The Twickenham and Apple Studio Recording Sessions
By the end of 1968, the Beatles' status as a group entity was in limbo. McCartney, who had unofficially assumed the mantle of leadership since Epstein's death, suggested a group project involving rehearsing, recording and performing the songs in a live concert. Though the recording sessions for the double album initially involved ensemble playing, the band was ill-prepared to settle comfortably back into this mode. Only eight days after rehearsals commenced, Harrison's frustration and resentment peaked and he informed his band mates that he was leaving. The combined patronising by McCartney and estrangement from Lennon had taken its toll. Thus, the band was on the verge of potential collapse and at an impasse. In 2003, Rolling Stone magazine cited a recording that exists from the Twickenham sessions the day after Harrison's departure in which Lennon suggested having Eric Clapton take over lead guitar duties.
Ultimately, complicated negotiations brought Harrison back into the group's activities. The plan for a concert was abandoned and the recording sessions were resumed at Apple Studios in Savile Row. The band gave its last public performance on the rooftop of Apple's headquarters on 30 January 1969 as a substitute for an audience-based concert.
Read more about this topic: The Beatles' Break-up
Famous quotes containing the words apple, studio and/or recording:
“When the apple is ripe it will fall.”
—Irish proverb.
An English equivalent to this might be, “To everything there is a season.”
“[T]hose wholemeal breads ... look hand-thrown, like studio pottery, and are fine if you have all your teeth. But if not, then not. Perhaps the rise ... of the ... factory-made loaf, which may easily be mumbled to a pap betweeen gums, reflects the sorry state of the nation’s dental health.”
—Angela Carter (1940–1992)
“Too many photographers try too hard. They try to lift photography into the realm of Art, because they have an inferiority complex about their Craft. You and I would see more interesting photography if they would stop worrying, and instead, apply horse-sense to the problem of recording the look and feel of their own era.”
—Jessie Tarbox Beals (1870–1942)