Thursday, January 30, 1969
The rooftop concert
Concert • By The Beatles
Last updated on March 6, 2025
Thursday, January 30, 1969
Concert • By The Beatles
Last updated on March 6, 2025
Location: The rooftop of the Apple building, 3 Savile Row
Previous concert Aug 29, 1966 • USA • San Francisco
Session Jan 28, 1969 • The "Get Back / Let It Be" sessions • Day 19
Session Jan 29, 1969 • The "Get Back / Let It Be" sessions • Day 20
Concert Jan 30, 1969 • The rooftop concert
Session Jan 31, 1969 • The "Get Back / Let It Be" sessions • Day 22
Film Jan 31, 1969 • Shooting of "Let It Be" promo film
Next concert Feb 09, 1972 • United Kingdom • Nottingham • Lunchtime
I’d like to say thank you on behalf of the group and ourselves, and I hope we’ve passed the audition.
John Lennon’s final remark at the end of the rooftop performance
When The Beatles entered Twickenham Studios on January 2, 1969, for the first day of their “Get Back” sessions, the initial plan was to rehearse for a live performance in front of an audience, which would be filmed and released as a full-length TV special.
However, tensions arose, and on January 10, George Harrison walked out of the sessions. He agreed to return on January 15, but only under the condition that rehearsals be relocated to the basement studio of Apple headquarters. By this point, the idea of a TV special had been scrapped, though filming continued with the intent of using the footage for The Beatles’ next feature film. An outdoor performance was still being considered as a climactic moment for the project.
On January 22, Billy Preston was invited to join the sessions, and the band briefly considered Primrose Hill — a scenic location with panoramic views of London — as a potential venue for the live performance. Discussions about logistics continued on January 23, but two days later, the idea was abandoned for reasons unknown. With no clear alternative, Paul McCartney grew frustrated. Then, on January 25, the idea emerged to perform on the rooftop of the Apple building. The live rooftop performance was initially scheduled for Wednesday, January 29, but was postponed to January 30 due to the weather forecast.
On January 29, Paul unexpectedly voiced doubts about playing on the roof. He argued that the original goal of the sessions was to perform in front of an audience, and since the rooftop would not have a proper audience, it felt no different from playing in the studio. John Lennon and Ringo Starr remained enthusiastic, while George Harrison was willing to go along with it. By the end of the session, the mood had lifted, and although Paul was still unconvinced, he no longer outright opposed the idea.
In the morning of January 30, 1969, director Michael Lindsay-Hogg and his production team prepared for concert. Five cameras were positioned on the rooftop, one camera was set up on the rooftop of the building across the street, and three additional cameras captured events at street level. A hidden camera was also installed in the reception area. Meanwhile, in the basement studio, producer George Martin and sound engineer Glyn Johns prepared to record the performance; they would monitor events on the roof via a closed-circuit TV camera.
Before heading to the roof, The Beatles and Billy Preston gathered in a downstairs room, still uncertain about performing. Ultimately, they decided to go and play. It was a cold winter day, with a bitter wind, but no rain.
Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr were the first Beatles to reach the roof, accompanied by Ringo’s wife Maureen Starkey and keyboardist Billy Preston. Ringo wore Maureen’s red raincoat due to the chilly conditions. Upon arriving, Ringo repositioned his drum kit after noticing that road manager Mal Evans had “nailed me down in the wrong place.“
Behind Ringo’s drums was a painting by Tom Newman, the singer of British psychedelic band July. Newman, an aspiring artist who had coincidentally visited Apple that morning, is visible in concert footage wearing a maroon jacket and standing near a chimney stack. At the end of the concert, Newman retrieved his artwork.
John Lennon, wearing Yoko Ono’s fur coat, and George Harrison joined shortly after. The performance began around midday, coinciding with local workers’ lunch breaks, which quickly attracted a crowd in the streets below. Though visibility of the rooftop was limited, many gathered to listen from street level.
Traffic in Savile Row and neighbouring streets came to a standstill until police from the nearby West End Central police station intervened. Police Constables Ray Dagg and Ray Shayler entered Apple Corps during “I’ve Got A Feeling,” initially mistakenly thinking the music was coming from inside the building before realizing the music originated from the roof.
