Apple Studios, Savile Row, London
Producer: George Martin
Engineer: Glyn Johns
The Beatles, with Billy Preston, gave their final live performance atop the Apple building at 3 Savile Row, London, on Thursday 30 January 1969, in what became the climax of their Let It Be film.
Preparations
A total of 10 cameras were used to shoot the show. Five were on the Apple rooftop; one was positioned on a roof across the street; three were on ground level outside the building to capture the public reaction; and one was hidden in the reception lobby at 3 Savile Row.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.’
30 January 1969 in London was a cold day, and a bitter wind was blowing on the rooftop by midday. To cope with the weather, John Lennon borrowed Yoko Ono’s fur coat, and Ringo Starr wore his wife Maureen Starkey’s red mac.
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.’ We had Mal and Neil set the equipment up on the roof, and we did those tracks. I remember it was cold and windy and damp, but all the people looking out from offices were really enjoying it.
Anthology
The 42-minute show was recorded onto two eight-track machines in the basement of Apple, by George Martin, engineer Glyn Johns and tape operator Alan Parsons. A closed-circuit system also allowed them to monitor the events on the roof.
The tracks were filled with the following: Paul McCartney, vocals; John Lennon’s and George Harrison’s vocals; Billy Preston’s organ; McCartney’s bass guitar; a sync track for the film crew; Starr’s drums; Lennon’s guitar; Harrison’s guitar.
That was one of the greatest and most exciting days of my life. To see The Beatles playing together and getting an instant feedback from the people around them, five cameras on the roof, cameras across the road, in the road, it was just unbelievable.
The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions, Mark Lewisohn
The Beatles were still uncertain about the performance, and met to discuss the idea while the last-minute preparations were made. George Harrison was the most reluctant, but eventually acquiesced after the other members all expressed a range of willingness and enthusiasm.
McCartney and Starr were the first Beatles to take to the roof, accompanied by Maureen Starkey and Billy Preston. Starr repositioned his drum kit after discovering that Mal Evans had “nailed me down in the wrong place”.
Behind Starr’s kit was a painting by Tom Newman, singer with British psychedelic band July. Newman was an aspiring artist and happened to call by at Apple that morning. He can be seen in the live scenes wearing a maroon jacket and standing beside a chimney stack behind The Beatles, and at the end of the concert retrieving the painting.
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.
thestrangebrew.co.uk
Also on this day...
- 2019: The Beatles announce Let It Be film reissue and new collaboration with Peter Jackson
- 2012: Album release: Ringo 2012 by Ringo Starr
- 2009: Stella McCartney creates Beatles t-shirt for Red Nose Day 2009
- 1970: Ringo Starr meets Elvis Presley
- 1967: Mixing: A Day In The Life
- 1967: Filming: Strawberry Fields Forever
- 1964: The Beatles live: Olympia Theatre, Paris
- 1963: The Beatles live: Cavern Club, Liverpool (lunchtime)
- 1962: The Beatles live: Cavern Club, Liverpool (lunchtime)
- 1961: The Beatles live: Lathom Hall, Liverpool
Want more? Visit the Beatles history section.
Didn’t John play a few bars of I Want You (She’s So Heavy) while they were changing he tapes?
Not the whole band, just him.
Did you not include it, because it wasn’t the whole band, or didn’t you know?
Anyway, you’ve got a great website, really useful resource.
Thanks!
It was an omission – I also left out A Pretty Girl Is Like A Melody and God Save The Queen, but I probably should have been more complete. I’ve added a paragraph about the off-the-cuff songs below the main song list, though it should be stressed that these weren’t proper performances.
Do you have a complete list of all the people who were on the roof at that time?
No. The Beatles and their associates are known, but I’m not sure about the members of the film crew.
I noticed that the birthday song on youtube was recently removed from the rooftop concert and replaced with the Paul McCartney version. I loved the original. I do see the rooftop concert on vimeo however the birthday song is not included. Perhaps something about copyright issues? Can the birthday song video from the rooftop concert be ordered somewhere?
I have a question.
There’s a bootleg with a stereo versions of the Rooftop Concert?
In response, McCartney mumbled something about cricketer Ted Dexter, and Lennon announced: “We’ve had a request from Martin Luther.”
