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1970, March

The Beatles - A Day in The Life: March 31, 1970
The Beatles - A Day in The Life: March 31, 1970

John Lennon and George Harrison wrote a letter to Paul.......

Dear Paul, We thought a lot about yours and the Beatles LPs – and decided it’s stupid for Apple to put out two big albums within 7 days of each other (also there’s Ringo’s and Hey Jude) – so we sent a letter to EMI telling them to hold your release date til June 4th (there’s a big Apple-Capitol convention in Hawaii then). We thought you’d come round when you realized that the Beatles album was coming out on April 24th. We’re sorry it turned out like this – it’s nothing personal. Love John & George. Hare Krishna. A Mantra a Day Keeps MAYA! Away.

The letter was sealed in an envelope marked “From Us, To You”, and left at Apple’s reception for a messenger to deliver to McCartney’s home at 7 Cavendish Avenue. However, Starr agreed to take it round in person. “I didn’t think it fair some office lad should take something like that round,” he reasoned.

By this time McCartney had long tired of arguing over Apple’s future, and the various parties were more likely to communicate by letter or through their managers rather than face-to-face interviews. McCartney had recorded his album in secret, under the pseudonym Billy Martin, choosing to keep the news from the press and his former bandmates for as long as possible.

McCartney might once have agreed with the logic behind the decision to postpone his album, but after months of acrimony he was in no mood for conciliatory agreements. The contents of the letter left him furious, and Starr received the full brunt of his anger.

Paul McCartney - "Ringo came to see me. He was sent, I believe – being mild mannered, the nice guy – by the others, because of the dispute. So Ringo arrived at the house, and I must say I gave him a bit of verbal. I said: ‘You guys are just messing me around.’ He said: ‘No, well, on behalf of the board and on behalf of The Beatles and so and so, we think you should do this,’ etc. And I was just fed up with that. It was the only time I ever told anyone to GET OUT! It was fairly hostile. But things had got like that by this time. It hadn’t actually come to blows, but it was near enough.

Unfortunately it was Ringo. I mean, he was probably the least to blame of any of them, but he was the fall guy who got sent round to ask me to change the date – and he probably thought: ‘Well, Paul will do it,’ but he met a different character, because now I was definitely boycotting Apple."

Starr described the situation in an affidavit read out in court during the 1971 hearings to end the Beatles partnership.

I went to see Paul. To my dismay, he went completely out of control, shouting at me, prodding his fingers towards my face, saying: ‘I’ll finish you now’ and ‘You’ll pay.’ He told me to put my coat on and get out. I did so.

Starr was immensely upset by the exchange, and reported back to Apple. Lennon and Harrison agreed to let McCartney’s album come out as planned, and delayed the release of Let It Be. While McCartney had scored a superficial victory, his relations with the drummer took a number of years to fully recover.

They eventually sent Ringo round to my house at Cavendish with a message: ‘We want you to put your release date back, it’s for the good of the group’ and all of this sort of shit, and he was giving me the party line, they just made him come round, so I did something I’d never done before, or since: I told him to get out. I had to do something like that in order to assert myself because I was just sinking. Linda was very helpful, she was saying, ‘Look, you don’t have to take this crap, you’re a grown man, you have every bit as much right…’ I was getting pummelled about the head, in my mind anyway.

Paul McCartney
Many Years From Now, Barry Miles

The McCartney album was issued in the UK on 17 April 1970, while Let It Be was eventually released on 8 May. On 10 April a press release for the solo album caused a sensation by seemingly confirming that The Beatles had finally split up.

The world reaction was like ‘The Beatles Have Broken Up – It’s Official’ – we’d known it for months. So that was that, really. I think it was the press who misunderstood. The record had come with this weird explanation on a questionnaire of what I was doing. It was actually only for them. I think a few people thought it was some weird move of me to get publicity, but it was really to avoid having to do the press.

