Paul McCartney was 'nervous' and said 'we didn't have it' as he made Beatles decision

Despite being the biggest stars in the world, The Beatles made the decision to stop touring in 1966. The band were fatigued after years on the road and playing live shows to huge, expectant crowds and instead wanted to devote time to working on their innovative ideas in the studio.

That decision led to a run of boundary-pushing albums, including 1967's 'Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band' and 'The White Album' the following year. The Beatles' final organised gig took place on August 29, 1966, at San Francisco's Candlestick Park.

 Other than an unannounced rooftop concert at their Apple Corps headquarters in London on January 30, 1969, the four did not play live as a band again.  The 'Get Back' sessions in 1968 and 1969, which became the album 'Let it Be', were meant to inspire an all-conquering return to being a live band - on Paul McCartney's suggestion - but The Beatles' split in 1970 meant it did not materialise.

As such, when Paul, John Lennon, Ringo Starr and George Harrison went their separate ways and took their solo projects on the road, they had not played live for some time. Paul had released two solo albums - 'McCartney' and 'Ram' before he formed the band Wings in 1971. Part of Paul's reasoning for establishing Wings was that he wanted to be part of a band to start playing live on stage again.

He had floated the idea in the final days of The Beatles that the band should play unannounced gigs at pubs - something he did at the Philharmonic on Hope Street in 2018 - but his bandmates rejected the idea.

Source: liverpoolecho.co.uk/Dan Haygarth

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