The IMAX presentation of The Beatles’ Rooftop concert was fun!
The first half hour was a live link up with GET BACK director Peter Jackson, from his home in New Zealand. I dunno what time it was there, but he was totally disheveled…it looked like he’d just got out of bed.
He did say he was jealous because they don’t have IMAX in New Zealand[!!] But Peter could have at least brushed his damn hair…and maybe gotten rid of those nose hairs! For God’s sake, does the man not own a MIRROR? They were FUCKING ENORMOUS in IMAX!!!
But I digress…
I was surprised at the size of the crowd. The place was pretty full. There was a young couple in their 20’s sitting next to us, although most were in our age group [50-something]; but I also noticed some really old codgers on the way out…one grey haired couple left the show with walkers!
But The Beatles were utterly charming, of course; and there were lots more people watching from the rooftops in London on that cold January morning than I realized. John and Paul interacted with the “audience” more than is seen in the usual clips, too. You could tell they were really enjoying themselves. They all stopped and had a peek over the side, too, which was also not in the film…
It was fun to see how amazed The Beatles themselves were at how good they sounded right off the bat! There was no sound check, but those Fender Twin Reverb amps did the job. Billy Preston was totally sublime. The first song was a little shaky, understandably [GET BACK, take 1], but once they got into the groove it was electrifying. For everyone involved.
Maureen Starkey came off as very cool, too, dressed all in black with that super dark eyeliner. Right from the start she was rocking out and getting into it. She was perched on a bench to the side in front of George, between Yoko Ono and Beatles’ US Apple rep, Ken Mansfield [who wrote a book about the experience, THE ROOF].
Yoko just seemed bored the whole time..! I can’t imagine.
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