifiers be turned off but the band continued to play. The Beatles then started a new song – their third take of \u2018Get Back\u2019 before bringing the iconic concert to an end.<\/p>\n

John signed off by saying: “I\u2019d like to say thank you on behalf of the group and ourselves – and I hope we\u2019ve passed the audition.” It was the end of an era for The Beatles.<\/p>\n

They began work on \u2018Abbey Road\u2019<\/a> the following month but John told his bandmates in September 1969 that he wanted a \u201cdivorce\u201d from The Beatles. The band made that break up public in April 1970 and the album \u2018Let it Be\u2019 was released the following month<\/a>, bringing the world’s biggest band to an end.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Not all of the band were sold on the ideaDan Haygarth Liverpool Daily Post Editor and Regeneration Reporter…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":442781,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3936],"tags":[77,26608,8345,269,11693,20686,4162,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-442780","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-george-harrison","10":"tag-john-lennon","11":"tag-music","12":"tag-paul-mccartney","13":"tag-ringo-starr","14":"tag-the-beatles","15":"tag-uk","16":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115246804804298069","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/442780","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=442780"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/442780\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/442781"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=442780"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=442780"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=442780"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}