On January 30, 1969, the Beatles performed a special concert on the roof of the Apple Corps building, but the performance was interrupted after 42 minutes.
On January 30, 1969, the young police officer Ryan Daggthen 19 years old, was called in to respond to complaints about noise coming from the roof of Apple Record’s headquarters in London.
Little did he know, but that episode would forever change his life. It turns out that this was the day that the Beatles performed their last public performance and Dagg He was one of those responsible for ending the show.
In this ocasion, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr It is George Harrison joined the keyboardist Billy Preston for an intimate concert that lasted around 42 minutes. The show’s setlist included hits like ‘Get Back’, ‘Don’t Let Me Down’ and ‘I Got a Feeling’.
However, everything was interrupted when the London Metropolitan Police (MET) arrived and asked the Beatles to reduce the volume. But what did you say Ryan Daggs after all these years?
End it
In 2021, the documentary ‘The Beatles: Get Back’ debuted in the Disney+ catalogue. Produced and directed by Peter Jacksonthe series follows the production of the album ‘Let it Be’ (1970) — which was initially called Get Back — and largely uses images left out of the documentary made by Michael Lindsay-Hogg that same year.
One of the topics discussed in ‘The Beatles: Get Back’ is precisely the Beatles’ last show — in which the role of Dagg in the interruption of the presentation on the Apple Record terrace.
“It was just my work and it turned into all this,” he said in an interview with the Sunday Times newspaper, in the same year that the documentary by Jackson. “It’s ridiculous, I just don’t understand.”
After receiving dozens of complaints, Ryan Dagg and other police officers were forced to shut down what would be the last live performance by the world’s most famous band. “We received 30 complaints at West End Central within minutes,” he explained.
In the interview, Ryanthen 72 years old, recalls that he convinced the Beatles’ tour manager and assistant, Evil Evans, interrupting the show. However, he admitted that his threats to arrest the band were a “bluff”. He has no regrets about ending the show.
Well, at that time, I didn’t know they would never play together again,” he recalled.
“At least there’s something in a movie somewhere that will forever show that cop Ray Dagg ‘finished’ the Beatles,” he continued. “If that’s my lasting image of life, if that’s what people remember me for, that’s not bad. Thousands, millions of people aren’t even remembered.”
Dagg followed in his father’s footsteps in law enforcement, but ended up leaving the MET six years after the show. Finally, Ryan Said he never had a Beatles albumpreferring the American duo Simon & Garfunkel.
The last show
After almost three years off the stage, the Beatles began 1969 facing rumors about the band’s end. At the time, rumors said that the members were in disagreement and the band’s resolutions were getting further and further away.
Still, on January 30th, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr It is George Harrison decided to make a special concert on the roof of the Apple Corps building — building that housed the band’s company and record label.
That would be the last live show by one of the most influential and popular bands of all time, although no one knew it — not even the Beatles themselves.
The idea of holding an outdoor show had been a longtime desire of musicians — who had long wanted to show the public a performance that focused on their creative processes, without all the resources used in the studio.
“We went to the roof to sort out the idea of the live show, because it was much simpler than going anywhere else; no one had ever done that either,” he later recalled. George Harrisonas reported by O Globo.
So it would be interesting to see what happened when we started playing there. It was a good social study,” he said.
The band’s last concert was exactly 42 minutes long. An impromptu show that had only been announced the night before; which caught many fans and the unsuspecting by surprise.
“Some of the people in the Apple office didn’t even try to go up, because it was just another day of work,” he said. Ken Mansfield who, at the time, was the record company’s North American manager, told Rolling Stone USA.
“I happened to be working in the office that week,” he said. “And bad [o roadie da banda, Mal Evans] I just said, ‘Hey, come on, Ken, we’re going up in 15 minutes.’ I said, ‘What do you mean? ‘ He said, ‘We’re going to the roof, come along.'”
Around noon, despite the typical London cold, John, Paul, George It is Ringo They climbed onto the improvised stage and started the performance at the top of the building. The short show featured a setlist of just five songs.
The audience was also reduced: only Yoko Ono and some members of the musicians’ families, friends, the technical team and camera operators were at the scene. On the street it was only possible to hear the sound, without knowing exactly its origin.
Despite all the improvisation, the performance caught the attention of the London police, who were called to interrupt them. At the time, authorities claimed that the performance was causing a disturbance. The Beatles only announced their end on April 10, 1970.