Apple’s doorman, Jimmy Clark, deliberately delayed the officers, claiming The Beatles were performing only “a couple of numbers” for an album and film. PC Dagg insisted, “Turn it down now, or else I’m going to start arresting people.“
Clark alerted road manager Mal Evans, who also stalled the officers by misleading them about technical adjustments. During the second take of “I’ve Got A Feeling,” however, the constables insisted on being escorted to the roof.
The police emerged onto the rooftop just as the band launched into “Don’t Let Me Down.” The Beatles noticed their arrival when camera operators shifted their focus. Paul McCartney responded by turning, smiling, and exclaiming “Whoo!“
A senior officer, Sgt. David Kendrick, arrived shortly afterward, requesting politely yet firmly to access the roof. Receptionist Debbie Wellum advised Kendrick, “You can go up, but don’t go actually on the roof, because it’s overweight. Go in the lift to the fourth floor.” When he arrived on the roof, The Beatles was near the end of their performance, and completed the song they were singing.
The rooftop performance lasted approximately 42 minutes.
Following the concert, The Beatles returned to the basement studio to listen to recordings of their performance. Initially, they contemplated recording the additional songs requiring piano accompaniment, which could not be performed on the roof. Due to the logistical challenges of moving equipment back down from the rooftop, they decided instead to reconvene the next day to finalize these recordings.
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.”
Ringo Starr – Quoted in Classic Rock, May 2020
A couple of days later we were all having lunch on the third floor. Ringo and I were in conversation about the building and its attributes and he asked me if I had ever been up on the roof, saying it had a wonderful view of the West End of London. So he took me and Michael Lindsay-Hogg up there, showing us a large area of flat roof with wonderful views of the city stretching away to the southwest. I suggested that if they wanted to play to a large crowd, why not play on the roof to the whole of the West End. We went back downstairs and put it to the others, and after some discussion, it was agreed. As the Savile Row police station was only a couple of hundred yards away we knew the concert would probably not last long, but the police stopping it would all be part of the fun.
Glyn Johns – From “Sound Man: A Life Recording Hits with The Rolling Stones, The Who, Led Zeppelin, the Eagles , Eric Clapton, the Faces…”, 2014
In your recollection, playing on the roof was your idea, right?
I figured it was my job to say we need a place we’re going to, we need a place to end, we need a conclusion. And that’s when I said, “Why don’t we do it on the roof?” Because I thought that was part of my job, to offer them choices. Because it wasn’t that they lacked ideas or imagination. God, no. But you had to help focus them because they had a million other things to do, including making an album.
Michael Lindsay-Hogg – From Rolling Stone, November 2, 2021
I think the reason for the rooftop session was to generate a little excitement. They were sick of just playing the same tunes over and over again. They just wanted to get a solid performance recorded, and I think that, until they did go on the roof, they hadn’t really achieved that. Or at least they didn’t think that they had. They announced it just the night before. It was just, “Let’s go up on the roof tomorrow morning.” So we worked late into the night to get it happening. Part of my job was to run multiple cables from the basement up to the roof.
Alan Parsons – From “And In The End: The Last Days of The Beatles” by Ken McNab, 2020
The first thing they had to do was get a builder in. He had a look on the roof and [had to] to get half a dozen Acrow props [telescopic tubular steel props] to make sure the ceiling didn’t cave in on the accounts department which was directly underneath.
It was just a pitched roof so they put down these Acrow props and then placed the wooden beams on top of them. Then it was a big deal to get sufficient power up to the roof for the lights and their amps. They were running feeds back down to the basement studio. That is why one of the numbers on the roof didn’t get fully recorded because they were changing tapes down in the basement.
Then someone said – it might have been Paul – “We should get a helicopter to film it as well.” Then the next thing you hear someone say, “Oh, there’s a girl in accounts and she has a lot of helicopters.” Eh? Turns out she was related to Bristow’s Helicopters. So they rang Bristow Helicopters and they said, “Yeah, yeah what do you want?” But the space was only 1,600 square feet so it would all have been a bit pointless really, not to say pretty dangerous. You have this image in your head of everyone on the roof either being hit by rotor blades or being carried away by the downdraft. Can you imagine it?
Les Parrott, cameraman – From “And In The End: The Last Days of The Beatles” by Ken McNab, 2020
Glyn sent me out to buy some pantyhose to stick over the mics to minimise the wind noise. I walked into this department store and said, “I need three pair of pantyhose. It doesn’t matter what size.” They thought I was either a bank robber or a cross-dresser.
