The day U2 ‘stole’ The Beatles’ last rooftop concert at Apple Corps: “I hope we lived up to it”

On January 30, 1969, London awoke to a gray and icy dawn. On Savile Row, The Beatles climbed onto the roof of the Apple Corps building, the company the group founded in 1968, and began playing at lunchtime. They did so without warning, without charging admission… and without permission. Just them, Billy Preston, ‘The Fifth Beatle’ at the keyboard, and a biting wind. John put on Yoko’s coat, Ringo Maureen’s red raincoat, Paul smiled as if it were summer, and George, the most reluctant, finally gave in. Down below, in the street, people stopped in their tracks. Office workers with their sandwiches in hand, neighbors peering out of their windows. Very English indeed, watching without seeming to be watching. No one knew they were witnessing the Beatles’ last public performance. What they also didn’t know was that those cameras weren’t there by chance: the rooftop was the final chapter of the ‘Get Back’ project, which would eventually become the documentary Let It Be.

They kicked things off with “Get Back.” Then came “Don’t Let Me Down,” “I’ve Got a Feeling,” “One After 909,” and “Dig a Pony.” They did several takes and joked around with some improvised lyrics to laugh at the cold. Meanwhile, the calls started coming in to nearby police stations: “There’s noise,” “we can’t work,” “this is a scandal.” The banker on the corner was furious because he couldn’t hear his customers. The man at the wool shop was saying he couldn’t dictate a letter. London being London, while down below, in the street, a crowd was starting to gather.

Halfway through the concert, the police showed up. Several officers came up the stairs looking like they’d been called in for a noise complaint. There was no row. Just a brief conversation, when what they really wanted was to say “carry on, carry on” and sit back and enjoy the show. Ray Shayler, one of them, recounted it years later: “They told me they had one song left. I said, ‘Do that one... and we’ll stop.’ Ringo joked, ‘Don’t put the handcuffs on me.’ Paul apologized. Very British indeed. Meanwhile, cameras were recording every move. They’d set one up at the reception desk in case the police officers wandered into the frame. They played “Get Back” one more time, and John closed the 42-minute concert with a phrase that would become legendary: “Thank you on behalf of the group... I hope we’ve passed the audition.”

U2 in LA

Nearly twenty years later, another rooftop, another sky, same idea. Los Angeles, March 27, 1987. U2 decided to film the video for “Where the Streets Have No Name” on the roof of a liquor store at Seventh and Main. This time there was no improvisation. They reinforced the building’s roof in case fans invaded it. They set up a generator “in case the authorities cut the power.” They notified the radio stations so the city would know. And they waited for the word to spread. Within minutes, the street was a hive of activity. Traffic backed up at rush hour. Curious onlookers began to gather... and the police once again climbed a ladder to ask for the same thing as always: “Guys, this has to stop.”

The director, Meiert Avis, made it clear: they wanted to be “disruptive.” To create a small earthquake in the afternoon. For the video to make headlines. Bono, with the smile of someone who knows what he’s doing, added a wink: “It’s not the first time we’ve ripped off the Beatles.” They played “Streets” several times so that the intro with The Edge’s echoing guitar sounded perfect in the video. Then they played snippets of “People Get Ready,” “In God’s Country,” “Sunday Bloody Sunday”... Finally, they launched into “Pride,” but they were cut short because the police, this time for real, said enough was enough. The city slowly returned to its rhythm, and the clip ended up winning a Grammy.

The comparison is inevitable. In London, the rooftop was an emergency exit for a Beatles whose project was dying. The arguments were endless, and kicking the can down the road led them to the roof. They climbed up, started playing, and let the city decide when to end the show. In Los Angeles, the rooftop was a master plan: they engineered the chaos, summoned it, and recorded it to turn it into high-voltage publicity. Both things work. One is a gesture of survival. The other, one of conquest. In both, the police act as the metronome and mark the end.

Rebellion or strategy? Both. Rebellion in Savile Row: climbing onto the rooftop without permission, playing in January, and letting the wind be the producer. Strategy on Main Street: calling radio stations, reinforcing the roof, and counting on the police to close the shot. That’s why we all rewatch those videos every now and then. You see John in his coat and think, “what a human ending”. You see Bono raising his hand and think, “what a way to turn a street corner into a stadium”. When music takes over the rooftop, it owns the city for a while. And when the city says, “that’s it,” the music stops, and the memory remains. There’s no better ending to a good story.

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