The Beatles Final Concert On London Rooftop

On this day in music, January 30, 1969, The Beatles made a media splash when they played an unannounced gig on the roof of the Apple Corps building in London. The lunchtime set marked the legendary band’s final live performance. Joined by keyboardist Billy Preston, the group played 42 minutes of new material, including multiple takes of “Get Back,” “Don’t Let Me Down,” “I’ve Got A Feeling,” “The One After 909,” and “Dig A Pony.” Chaos ensued when fans learned about the impromptu performance and traffic was brought to a standstill, as crowds of people gathered below and watched from the windows and rooftops of nearby buildings. John Lennon ended the performance by saying, “I’d like to say ‘thank you’ on behalf of the group and ourselves and I hope we passed the audition.”

Maybe if the businessmen down below knew they were eavesdropping on the end of an era, they wouldn’t have complained about the racket interrupting their lunch break. The rooftop concert is a bright spot in the tension-fueled recording sessions for what will become the Let It Be album and the accompanying Let It Be documentary. The band hasn’t ventured outside the studio since the summer of 1966, when they gave their last paid concert performance in San Francisco’s Candlestick Park, and is hoping to get back to their roots playing music without the aid of studio magic.

Paul McCartney thought they could stage a live concert to promote the new album, with the footage doubling as the climax to the documentary film. But no one could decide on a venue. Suggestions range from a cruise ship to their old stomping ground the Cavern Club to the mouth of a volcano. Yoko Ono suggests they perform to an auditorium of 20,000 empty seats. A frustrated George Harrison demands they nix the concert idea, which has become an albatross around their necks and is preventing them from making any real progress. But what is to become of the documentary without the concert?

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The Beatles - Don't Let Me Down

The Beatles - Don't Let Me Down03:32

No one knows exactly who came up with the idea, but heading up to the Apple rooftop was something everyone could finally agree on. Joined by keyboardist Billy Preston, the band – including Harrison and John Lennon bundled up in fur coats – launches into a brief but memorable set that blasts through the workday drudgery in the streets below. Besieged by noise complaints, the police make their way to the rooftop as a magnificently bearded McCartney belts out a third run-through of “Get Back” with the ad-libbed lyrics “You’ve been playing on the roofs again, and you know your Momma doesn’t like it, she’s gonna have you arrested!”

Ringo Starr, who grudgingly agreed to take part in the performance, is enlivened by the possibility of an arrest: “Someone was complaining and the police came up and I just thought, ‘We’re on film. Drag me off the drums, or something.’ But instead it was, ‘Well, I’m afraid you’ve got to turn it down’ and the plug was pulled. It could have been incredible. The Beatles carted off by the police. That would have been great.”

The concert isn’t capped by an arrest, but with Lennon quipping, “I’d like to say thank you on behalf of the group and ourselves and I hope we’ve passed the audition.”