George Harrison rejoins The Beatles

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On January 10, 1969, George Harrison had walked out from the “Get Back” sessions at Twickenham Studios. On January 12, the four Beatles had met together, but George left early without agreeing to rejoin The Beatles.

On this day, they met again during a five-hour meeting at Apple headquarters. George imposed his conditions: he would only return if the idea of a live performance was scrapped and if the rehearsals for the new album were moved from Twickenham studios to their basement studio at Apple, being built by Alexis “Magic Alex” Mardas. He did agree to continue being filmed making the album.

Those conditions were accepted by the other Beatles.

It was decided that it would be better if we just got back together and finished the record. Also, you see, Twickenham studio was very cold and not a very nice atmosphere, so we decided to abandon that and go to Savile Row, into the recording studio.

George Harrison

“Beatles John Lennon and George Harrison did NOT have a punch-up and Apple – their business company – is NOT on any financial rocks. The denials came last night from The Beatles themselves. It all began when a pop weekly reported Lennon as saying that Apple was ‘losing money every week’, and needed tightening up. Then came the rumour that Lennon and Harrison had come to blows. But, last night, after a five-hour meeting between the four Beatles and their business associates at Apple’s Savile Row headquarters, explanations came fast. George Harrison said, ‘Apple has plenty of money – we all have. When John said we were losing money, he was talking about giving too much away to charities. We have been too generous and that’s got to stop. The so-called punch-up between John and myself? There’s no truth in it. We are still good friends.’ John Lennon, who left with Yoko Ono, said, ‘Any rumours about Apple folding were nonsense.’ But he added, ‘There will be changes and it’s all going to be very exciting.’ Ringo Starr called the story of a punch-up, ‘A load of old rubbish!’ He said, ‘I was there when it was supposed to have taken place. It’s quite untrue.’ The fourth Beatle, Paul McCartney, said of the long meeting, ‘There was nothing sinister about tonight. It was simply a business discussion.’”

Daily Express – January 16, 1969

The day after, January 16, the set at Twickenham was dismantled and the gear would be brought to Apple Studios.

Last updated on December 20, 2021