54 years ago, the Beatles played their last live show. PHOTO CREDIT: Billboard
This Week in Entertainment History – Jan. 30, 1969, The Beatles played their final concert as a group on top of Apple Corps Studios on 3 Savile Row, London.
According to the 2021 Peter Jackson documentary, “The Beatles: Get Back,” the group hadn’t played a live show since 1966. According to George Harrison’s former wife, Pattie Boyd’s 2007 memoir “Wonderful Tonight,” the band stopped playing shows because of the intense stress that live shows and chaotic fans caused them.
The group planned the rooftop performance in tandem with their documentary “Let it Be,” which allowed watchers to see the process of the writing and recording of their final studio album by the same name.
According to the Peter Jackson documentary, the group did not tell London officials or citizens that they would be performing their impromptu set around noon, nor had any of the songs been heard before the performance.
According to Radio X, a British radio station, the concert ran just under 45 minutes and the setlist consisted of 11 songs. The band played their song “Get Back” three times before moving on to “Don’t Let Me Down,” “I’ve Got a Feeling,” “One after 909” and “Dig A Pony” before a quick interlude of the United Kingdom’s national anthem, “God Save the Queen,” before finishing the concert by replaying “I’ve Got a Feeling” and “Don’t Let Me Down” for a second time each and finishing off with “Get Back” for a fourth time.
Police officers were held back at the doors of the studio for most of the performance according to the Jackson documentary, however after multiple noise complaints, they made their way onto the roof as well. Police officers did their best to interrupt the concert – one even going as far as to turn Harrison’s amplifier off – only to have the guitarist turn it back on.
Once the police successfully removed the band and their equipment from the roof around 1 p.m., The Beatles went back inside their studio to finish recording their album “Let it Be.” The band never played together as a four piece live again, and the album was released on May 8, 1970, just one month after the band’s public break up.