Alan Parsons – Interview with Guitar Player magazine
It was good fun, actually. We had to set the mikes up and get a show together. I remember seeing Vicki Wickham of Ready, Steady, Go! (there’s a name to conjure with) on the opposite roof, for some reason, with the street between us. She and a couple of friends sat there, and then the secretaries from the lawyers’ offices next door came out on their roof. We decided to go through all the stuff we’d been rehearsing and record it. If we got a good take on it then that would be the recording; if not, we’d use one of the earlier takes that we’d done downstairs in the basement. It was really good fun because it was outdoors, which was unusual for us. We hadn’t played outdoors for a long time.It was a very strange location because there was no audience except for Vicki Wickham and a few others. So we were playing virtually to nothing – to the sky, which was quite nice. They filmed downstairs in the street – and there were a lot of city gents looking up: ‘What’s that noise?’
Paul McCartney – From “The Beatles Anthology” book, 2000
We went on the roof in order to resolve the live concert idea, because it was much simpler than going anywhere else; also nobody had ever done that, so it would be interesting to see what happened when we started playing up there. It was a nice little social study. We set up a camera in the Apple reception area, behind a window so nobody could see it, and we filmed people coming in. The police and everybody came in saying, ‘You can’t do that! You’ve got to stop.’
George Harrison – From “The Beatles Anthology” book, 2000
I didn’t need to be out front or anything like that. I was an invited guest but it was one of the best moments of my career. I got to play on the last live performance of The Beatles and, let me tell you, it was magical.
Billy Preston – From “And In The End: The Last Days of The Beatles” by Ken McNab, 2020
That was one of the greatest and most exciting days of my life. To see The Beatles playing together and getting instant feedback from the people around them, five cameras on the roof, in the road, it was just unbelievable. The only regret I have is that I intentionally set up behind all the cameras on the roof, so there is not one picture of me up there!
Alan Parsons – From “The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions” by Mark Lewisohn, 1988
I’m four to six feet away from the band, so I’m virtually looking in their faces. When they started playing, at some point – and this is something I’ll never forget – there was this moment where Paul looked over at John or John looked at Paul and there was this look of recognition. It’s like they were saying: “You know what? No matter what’s going down, this is us. This is who we are. This is what we’ve always been. Stuff’s going down right now, but we are what we are, and that’s a good rock’n’roll band.”
Ken Mansfield – Quoted in Classic Rock, May 2020
Ron [Kass] and I were married when The Beatles broke up. I remember going up to the roof in 1969, when they played Get Back, but leaving before I succumbed to a contact high from all the marijuana being smoked.
Joan Collins – From “Behind The Shoulder Pads: Tales I Tell My Friends” by Joan Collins
I was lucky to have been there because the roof was actually very weak at the top of Apple and so they told all of us that we couldn’t go up there. None of the employees could. I always got to know the right people so I got to know the cameraman. And he said, “Come up, you can help me.” So I went up and I just sat there thinking, “God, I hope nobody realises that I’m not supposed to be here”. But it was… it was freezing cold. That is, I mean that I remember more than anything – how cold it was up there. But also it was just so exciting to think originally the idea was that they were going to… they were doing it so that everybody in the whole West End of London could hear the music and in fact the amps weren’t that big. So the people on Savile Row could hear it, and it was fun to watch them looking up trying to figure out, what was that?
Chris O’Dell – From the Apple press office – From “And In The End: The Last Days of The Beatles” by Ken McNab, 2020
Tom, what’s this about you being on the roof when The Beatles were doing their rooftop concert? Didn’t your painting have a starring role?
That was a funny situation. That was just after a terrible thing that happened to me as Pete referred to earlier. I had a girlfriend who died of an ectopic pregnancy and it really set me back psychologically and emotionally for several years and I, out of that, had started painting. I’d kind of given up the idea of writing music or being involved in the music business completely.
