On January 30th, 1969, it had been almost two and a half years since The Beatles stepped onto a stage and performed live. The band, who’d made their name racking up almost 1,000 gigs in the early 1960s at the Cavern Club in Liverpool and other local venues, as well as on the Reeperbahn in Hamburg, retreated to the studio in August 1966. They then created some of the most innovative recordings ever put out by a rock outfit.
But the group was so jaded by six years in the limelight and a rock and roll lifestyle to boot that they’d even begun to resent making music together in what had once been their safe haven, the Studio 2 at Abbey Road’s EMI recording complex. Paul McCartney thought he’d found a remedy for the band’s ills: get The Beatles back to where they once belonged. Recording stripped-back live takes of rhythm and blues tracks in the studio and taking their new songs to the stage. The Beatles were going live again.
The rest of the band was more lukewarm about the idea of playing live in front of audiences again, particularly if that involved touring. A compromise was broached by John Lennon, whereby the band would head up to the rooftop of the Apple building where they were recording their new material. There, they could perform live on a makeshift stage set up by roadie Mal Evans, putting on a show for the surrounding area without technically having to play for a proper audience.
George Harrison had insisted the band move their recording sessions to Apple Studios, in the office building of Apple Corps, the company recently founded by The Beatles, after quitting a recording session in Twickenham studios on January 10th. Harrison was also the most reticent about any kind of Beatles live performance, even one on the roof of the building, telling the other band members on January 29th, “But I don’t wanna go on the roof”.
He was happy to go along with the plan, though, as long as the other band members were on board. “Whatever, I’ll do it,” he conceded if that’s what his bandmates had decided. Lennon and Ringo Starr confirmed that they wanted to go ahead with the performance, and McCartney’s affirmative vote made it a majority decision.
The following day, however, the band seemed to be having cold feet about the idea. Until Lennon broke the deadlock, deciding, “Fuck it – let’s go do it”. Up they went and performed the final Beatles concert to the unsuspecting public on the streets below.
So, where was the rooftop?
The Apple building, containing Apple Studios and departments of The Beatles’ new business, was based at 3 Savile Row, a five-storey Victorian building in the Mayfair district of central London. Savile Row itself has been the home of bespoke tailoring in Britain’s capital for over 200 years and still houses a multitude of high-end London tailors. It’s also famous for its Palladian architecture, with many buildings predating the former Beatles office by several decades.
Given the proximity of Savile Row to some of London’s busiest shopping streets and the West End theatre district, the Fab Four’s rooftop concert provoked mayhem at ground level. While speaking to CTV, Ray Dagg, the policeman tasked with stopping the concert, recalled the brief he was given at his local station. “There’s people in the street, thousands, listening to the music,” he was told. “So traffic is absolutely at a standstill all over the West End.”
He went into the Apple building and confronted the band, despite the best efforts of Evans to obstruct him. “There’s 15,000 people down there blocking the West End,” he told The Beatles. “Can we do one more?” they asked. “Literally one more,” Dagg replied. “That’s it, finished.”
That one more was ‘Get Back’, the single which had launched the project in the first place. McCartney changed the song’s lyrics to reflect the presence of law enforcement, and once it was finished, Lennon memorably quipped, “I hope we’ve passed the audition.” In the opinion of the thousands listening from various makeshift vantage points, including Dagg himself, they certainly had.