Paul McCartney
Anthology

 

The Beatles - A Day in The Life: March 30, 1970
The Beatles - A Day in The Life: March 30, 1970

Phil Spector spent most of the day working on an idea which was never used: a 16-second tape loop using part of the instrumental break from George Harrison’s For You Blue.  He overlaid snatches of dialogue from members of the public recording during The Beatles’ rooftop performance.

Several of these vox pops were used in the Let It Be film. In the end, however, Spector rejected the idea for the Let It Be album. Indeed, only one brief piece of dialogue from the entire film soundtrack reels made it onto the LP: John Lennon introducing For You Blue with the words “Queen says no to pot-smoking FBI members”.

 

The Beatles - A Day in The Life: March 29, 1970

John Lennon sends a phone message that is broadcast to a gathering of 8,000 demonstrators at Victoria Park, Bethel Green, East London. The demonstration is being held to advocate nuclear disarmament. During the message, John reveals that Yoko is again pregnant, the baby being expected in October (but she will miscarry again later in the year).

The Beatles - A Day in The Life: March 28, 1970

Back on this date in 1965.....

Alpha Television Studios, Aston, Birmingham

Taping of the Beatles' final personal appearance on ABC Television's weekly pop series Thank Your Lucky Stars, the show which had launched them on national TV in January 1963 but which was now in steady decline. (It ended on June 25, 1966, by which time it was no longer screened by all of the ITV regions.)

On this occasion, while it was still fully networked, the Beatles returned to the scene of that debut, Alpha Television Studios in Birmingham, and mimed performances of three songs, "Eight Days A Week", "Yes It Is" and "Ticket To Ride", before an extremely entusiastic studio audience. Paul and Ringo were also interviewed by the show's host, Brian Matthew, and the program was broadcast on Saturday, April 3rd, (5:50-6:35 pm)

 

The Beatles - A Day in The Life: March 27, 1970
The Beatles - A Day in The Life: March 27, 1970

This was the fourth day for Phil Spector’s working on Dig It and assembling snippets of dialogue to be used in between songs.

Two versions of Dig It – a largely improvised song let by John Lennon – were recorded, on January 24 and 26th, a year before in 1969. A segment lasting just 49 seconds was extracted from the second of these.

A slightly longer version appearing in the Let It Be film. The full version, however, lasted for more than 12 minutes and featured Billy Preston on organ and George Martin on shaker. The brief section used by Spector was from 8’52” to 9’41”.

After he had finished work on Dig It, Spector trawled through the Apple Studios tapes for dialogue to intersperse between the songs. One of these, Lennon saying “That was ‘Can You Dig It’ by Georgie Wood…”, was appended to the end of Dig It, and provided an apt introduction to Let It Be.

Although eight snippets of dialogue were mixed on this day, only two others were used: “I Dig A Pygmy by Charles Hawtrey and the Deaf Aids…”, which began the album ahead of Two Of Us; and the “Thanks Mo”/”I hope we passed the audition” remarks, giving the effect that that the version of Get Back used was from the rooftop performance rather than the studio.

The Beatles - A Day in The Life: March 26, 1970

On this date, producer Phil Spector—called in to save the Get Back/LIB project—remixed "Let It Be," adding his signature orchestra and choir. He used the more rocking January 4 solo instead, and also added an extra chorus at the end. This would become known as the "album version" of the song.

The Beatles - A Day in The Life: March 25, 1970
The Beatles - A Day in The Life: March 25, 1970

Today was Phil Spector’s second day of creating stereo mixes from the Let It Be tapes involved work on three songs.

Although best known for his echo-laden Wall of Sound production techniques, Spector was positively restrained during this session. The first song to be mixed was George Harrison’s For You Blue. This was done in a single take, although Spector then made seven further attempts at remixing the intro; the two parts were later edited together.

Also on this date, Ringo Starr is interviewed for the BBC’s Scene And Heard on Savile Row, London.

The first edition’s interview began with Starr discussing “the soul brother” John Lennon, whose fearlessness the drummer expressed admiration for. “He could jump off the Eiffel Tower and I’d approve it,” Starr said.