I was doing these paintings that were kind of science fiction, Star Warsy sort of planets – planets with lots of moons. Odd stuff like that. I was living in a weird fantasy world at the time and I had this idea of just trying to just make a living really and, of course, I was still incredibly a fan of The Beatles and everything that they did and I decided, one morning, to take a couple of paintings up to London and see if I could get into the Apple headquarters in Savile Row. I was kind of mincing up and down the road with these paintings under my arm trying to see if I had the balls to actually go up the steps and bang on the door, a van was parked outside unloading equipment and I just walked by this guy got out of the van and said, “Tom. What are you doing here?”, it was a guy called Adrian Woolf who lived in our street where I lived in Perivale […]
Anyway, I said, “Adrian, what are you doing here?” He said, “We’re filming the Beatles, they are gonna play on the roof.” I said, “F**k me. You’re kidding” and he said, “No. No. Here.” and he gave me this little tiny flight case with some lenses or whatever it was in it and he said, “Here you are. Grab hold of that and come in and I’ll get you in.” And I was s******g myself, of course, but I just followed him so I became Adrian Woolf’s roadie for about half an hour, taking crap into Apple and going up the stairs about four or five times right up to the roof. There wasn’t a lift so we had to use the stairs and I couldn’t believe it, it was like walking into the Magical Mystery Tour, there were all these little dolly birds and geezers with trendy flairs on (chuckles), straight out of Carnaby Street and, amongst them, there’s the Beatles wandering about. So I helped Adrian up with all this equipment and Ringo’s drum kit was set up there so I put this painting that I wanted to see if I could sell, this kind of space-age thing, behind Ringo’s drum kit and I just hid on the roof ’cause I thought I’d get chucked out by Mal Evans who was wandering about with Neil [Aspinall] if they didn’t recognise me. But I suppose I looked fairly groovy ’cause I had Beatles haircut like we all had anyway, so I could have passed for any groover (chuckles) and everyone in Apple all looked similar so maybe it was just that I never got picked on.
Anyway they came on and it was an amazing, amazing gig. I’d never seen them live before – ever – so I was amazed at just how much like The Beatles they sounded. You know, I mean, but not just like The Beatles, it was spot on, there was no mistakes, it was absolutely perfect. They played ‘Get Back’ and, in fact, they were recording it as well, I didn’t know that at the time but they were recording it in the basement. Actually, I used their basement studio a few years after that to record Paul’s brother, Mike McCartney. The version that came out on record of ‘Get Back’ is the one they did on the roof, as far as I can make out. I haven’t checked it note for note but it’s got all the nuance of the live version and they were just playing through little tiny Fender, you know, little baby Fender amp and a Fender PA system and they were just miked up with half a dozen mikes and it was the best f*****g rock ‘n’ roll sound I’ve ever heard really. The cops came out and complained because of the noise but actually it wasn’t really very loud, it was just that they were scared that it was kind of revolutionary what they were doing and, at the time of course, there hadn’t been a revolution yet. But it was an incredible experience, it really was amazing, and bizarrely I sold the painting. I got 25 quid for the painting from Neil Aspinall who, bless him is dead now, but 25 quid in 1969, or whenever it was, ’70 was a lot of money, it was more than I’d ever had in one go anyway (chuckles). So that was that.
Tom Newman – From July – Resurrection – The Strange Brew
We were used to odd events, and so the sight of John, Paul, George and Ringo plus the TV people climbing onto the roof didn’t faze me. But, when they started playing right above me, and my office ceiling began to vibrate, I thought it was time to move. I rushed out of the front door into the street to find the other office girls hanging out of windows screaming and hundreds of passers-by gazing up to the roof.
Jean Nisbet, Apple employee – From “The Beatles: Off the Record” by Keith Badman, 2008
I ended up watching the concert, standing amongst the crowd on the corner of Savile Row, just like one of the gang. You could hear the show for miles. The volume of The Beatles’ performance on the roof was quite incredible!
Alistair Taylor – From “The Beatles: Off the Record” by Keith Badman, 2008
When you look back on it now it was an incredible thing just to be there. It really was historic. But at the time you’re just trying to make sure everything goes okay. I was used to seeing them so I wasn’t, like, starstruck or anything. But it’s only when you look at the pictures that you think, I was really there.
Kevin Harrington – From “And In The End: The Last Days of The Beatles” by Ken McNab, 2020
They’d been through everything together. It was kind of like a marriage and people were starting to not get along as they had when they first got married. But when they got up on the roof they really loved it. It was cold but they had a very good time together. It proved to them that they were such a great rock and roll band. They could still connect and they could connect as beautifully as they’d always done.
Michael Lindsay-Hogg – From “And In The End: The Last Days of The Beatles” by Ken McNab, 2020
Since you know it’s their last time playing in public, and since you know they didn’t know themselves it was the last time, it’s kind of beautiful and heartbreaking at the same time because if anyone ever passed any audition it was them.