John shouts something while Paul says in a posh voice “Well, thank you very much. It looks Ted Dexter has scored another.” Then John says “We’ve had a request from Martin and Luther.” There’s definitely an “and” in between “Martin” and “Luther”. I downloaded the bootleg off the internet.
From listening to the bootleg, there is a loud American voice, one of the crew. Who is it?
That probably would’ve been the director Michael Lindsay-Hogg who was an American.
While Conway Twitty may have made ONE recoding of “Danny Boy” the song is much older, having been written by Frederic Weatherly in 1910, and first recorded by someone named Ernestine Schumann-Heink in 1915.
It says that George sings a few lines on I’ve Got A Feeling and they were his only vocals during the concert, which was stated in Mark Lewisohn’s Beatles Sessions book, but it’s not quite true, because George can clearly be heard singing on Don’t Let Me Down as well, so much so that at one point he almost drowns John’s vocal out. He only sings in the choruses of Don’t Let Me Down though.
I would like to hear George drown out a Lennon vocal.
Are you sure it wasn’t Paul?
John Paul and George sing a great gospel-like 3 part harmony on the choruses of Don’t Let Me Down.
https://soundcloud.com/coxalicious/dont-let-me-down-heard-from
i have reel tapes of street interviews and found this, where george was much louder on the amps and could be heard on the street.
I noticed that error too, because, as you said, he is clearly singing on “Don’t Let Me Down” and even the footage can verify this.
7 December, 1968. Jefferson Airplane Rooftop Concert filmed by Godard 😉
The Airplane did a rooftop concert a month earlier (December 7) at the Chelsea Hotel in New York City. The Beatles followed, followed by U2 and two other groups whose names I cannot remember. So you see, the Beatles did not start that one.
The video for this link been removed. On this link it says Jefferson Airplane played their Roof Top performance on Tuesday, November 19th 1968. The Beatles weren’t the first group to play on a rooftop but their performance was far better! https://bestclassicbands.com/jefferson-airplane-rooftop-nyc-1-16-18/
At the end, John says “I hope we passed the audition!”
What does he say right before that?
@Imagination Troubador “I’d like to say thank you on behalf of the group and ourselves, and…” It’s on page two of this article.
Just prior, we hear a female yell,”Yay”. That’s Maureen Starkey, then we hear Paul say,” Thanks MO, to her…into John’s “I’d like to say…
I visited the Casbah Coffee Club this year. and the guide, Rogue Best said Paul Thanked Mo, meaning Mona Best, who ran the club in the early days. How clear is it really that he was talking to Maureen?
Very clear. Rogue wasn’t there, and Maureen – who was frequently referred to as the shortened “Mo”- was. She is sited in reports and articles of the event as having been quite enthusiastic in her cheering , as can be heard in this case. There would be no reason for Paul to be making such an obscure “thanks” at this late date in their careers.
Considering that she was there on the roof and had just cheered the finale of the song, probably 100%.
“On behalf of ourselves and the group”
I’ve Got A Feeling on Let It Be… Naked is an edit of the two rooftop performances isn’t it?
Am I wrong or this was technically their longest lasting gig?
No, they used to play for well over an hour in Liverpool and Hamburg in their early days. It was only when Epstein started managing them that their shows typically lasted around half an hour.
in reply to Gainsbarre, indeed George voice can clearly be heard singing on Don’t Let me Down as back up vocal but not drowning out John’s voice.
i’d like to know what john said before they sang “Two of Us”…
“‘I Dig a Pygmy’, by Charles Hawtrey and the Deaf Aids… Phase One, in which Doris gets her oats!”
George Also sings The “All I Want Is” intro and outro on Dig A Pony…
Hi, I’m glad you mentioned George’s small stunt of kneeling before Lennon.
Out of curiosity, do you know why they did this? Was it just a bit of fun (they both smiled at each other afterwards), or was it something else? Thanks!
Is the Alan Parsons mentioned above the same as the “Alan Parsons Project”?
Yep. Also it’s the same guy who engineered “Dark Side of The Moon” by Pink Floyd.
Does anyone know about the beautiful wood planks on the roof? Were they placed there? I can’t think they were always there. They seem to have been cut to fit. Does anyone know if they still exist? Someone have a souvenir?
If ever you found one you could make a guitar out of it like ZZ Top did
Someone knows if with the beatles touristic tour you can see also the Apple building?
Isn’t that tour in Liverpool? Apple was located in London.
