7 Beatles Rooftop Stories: 42 Minutes of Logistical Nightmares

High above London’s West End, a 45°F wind whipped across the fragile, pitched roof of 3 Savile Row.

This wasn’t the roaring, electrified mania of Shea Stadium. Rather, it was a cold, uncertain Thursday morning.

Fifteen minutes before showtime, the atmosphere was thick with hesitation. Ringo, complaining of the bitter chill, shivered in his wife’s red raincoat. George, ever the skeptic, muttered, “What’s the point? Why are we doing this?” Paul, acting as the band’s diplomatic engine, pleaded, “C’mon, guys, let’s do it. It’ll be fun. We need to do something.”

John settled it. “Fuck it, let’s do it.”

That line would change music history forever

On a roof reinforced with steel props just to keep them from crashing through the ceiling of the room below, the Beatles stepped into the wind. It was a universe away from the screaming crowds of their youth.

As the first notes of “Get Back” echoed through the chimney stacks, the West End stood still.

While director Michael Lindsay-Hogg envisioned a “social study” of the band’s final interaction with the establishment, the day was defined by bizarre hurdles few fans ever heard about.

Source: culturesonar.com/Thomas Clifford

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