Michael Lindsay-Hogg – From “And In The End: The Last Days of The Beatles” by Ken McNab, 2020
We set up a camera in the Apple reception area, behind a window so nobody could see it, and we filmed people coming in. The police and everybody came in saying: “You can’t do that! You’ve got to stop.”
George Harrison – Quoted in Classic Rock, May 2020
In the end it started to filter up from Mal that the police were complaining. We said, ‘We’re not stopping.’ He said, The police are going to arrest you.’ ‘Good end to the film. Let them do it. Great! That’s an end: “Beatles Busted on Rooftop Gig”.’
We kept going to the bitter end and, as I say, it was quite enjoyable. I had my little Hofner bass – very light, very enjoyable to play. In the end the policeman, Number 503 of the Greater Westminster Council, made his way round the back: ‘You have to stop!’ We said, ‘Make him pull us off. This is a demo, man!’
I think they pulled the plug, and that was the end of the film.
Paul McCartney – From “And In The End: The Last Days of The Beatles” by Ken McNab, 2020
I arrived as a young cop from Piccadilly Circus and there were about fifty or sixty people spread around the roof. One of the things I remember was the music was fantastic and every available roof space was taken up by people. They were sitting on chimney stacks to get a better view. And despite my instructions to arrest The Beatles, no one would have done that, because it would have ended perhaps the greatest concert that had ever happened. Thirty minutes later, I left absolutely buoyant having witnessed one of the greatest bands in the world. I don’t think the police were ever going to stop The Beatles [playing]. It was a great party atmosphere. There was no disorder. I remember John Lennon making quips like “I’ll come quietly” and things like that. It was a lucky day for me and a lucky day for London that they had this free concert by The Beatles on the roof.
Ken Wharfe – Policeman – From “And In The End: The Last Days of The Beatles” by Ken McNab, 2020
Obstruction of police in the execution of their duty and highway obstruction are powers of arrest by the police but they are not applicable on private premises. The gamble was that they didn’t know that. Probably because I was so young and stupid I was running a bluff on it. I think now, at 72 years of age, I can say I wouldn’t [have made the arrests]. At 19, I was pretty gung-ho and I think I probably might have, and taken the flak afterwards for wrongful arrest. But it would have stopped it, that’s the main thing. I’d have been praised for stopping it but then bollocked for using the wrong powers of arrest.
Ray Dagg – Policeman – From The Sunday Times, December 2021
They had this great idea of filming them actually playing live on the flat roof at Savile Row, which is all very well, but it stopped the traffic, and it sent the police hurling round. I’m not sure if it was a defied gesture to say, ‘Goodbye, public,’ or whether it was an act to really upset the residents of Savile Row. We thought it was a great idea and they decided to do it at lunchtime. Plans were being laid and Big Mal Evans was humping all this gear up onto the roof. All the amps, drums and all the speakers, all had to go up there. We all knew that it was going to stop the traffic. We knew that the police would be there, saying, ‘You can’t do this! This isn’t on,’ because the Savile Row police station is only about three-hundred yards away down at the bottom of Savile Row and we were virtually at the top end. The main thing that amused me was that they were doing this in the middle of the highly respected tailoring industry and we knew that the other residents would complain. The Beatles said to me, ‘What we’ll do is set up a camera in the reception, in a secret booth, matching in with all the paint work and everything. A hidden camera, and we’ll film the police coming in.’ But, I wasn’t happy about this, because, over the years, the police had been very co-operative with the boys, assisting them in and out of hotels and airports. So, I said, ‘This is not fair, filming them in a secret booth. If you want to film them, film them without a hidden camera. So, if you want to do this, I don’t want to know about it.’ But, in fact, they went ahead and set up this booth, painted it out to match the surroundings and it didn’t look like a booth in the corner. I said, ‘Right, I’m going. I’m not going to be in the building when this happens.’
Alistair Taylor – From “The Beatles: Off the Record” by Keith Badman, 2008
A non-complete list of who was on the roof for the concert:
I had to climb up a wall and almost fell to my death. I like that picture as there was nobody bigger in the world, yet they really were quite small in the context of the city of London. The photo shows they were mere mortals after all.
Photographer Ethan Russell – From The Guardian, February 10, 2019
Police stop Beatles raising the roof!