Wigg asked if The Beatles’ wives had much influence over their husbands’ activities. “Some of them have more than others,” Starr replied. He described Maureen Starkey’s main strength as looking out for the group’s British fans, an example of which was her pressing for the proposed January 1969 concert to be held in England rather than abroad.

Starr spoke of his interest in developing an acting career, saying that he had already made a name as a comic actor. He also spoke of his debut album Sentimental Journey, and of the dancing in the promotional film for the title track.

On the subject of the rumours of The Beatles’ split, Starr claimed the group was as united as ever, and blamed the music press for generating controversy.

The 5 April edition focused on Sentimental Journey, with Starr describing the circumstances surrounding the recording and praising the timeless nature of the songs. He explained why different arrangers were used to introduce variety into the project, and said he was considering the title track and Whispering Grass for future single releases. The latter song was played at the end of the interview.

Wigg continued interviewing the former Beatles into their solo careers, with the last of his interviews taking place in December 1973. An album containing extracts from his recorded interviews was released in the United Kingdom in January 1976, and two years later in the United States.

The Beatles - A Day in The Life: April 25, 1970

-As John and Yoko carry on with their Primal Scream therapy in California, Fluxfest continues with “Measure by John and Yoko,” an exhibit in which the vital statistics of the spectators comprise the art.

 

The Beatles - A Day in The Life: March 24, 1970

Back on this date in 1965......

Twickenham Film Studios, St. Margaret's, Twickenham

At last, shooting began on home territory, Twickenham Film Studios in the west of London suburb of St. Margaret's, where A Hard Day's Night had been shot at the same time in 1964. Working a similar schedule - something like 8:30 am - 5:30 pm daily, the Beatles filmed here and on location until Sunday, May 9th. Including the Bahamanian and Austrian sections, but discounting occasional days off, this second Beatles film was shot in 11 weeks, three more than A Hard Day's Night.

The Beatles - A Day in The Life: March 23, 1970
The Beatles - A Day in The Life: March 23, 1970

Today the Producer Phil Spector was brought in to work on the tapes.

Earlier in the year, January Phil Spector had worked with John Lennon and George Harrison on the Plastic Ono Band’s Instant Karma!, during a recording session held at Abbey Road’s studio two. Bringing in Spector was Harrison’s idea, and the partnership evidently worked well. Spector worked in room four of the EMI Studios building. Harrison and Allen Klein were also present, a situation that remained for most of these final sessions for Let It Be.

Spector began by making six stereo mixes of I’ve Got A Feeling. The first of these was a studio recording made on 28 January 1969; the second mix, which was used on the LP, was from the 30 January rooftop performance.

Lennon’s Dig A Pony was next. Again recorded from the rooftop, Spector removed the “All I want is…” lines that bookended the song; they can be heard in the Let It Be film. Two mixes of the song were made.

It took Spector three attempts at making a stereo mix of One After 909. After that he turned his attentions to I Me Mine, again mixing the song three times before he was satisfied with the results. Spector also repeated a section of the song, increasing its length from 1’34” to 2’25”.

The Beatles’ studio recording of Across The Universe, made in February 1968, was the next to be tackled. Eight mixes from take eight were made. Both this song and I Me Mine would be remixed again on 1 April, however, along with brass, strings and choir overdubs.

I got on quite well with Spector except that he wanted tape echo on everything, seemed to take a different pill every half an hour and had his bodyguard with him. I explained to him that this was a British recording studio and that he was safe, but the bodyguard used to come along and sit outside the door… he wasn’t there by the end though, I think Spector felt safe in the end.

Although it is doubtful he knew of Spector’s involvement at this stage, Paul McCartney was also at EMI Studios on this day. Between 3pm and 7pm he made master copies of the McCartney album. Booked under the pseudonym Billy Martin, the session took place in studio three.

