The Last Concert

I was sitting at the kitchen table doing the times crossword when the DJ on Radio Jackie announced that it was the anniversary of the Beatles last public concert together. It had taken place on the rooftop of Apple headquarters at #3 Saville Row. I know bloody well where it was, I thought. I was there. I picked up my tea and stepped out onto the back patio and pulled the collar of my sweater up to cover my ears. I lit a cigarette, and shoved my hands deep inside the pockets much like I did back in 1969. I had taken the morning off work so I could go and hand in a resume at a new Saville Row Tailor shop called ‘Nutter’s’; in the short time it had been open it was already pushing the envelope of modern suit making. Nutter’s had a cutter and pattern maker called Edward Sexton and I desired above all else to continue my apprenticeship under him. I had worked two years at Gieves and Hawkes of Saville row and that seemed to make an impression on him. I was elated at the prospect. I was also overwhelmed by what I saw in that shop and was hoping beyond hope that they would hire me. Saville Row at the time was referred to as the golden mile of Tailoring. Nutter’s was situated at #35 Saville Row and Gieves & Hawkes at #1, two doors down from the Apple Corps head office. It was a cold day with a slight wind, I remember, because I had to lift up the collar of my topcoat and hunch my shoulders to cover my ears but I didn’t take much notice about the weather. I was still back at Nutter’s imagining myself working there. It was not until I got to the Apple building and noticed Bernie standing outside our shop with her arms folded under her ample breasts hopping from one buckskin boot to another, that I realized that something was about to happen. “Where have you been? I’ve been freezing my ass off out here waiting for you,” she said. “I told you I wouldn’t be in this morning. Why aren’t you waiting inside?” “No we can’t go inside; we have to head to the roof.” She grabbed my arm with an urgency I hadn’t expected and started to pull me up the stairs and into the building. “Hurry up something important is about to happen!” “So it’s not sex then?” I asked. “No better then sex. The Beatles are about to give an impromptu concert on the roof of their building. Sadie called me ten minutes ago to tell me they were setting up to film and tape a live set for an upcoming movie.” She said. “That’s better then sex? I’m a Stones fan remember. It doesn’t matter, nothing can bring me down today. Wait a minute, how are we going to get on the roof? Isn’t it locked? “It might have been if I hadn’t talked to Jason. He has all the keys and when he found out about the concert he called his girlfriend and promised to give us access to the roof. You’re talking to a genius babe.” She said while running up six flights of stairs. We went around the stair exit to the side facing # 3 and hunkered down against the wall out of the wind. There was a makeshift wood plank stage across the way, on which stood Ringo’s drums and an electronic keyboard. There were microphone and amp wires strewn across the rooftop like black spaghetti. I could see at least four cameras and ten to twelve operators and stagehands madly setting up the equipment. Across from the stage, in front of a low wall sat a tight group of people huddled together on a low bench. I recognized Yoko and who I thought to be Ringo’s wife Maureen as for the rest of them, I had no idea. Then as if on cue the band ascended out of the stairwell to take their place upon the makeshift stage. Paul wore a dark sport coat with an open collared shirt and a copious beard covered his baby face. George wore a wooly fur coat and a large brimmed fedora. The two oddballs were Ringo who wore a bright orange plastic Mac, which turned out to be his wife’s and John in Yoko’s fur coat that was much too small for him. “Who’s the guy behind the keyboards with the large Afro and big teeth?” asked Bernice. “That’s Billy Preston, he played on their Abbey Road album. He’s an awesome keyboardist.” I was freezing up on the roof because the wind seemed much stronger up there. Without warning the band broke out into a rendition of ‘Get Back’. McCartney belted out the song and the people in the street looked up and wondered where the music was coming from. By the time Lennon started in on their second song ‘Don’t let me down’. People started showing up on surrounding rooftops and hanging out of office windows. The third set was a duet with McCartney and Lennon harmonizing to ‘I got a feeling’. If you didn’t know any better you would think that they were getting back together or unless you weren’t watching them that day. They were disassociated, going through the motions. If you could see them like I did that day you would have known it was over for them. They only played about five songs but with numerous takes of the same songs. The police showed up on the rooftop because apparently within a short space of time, about forty minutes, thousands crowded the streets bringing all the Bently's and Roller's to a standstill. Buisnesses up and down Saville row and neighboring streets were complaining that the concert was interrupting trade. The police brought the concert to a halt but by the look of it, it was getting too cold to play their instruments anyway. I’ve been to many concerts in my lifetime and spent thousands to attend them, but that free concert that day was the most memorable. It didn’t need any large sets or pyro-technics’. You knew that it was an end of something wonderful.