Police stopped the Beatles from filming on the roof of the Apple offices in Savile Row today after getting dozens of complaints about the noise. The amplified guitars and reverberating voices infuriated some businessmen. Company director Mr. Stanley Davis, a next-door neighbour of Apple, said: “I want this bloody noise stopped. It’s an absolute disgrace. You can’t even use your telephones, dictate a letter or have your windows open.“
The Beatles were filming a television spectacular, which is being built around a new long-playing record.
But the noise — even of the Beatles — was too much for some people. A police spokesman said: “We had so many complaints we sent someone round. A tremendous din was being made.“Hundreds of people thronged Savile Row and adjoining Burlington Gardens and looked up at the roof where about a dozen people could be seen taking part in the recording. Office girls hung out of windows to listen to the Beatles singing. “Don’t let me down,” boomed the voice of Paul McCartney. And “I am to miss the train.” After the police arrived the session came to a halt — despite the groans of hundreds of fans.
“Everyone on the balconies and the roof seemed to be enjoying the session,” said Mr. Alan Pulverness, who works in a nearby bank. “Some people just can’t appreciate good music.”
A spokesman for Apple said: “It was all supposed to be very hush-hush. But when you put the Beatles on top of a building in the middle of London and ask them to sing a song it is rather difficult to keep it secret.”
From Evening Standard – January 30, 1969
Hitting the roof over the Beatles
It wasn’t the Beatles’ gear, that upset the impeccable taste of Savile Row yesterday. It was the open-air concert they staged on the roof of No. 3, headquarters of their Apple organisation. Their voices and their music — amplified, of course – had excited office girls leaning out of windows, hundreds of passers-by peering skywards, held-up drivers hooting, and business men fuming.
“I want this bloody noise stopped,” said Mr. Stanley Davis, a director of Wain Shiell and Son next door. Paul McCartney cut him off with a song – “Don’t Let Me Down,” he sang.
Then the police took their cue and turned up. Soon after the session – a recording for a TV spectacular – wound up.
From Daily Express – January 31, 1969
Rooftop Beatles upset the neighbours
THE Beatles put on a free lunchtime show yesterday. And, appropriately for young men at the top of their particular profession they staged it on a rooftop. Unhappily, it didn’t go down well with the neighbours.
The roof they chose was the one over their Apple headquarters in Savile Row, London, a thoroughfare where music is not generally regarded as one of the more fashionable occupations. Indeed the famous foursome had hardly sent the first amplified bars echoing down the street before the verdicts were being reached. At the woollen merchants next door to Apple, director Stanley Davis said quite bluntly: “I want this noise stopped. You can’t use a telephone, dictate a letter or have your window open.”
Ringo’s drums rolled. Paul McCartney’s voice boomed: “Don’t let me down…” But Mr Stephen King, chief accountant at the Royal Bank of Scotland — right opposite — was not a bit impressed. He said: “I am furious. We were trying to talk to our customers but couldn’t hear them. I telephoned the police but apparently they are powerless to do any thing.”
Four policemen did arrive at the Apple building and two of them went in. But the 40-minute session continued, drawing crowds to the street and on to adjoining rooftops. An Apple spokesman said later that the Beatles played “four or five numbers for a film they are making.”
Now the neighbours are hoping to find a way to ensure that there will be no repeat performance.
From Daily Mirror, January 31, 1969
POLICE REFUSAL
You will remember that the Beatles attempted to record their new LP on the roof of the Apple building but were stopped when the neighbours complained. Mal actually tried to persuade several of the policemen, who came along to enforce the ruling, to join them on the roof.
Said Mal: “We had umpteen complaints from other people in the street during the lunch-time session and I’ve got to admit you could hear the music all over the place. But the police had their duty to do, even though they seemed to be enjoying the Beatles’ music.”
Mal didn’t actually manage to get the music stopped until the Beatles had played, sung and taped their planned quota of five numbers!
From the Beatles Monthly Book, N°69, April 1969
This was the 1st and only concert played at The rooftop of the Apple building, 3 Savile Row.