Source: The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions, Mark Lewisohn

The Beatles - A Day in The Life: March 22, 1970

-During an interview with a reporter from the French magazine L'Express, John Lennon states that The Beatles smoked marijuana in a restroom at Buckingham Palace on the day they were given their MBE's (in 1965). Questioned about John's comment, a spokesman for Buckingham Palace replies, "Obviously when people come along to an investiture, toilet facilities are available."

The Beatles - A Day in The Life: March 21, 1970

Top 20 Song Chart for March 21, 1970

"Let It Be"

The Beatles - A Day in The Life: March 20, 1970
The Beatles - A Day in The Life: March 20, 1970
"You Know My Name (Look Up the Number)" originally released as the B-side of the single "Let It Be" on 20 March 1970.
Composer: John Lennon
 
The Beatles - A Day in The Life: March 19, 1970
The Beatles - A Day in The Life: March 19, 1970

-A promotional film for The Beatles song, Let It Be, is broadcast on UK television, on the program "Top of the Pops."

The Beatles - A Day in The Life: March 18, 1970

Back on this date in 1963

The Beatles at the Regal Cinema, St. Aldate Street, Gloucester, Gloucestershire

The Beatles - A Day in The Life: March 17, 1970
The Beatles - A Day in The Life: March 17, 1970

The Beatles perform at Mossway Hall, Croxteth, Liverpool and at the Liverpool Jazz Society.

 

The Beatles - A Day in The Life: March 16, 1970
The Beatles - A Day in The Life: March 16, 1970

Today Paul McCartney returned to Abbey Road for a brief session having finished recording his debut album McCartney on February 25, 1970. From then he prepared artwork and the release schedule.

The only song listened to on this occasion was Oo You. McCartney listened to both the eight-track and stereo mix, which had been previously prepared at Morgan Studios.

The Beatles - A Day in The Life: March 15, 1970
The Beatles - A Day in The Life: March 15, 1970

Today a shoot took place at the Talk Of The Town, a popular cabaret venue situated at 10 Cranbourn Street near London’s Leicester Square. The venue was renamed the Hippodrome in the early 1980s. 

A new mono mix of the song Sentimental Journey had been prepared at EMI Studios on March 13th. The mix omitted one of Starr’s vocal tracks, allowing him to sing live during the shoot. Starr varied the lyrics slightly during his performance, and ad-libbed some words over the applause at the end which was accompanied by the Talk Of The Town Orchestra, conducted by George Martin. 

UK and US flags were hung on either side of the stage, and male and female dancers joined Starr onstage. Not to be outdone, towards the end of the clip backing singers Doris Troy, Madeline Bell and Marsha Hunt were lowered from the ceiling on a platform.

The cover photograph for the Sentimental Journey album was also taken on this day. It depicted Starr in a blue suit, standing before the Empress pub at the end of Admiral Grove, Liverpool. The image was actually part of the backdrop used in the video.

 

The Beatles - A Day in The Life: March 14, 1970
The Beatles - A Day in The Life: March 14, 1970

Let It Be! Number 2 on the Charts!

The Beatles - A Day in The Life: March 13, 1970

Sentimental Journey - Today a new mono mix of the title track of Ringo Starr’s debut solo album Sentimental Journey was made.

The session took place from midday to 1.30pm.

The Beatles - A Day in The Life: March 12, 1970
The Beatles - A Day in The Life: March 12, 1970

Today George and Pattie Harrison moved to Esher, Surrey in Friar Park. It was a Victorian mansion in Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire and had 120 rooms including a ballroom and library, plus towers and parapets.

The neo-gothic mansion had been purchased by the Harrisons for £140,000 in January 1970. Friar Park was set in 35 acres of gardens which included an underground boating lake and a 20ft replica of the Matterhorn mountain. Friar Park also nicknamed Crackerbox Palace, became Harrison’s main residence until the end of his life.

In 1889 the house was bought by Sir Frank Crisp (1843-1919), an eccentric lawyer and horticulturalist who lived there until his death. It was sold at auction to Sir Percival David, but following his divorce was donated to be used by nuns from the Salesians of Don Bosco order.