Just saw the photo looking down for the first time – what a great shot! Any idea where it was taken from – did someone climb up somewhere to take it? wow.
RE: “I’d like to say ‘thank you’ on behalf of the group and ourselves, and I hope we passed the audition.”
This was John, correct? I’ve heard several Beatles fans say it’s Ringo.
It was absolutely John. You can see him speak the words at the end of the Let It Be film.
Before beginning the song “Two of Us” during their impromptu rooftop concert at Apple Headquarters, Jon Lennon quipped “I dig a pygmy by Charles Hawtrey and the Deaf Aids, phase one in which Doris gets her oats”.
Hey, just saw Ron Howard’s “Eight Day’s A Week.” Save your money. The “Anthology” is better, though Opie has a few good moments. He shows good Rooftop Concert video. I’ve seen “Let It Be” many times, and somehow Howard has footage (I think) that isn’t fan-sourced but another camera’s shots. I always wondered about why they were never shown by now – I thought they were destroyed. If any of y’ll know: were multiple cameras used by the director of “Let It Be” on the rooftop? If so, was Howard using unseen footage (or am I imagining this)? I think I read/heard McCartney wanting a fresh edition/digitalized version of the Rooftop Concert. Were there two or more cameras on the roof? Granted, Lindsay-Hogg most likely chose the best shots. But still….
Yeah, I watched it and definitely saw Rooftop footage I’d not seen before. That – for me – justified purchase of Eight Days A Week, LOL.
Is there a complete 42 minute version available on video anywhere? I’d sure like to see the whole thing.
Was on my birthday. I always remember this great concert. Thanks Beatles!
I Wonder: Who else have been singing and playing on the roof of Savile Row since the Beatles in 1969?
Did the Rutles enter the roof? And who else?
I have! Back in 1981 when I was in a band myself, me and a bandmate had a free day one day so we did the Beatle sites. When we got to Savile Row, No 3 door was ajar, as the place was a building site at the time. So we opened it and walked right up to the rooftop, sang a chorus of Don’t Let Me Down and went back down stairs again.
My impression when we got there was how small the space was up there.
But what a great experience for a huge Beatles fan like me
In Steinkjer, a city in Norway, we have a Beatles tribute band called: Bærre Beatles.
We attended the roof in September 1996 and sang (with one guitar) One after 909.
What a feeling!
Bjørn Edward Diesen
Does anyone know if they planned to do other songs had the performance not been stopped?
Worked at Andre Bernard as hair stylist, took my lunch walk through Burlington Arcade then stood outside Mr Fish the kipper tie boutique and listened to Get Back. Wearing my Lord John Bo Brummel jacket. Went home and hoped to see it on TOTP but not on. Great to see it in Ron Howards production.
Such great days working in Mayfair in mid to late 60’s.
Don’t quite know why, but One After 909 always struck me as the highlight of the rooftop concert.
What videos have clips of the concert besides “Let It Be”?
I once saw most of the rooftop concert on YouTube and haven’t been able to find it since except for Don’t Let Me Down and Get Back. I wonder where I can find it again
Does anybody can say what John Lennon´s sing when he sing Don´t Let Me Down by the first time? There are some weird lyrics I am nor able to understand…thanks a lot in advance
John sings “An no le re zi ga bli blu ji go/Ooh she does, yeah she does” after the second chorus of “Don’t Let Me Down.” Hope this helps!
Where did the Fender Rhodes piano go to?
Has PC503 ever been interviewed about having to stop the concert and whether he had mixed feelings about it?
I have always been wondering about how anyone would complain about a free Beatles concert. Here is arguably the greatest rock band ever playing live and for anyone to listen to. Can you imagine the price of a ticket if it was in a concert hall. Playing live for the first time in a long time and the last time ever and people complaining about the noise. Damn , I would have climbed straight up the outside of the building just to look and listen in awe.
Agreed. If I recall correctly most people on the ground enjoyed the free concert, but there are always those who would complain about something even if it’s a free meal.
We see over and over the claim that the coat worn by Lennon was borrowed from Yoko, yet we see him wearing it all through the Get Back series. It fits him properly. If it had been her coat it would have come down to below her knees and the sleeves especially at the shoulders, would have been ridiculously huge.
The entire rooftop performance is in episode 3 of Peter Jackson’s “Get Back” miniseries.
Twin Reverbs aren’t exactly “tiny little amps.”