Rehearsal
Album Available on Complete Rooftop Concert 1969
Album Available on A/B Road Complete Get Back Sessions - Jan 30th, 1969 - 1 & 2
Album Available on The Ultimate Live Collection Vol. 23
Album Available on Get Back (The Rooftop Performance)
Take 1
Album Available on Complete Rooftop Concert 1969
Album Available on A/B Road Complete Get Back Sessions - Jan 30th, 1969 - 1 & 2
Album Available on The Ultimate Live Collection Vol. 23
Album Available on Get Back (The Rooftop Performance)
I Want You (She's So Heavy) Snippet
Instrumental excerpt
Album Available on Complete Rooftop Concert 1969
Album Available on A/B Road Complete Get Back Sessions - Jan 30th, 1969 - 1 & 2
Take 2
Album Available on Complete Rooftop Concert 1969
Album Available on A/B Road Complete Get Back Sessions - Jan 30th, 1969 - 1 & 2
Album Available on The Ultimate Live Collection Vol. 23
Album Available on Get Back (The Rooftop Performance)
Take 1
Album Available on Let It Be (50th anniversary boxset - SHM - Japanese edition)
Album Available on A/B Road Complete Get Back Sessions - Jan 30th, 1969 - 1 & 2
Album Available on Let It Be (50th anniversary boxset)
Album Available on The Ultimate Live Collection Vol. 23
Album Available on Get Back (The Rooftop Performance)
Album Available on Complete Rooftop Concert 1969
Take 1
Album Available on A/B Road Complete Get Back Sessions - Jan 30th, 1969 - 1 & 2
Album Available on The Ultimate Live Collection Vol. 23
Album Available on Get Back (The Rooftop Performance)
Album Available on Complete Rooftop Concert 1969
Album Available on Let It Be (50th anniversary boxset - SHM - Japanese edition)
Album Available on Let It Be (50th anniversary boxset)
Album Available on The Ultimate Live Collection Vol. 23
Album Available on Get Back (The Rooftop Performance)
Album Available on Complete Rooftop Concert 1969
Album Available on O.P.D.
Album Available on A/B Road Complete Get Back Sessions - Jan 30th, 1969 - 1 & 2
Album Available on Let It Be (50th anniversary boxset - SHM - Japanese edition)
Album Available on Let It Be (50th anniversary boxset)
Album Available on The Ultimate Live Collection Vol. 23
Album Available on Get Back (The Rooftop Performance)
Album Available on Complete Rooftop Concert 1969
Album Available on O.P.D.
Album Available on A/B Road Complete Get Back Sessions - Jan 30th, 1969 - 1 & 2
Album Available on The Ultimate Live Collection Vol. 23
Album Available on Get Back (The Rooftop Performance)
Album Available on Complete Rooftop Concert 1969
Album Available on A/B Road Complete Get Back Sessions - Jan 30th, 1969 - 1 & 2
Album Available on The Ultimate Live Collection Vol. 23
Album Available on Get Back (The Rooftop Performance)
Album Available on Complete Rooftop Concert 1969
Album Available on A/B Road Complete Get Back Sessions - Jan 30th, 1969 - 1 & 2
God Save The Queen Snippet
Written by Traditional
Album Available on A/B Road Complete Get Back Sessions - Jan 30th, 1969 - 1 & 2
Album Available on The Ultimate Live Collection Vol. 23
Album Available on Get Back (The Rooftop Performance)
Album Available on Complete Rooftop Concert 1969
A Pretty Girl Is Like A Melody
John Lennon only
False start
Album Available on Complete Rooftop Concert 1969
Album Available on A/B Road Complete Get Back Sessions - Jan 30th, 1969 - 1 & 2
Album Available on The Ultimate Live Collection Vol. 23
Album Available on Get Back (The Rooftop Performance)
Take 2
Album Available on Let It Be (50th anniversary boxset - SHM - Japanese edition)
Album Available on A/B Road Complete Get Back Sessions - Jan 30th, 1969 - 1 & 2
Album Available on Let It Be (50th anniversary boxset)
Album Available on The Ultimate Live Collection Vol. 23
Album Available on Get Back (The Rooftop Performance)
Album Available on Complete Rooftop Concert 1969
Take 3
Album Available on Complete Rooftop Concert 1969
Album Available on A/B Road Complete Get Back Sessions - Jan 30th, 1969 - 1 & 2
Album Available on The Ultimate Live Collection Vol. 23
Album Available on Get Back (The Rooftop Performance)
If we modestly consider the Paul McCartney Project to be the premier online resource for all things Paul McCartney, it is undeniable that The Beatles Bible stands as the definitive online site dedicated to the Beatles. While there is some overlap in content between the two sites, they differ significantly in their approach.
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