By the late 1960s the mansion was in a state of disrepair and due for demolition, and Harrison needed to undertake extensive renovations to make it a home. The gardens had been used as a local dump, and were overgrown with ivy and brambles.

In the first few months the Harrison and their guests lived with no heating, furniture or beds. They slept in sleeping bags in the grand hall, with a constant fire burning in the huge fireplace.
The Harrisons were joined by their friends Terry Doran and Chris O’Dell, who helped them make the building inhabitable. Despite the conditions, the residents found it an enchanting place to live in and explore, and gradually it became a welcoming home for their many visitors.

The Beatles - A Day in The Life: March 11, 1970
The Beatles - A Day in The Life: March 11, 1970

Interview: George Harrison, London - March 11, 1970 (Entire Interview)

GEORGE: Ringo's completed a great album. I think it's called . . . Sentimental Journey it's called. And it's all the songs that Elsie and Harry and his uncle and aunties, that's his father and mother, they used to all sing and have parties all the time. So he sings all these old songs with the sort of old arrangements. He doesn't do the sort of modern arrangement, and it's really a nice album. Then John's doing an album, a Plastic Ono album, I think he's going to do that with Phil Spector. And I think Paul's doing an album which is, I should imagine like, if you remember Eddie Cochran did a couple of tracks like "C'mon Everybody" where he played bass, drums, guitar, and sang. So Paul's doing this sort of thing, where he's going to play all the instruments himself. Which is nice, because he couldn't possibly do that in the Beatles, you know, if it was a Beatle album automatically Paul gets stuck on bass, Ringo gets on drums. So in a way it's a great relief for us all to be able to work separately at the same time, and so maybe if I get a chance, I'd like to do an album as well, just to get rid of a lot of songs. So maybe. . .

JOHNNY MORAN: Just a George album.

GEORGE: A George album, [laughs] and so I'll try and get that together sometime during this summer, and I expect by that time we should be ready to do a new Beatle album.

---

GEORGE: It's the end of the Beatles like maybe how people imagine the Beatles. The Beatles have never really been what people thought they were, anyway. So, in a way, it's the end of the Beatles like that, but it's not really the end of the Beatles. The Beatles, you know, are going to go on until they die.

---

GEORGE: As far as the Beatles go we've got the Let It Be album. It's being held up really because we're trying to put the film out in about forty different cities throughout the world all at once, rather than sort of put on a premiere in New York and then let the critics say, "oh, well we think it's this, and we think it's that."

JOHNNY MORAN: What's the Beatle film going to be about?

GEORGE: The Beatle film is just pure documentary of us slogging and working.

JOHNNY MORAN: On Let It Be?

GEORGE: Yeah on the album, and the hold-up of the album is because we want this film to go out simultaneously. Originally we were rehearsing, we were rehearsing the songs that we were planning to do in some big TV spectacular or something. We had a vague idea of doing a TV show, but we really didn't know the formula of how to do it because we didn't really want to do . . . obviously we didn't want to do a Magical Mystery Tour, having already been on that trip, and we didn't want to do sort of the Tom Jones spectacular. And we're always trying to be . . . to do something slightly different. And we were down in Apple rehearsing, and we decided to film it on 16mm, to maybe use as a documentary, and the record happened to be the rehearsal of the record, and the film happened to be, rather than a TV show, it happened to be the film of us making the record. So it's very rough in a way, you know, it's nice because again you can see our warts. You can hear us talking, you can hear us playing out of tune, and you can hear us coughing and all those things. It's the complete opposite to this sort of clinical approach that we've normally had, you know, studio recording, everything, the balance, everything is just right, and you know, the silence in between each track. This is really not like that, but there's nice songs, really good songs on it. "Let It Be", of course, and "Don't Let Me Down." I think they're the two that you people would have heard of. There's one song which is a 12-bar, because I've never written a 12-bar before, and that's called "For You Blue." And it's just a very simple, foot-tapping 12-bar. The other one is a very strange song which I wrote the night before it was in the film, you see. At this time we were at Twickenham, and I wrote this song, it took five minutes just from an idea I had. I went into the studio and sang it to Ringo, and they happened to film it. And that film sequence was quite nice, you see, so they wanted to keep that sequence in the film, but I hadn't really recorded it in Apple with the rest of the songs. So we had to go in the studio and re-record it. Also, we put on "Across The Universe," which was a song on the album . . . for the charity album, it came out for Wild Life and that really got lost. It's been around for about three years now, 1967 [sic] I think we did that.

