Words by Riley Fitzgerald
Graphic by Apple Corp

While Cosmic reported earlier this week that Peter Jackon‘s ‘Get Back’ Beatles documentary had been confirmed for a September release, one important detail escaped us.

Snuggled within the film’s official press release is the revelation that the band’s final London rooftop concert will be presented in full.

“Shot on January 30, 1969,” the official statement reads, “the Beatles’ surprise rooftop concert marked the band’s first live performance in over two years and their final live set together. The footage captures interactions between the band members, reactions from fans and employees from nearby businesses, and comical attempts to stop the concert by two young London policemen responding to noise complaints.”

Jackson’s film runs 80-minutes, 44 of which will comprise of the concert.

While part of the concert was shown in director Michael Lindsay-Hogg’s original 1970 Let It Be film, which drew upon the same footage Jackson will use for his recut, Hogg’s version only showed five of the nine songs performed, ‘Get Back’, ‘Don’t Let Me Down’, ‘I’ve Got a Feeling’, ‘One After 909’, and ‘Dig a Pony’.

Accounts form those present, as well as numerous bootlegs, reveal that the Fab Four actually performed another four.

These were mostly less serious jams based around British national anthem ‘God Save the Queen’, as well as standards ‘Danny Boy’ and ‘A Pretty Girl, Is Like A Melody’.

The band would also noodle upon John Lennon‘s Abbey Road contribution ‘I Want You (She’s So Heavy)’.

“There was a plan to play live somewhere,” Ringo Starr has later shared of the decision to perform on the roof the Fab Four’s Apple Corp offices. “We were wondering where we could go – ‘Oh, the Palladium or the Sahara.’ But we would have had to take all the stuff, so we decided, ‘Let’s get up on the roof.’”

Beatles 1969 Rooftop Concert Setlist

• Get Back (five versions)

• I Want You (She’s So Heavy)

• Don’t Let Me Down (two versions)

• I’ve Got A Feeling

• One After 909

• Danny Boy

• Dig A Pony (two versions)

• God Save The Queen

• A Pretty Girl Is Like A Melody