maybe I'm amazed ❤️‍🔥

I'VE GOT A FEELING

Barry Miles: The strain of producing the double album in time for Christmas under these conditions caused irreparable rifts in the group. With John interested only in Yoko and his own music, and with George Martin often busy elsewhere or on holiday, Paul had inevitably taken charge of the album, at different times alienating both George Harrison and Ringo. Another major stress factor as the Beatles entered 1969 was Apple, which had become a behemoth and was expanding virtually out of control because there was no one in overall charge of it. While trying to record the White Album they had also had to run Apple. (...) Harry Pinsker, the head of the company, resigned from the board of Apple and the Beatles' affairs were delegated to a junior partner, Stephen Maltz, who had worked with Apple in-house since its beginning. Maltz himself resigned at the end of October 1968, after writing a five-page letter to each of the Beatles, detailing the terrible financial trouble that they were storing up for themselves and pointing out that for every £10,000 spent, something like £120,000 had to come in because of their enormous tax exposure. With the group apparently on the verge of collapse and about to go broke, Paul proposed that they go back on the road: not for a gruelling North American tour but possibly to play a few dance halls up north, to help them remember what it was like to be in a group and maybe recreate the bond between them. The idea was scoffed at, particularly by George, who had no intention of going back on stage. As a compromise, Paul suggested a single-venue gig. The group had enjoyed shooting the promotional film for "Hey Jude" with a live audience so he suggested a one-hour live television show.

This idea was grudgingly accepted. Several venues were suggested, including the Roundhouse in north London, the site of many International Times events, the latter days of the UFO Club and more recently the venue for concerts by the Doors and Jefferson Airplane. This was agreed and the Roundhouse was booked for 18 January 1969. The idea held for a while but was cancelled in favour of a proposal by Michael Lindsay-Hogg, whom they had hired to direct the filming. Lindsay-Hogg had made the dramatic promotional film of the Rolling Stones' "Jumping Jack Flash" and done their Rock 'n' Roll Circus. (...) Denis O'Dell, head of Apple Films, suggested that even if they couldn't agree where to hold the concert they could at least begin by filming rehearsals, which could be used as part of the concert footage or as a separate television documentary. He had already booked Twickenham Film Studios from 3 February 1969 for Ringo, who was to co-star with Peter Sellers in the film The Magic Christian - Ringo's second film of a book by Terry Southern. Since the studios would be free until that time, O'Dell booked Twickenham for the Beatles for the month beginning 2 January. It was much too soon. They were all exhausted from five months of recording the White Album, and they had also all spent studio time working on Apple projects with James Taylor, Mary Hopkin, Jackie Lomax and George's Wonderwall music. To begin recording again after only eleven weeks' respite was a big mistake. The problems created during the White Album had not gone away or even been addressed.

Howard Sounes: Assembling his production team, Paul called Glyn Johns, a freelance record producer who'd been working regularly with the Rolling Stones. (...) Apart from when they were in their own homes, or in hotel rooms, the most privacy the Beatles ever enjoyed was when they were working with George Martin at Abbey Road. Now they were expected to make music with a virtual stranger while being filmed by a large crew of other strangers on a charmless sound stage outside London, and it was all Paul's idea. '

Barry Miles: The cameras were instructed to roll at all times to record the between-take conversations and provide a mass of footage from which to choose in the editing stages. The Beatles jammed their way through more than a hundred songs, sometimes making them up on the spot such as "Suzy Parker" but mostly playing old Beatles numbers, children's nursery songs, parts of their old Hamburg and Cavern Club repertoire or pub standards. The problem was that they hadn't played live in years and were extremely rusty; the rehearsal tapes are terrible, the group is ragged and out of tune and stays that way. The differences were exacerbated by having to work to film-industry schedules, which meant a morning call from Mal at 8.30 a.m. It was a horrible experience for them all.