---

GEORGE: In fact, some people may be put off at hearing it, it sounds maybe . . . my attitude when we decided to use it as an album was that people may think we're not trying, you know, because it's really like a demo record. But, on the other hand, it's worth so much more than those other records because you can actually get to know us a bit, you know, it's a bit more human than the average studio recording.

---

GEORGE: I certainly, you know, don't want to see the end of the Beatles. And I know I'll do anything, you know, whatever Paul, John, Ringo would like to do, you know, I'll do it.

 

The Beatles - A Day in The Life: March 10, 1970

On this day in 1963

Hippodrome Theatre, Hurst St. Birmingham, Warks

After this date, the tour resumed on the 12th.

The Beatles - A Day in The Life: March 9, 1970

This date in 1964

Various locations, London to Newton Abbot

THe conclusion of the train filming, traveling this time from London to the Devonshire town of Newton Abbot, 2500 miles having been clocked up during the past week. A Monday to Friday work schedule, leaving weekends free, was maintained throughout the shooting, but for the necessary exceptions.

The Beatles - A Day in The Life: March 8, 1970
The Beatles - A Day in The Life: March 8, 1970

Ringo Starr in the recording studio (undocumented, but thought to be Trident Studios, London). Recording a re-make of It Don't Come Easy, assisted by George Harrison.

The Beatles - A Day in The Life: March 7, 1970

Back in 1965 on this date:

The Beatles filmed at what, in the movie, they assumed to be a temple, and what, in real life, they assumed to be a disused army camp. In fact, it was a ramshackle hospital for handicapped children and old people, the state of which disgusted the Beatle.)

Source: The Complete Beatles Chronicle - Mark Lewisohn

The Beatles - A Day in The Life: March 6, 1970
The Beatles - A Day in The Life: March 6, 1970

The Beatles’ final UK single of their career was Let It Be. The single was issued in stereo only, as Apple R 5833, with You Know My Name (Look Up The Number) on the b-side.

By the time of its release The Beatles were essentially no more, with each member working hard on solo or other projects. The single, coming two months ahead of the Let It Be album, was essentially a stopgap to give the impression that they were still working together.

The Beatles - A Day in The Life: March 5, 1970

A promotional film for The Beatles single, Let It Be, is broadcast in the UK on the program "Top of the Pops."

Also on this date,Yoko Ono discovers once again that she is pregnant. She is put under observation in an exclusive London clinic (where some visitors later insist that she was being weaned off heroin with methadone). After four days, she is allowed to return to Tittenhurst Park.

 

The Beatles - A Day in The Life: March 4, 1970

Back on this day in 1964

Another train related sequence was shot today at the station in Crowcombe, Somerset, when the Beatles ran along the platform adjacent to the slowly moving train, pestering the uppper-crust passenger (Richard Vernon) and shouting "Hey mister! Can we have our ball back?"

One of the two schoolgirls cast by director Richard Lester for a train sequence - shot, in fact, on the first day, - was Pattie Boyd, with whom he had previously worked in a television commercial for Smith's potato crisps. Right away, George Harrison took a liking to Pattie and they soon began dating, leading to their marriage on January 21, 1966.

The Beatles - A Day in The Life: March 3, 1970

Back in 1963

Gaumont Cinema, Piccadilly, Hanley, Staffordshire

The final night of the Helen Shapiro package tour. By this time, the Beatles had been elevated on the bill from playing the first spot to the final act in the first half.