Beatle news briefs: Rooftop surprise; mysterious McCartney video

January 30, 9:01 PMBeatles ExaminerSteve Marinucci

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  A group of musicians perform on a rooftop in London,
  Ontario, Canada on Friday, recreating the Beatles final
  public concert 40 years ago Friday. (AP Photo/
  The Canadian Press, Dave Chidley)

Funny how 40 years hasn't evaporated the feel-good feelings the Beatles bring. The rooftop concert had our attention Friday and we were all better for it.

No. 3 Savile Row, where the concert took place originally, wasn't supposed to be the scene of anything Friday, but those on Richard Porter's London Beatle walk tour got a surprise: They were allowed on the roof of the now abandoned building, as this report from CNN shows.  "Everyone that came on my tour got on the roof. The event was covered by CNN and NBC," Porter told us via email. Contrary to the CNN report, he said only people on his tour got to go on the roof. Other tributes were held in California, Florida, Arizona and, at right and in the slide show at the bottom, Ontario, Canada. 

Here's NBC6.net's report on Anthology's rooftop tribute in Florida.

And if you missed our interview with Ken Mansfield, who was on the scene for the Beatles rooftop concert, it's here.

We've listened to BBC Radio 2's documentary "We Hope We Passed the Audition" and recommend it. It's a nuts-and-bolts look at the "Get Back" sessions with interview clips, session dialog and music. Those heard in the show include Yoko Ono, director Michael Lindsay-Hogg, photographer Ethan Russell, engineer Alan Parsons, technician Dave Harries and Ken Wharfe, the British bobby who was assigned the job of shutting the show down. His comments are especially interesting: It was a job the bobbies didn't want to do. The show is very well worth a listen.

And we got ahold of the Badge's tribute to the rooftop concert. It's about 15 minutes long and includes "One After 909," "I've Got a Feeling," "Dig a Pony" and "Get Back." Good stuff.

The Bootleg Beatles didn't perform on the 3 Savile Row rooftop as planned this year, but their DVD, "Vox and Rugs and Rock n' Roll: The Continuing Story," has a clip of their 1999 rooftop tribute. The DVD itself is a documentary look at how the band approaches its show and, of course, features lots of clips from it.  MusicRadar.com has a story on this year's show that didn't happen and a clip of the BB's version of "Get Back" from the DVD and the real thing. According to the site, two members of the BBs managed to sneak in an acoustic version of "One After 909" on the roof. 

Ricky sent us the YouTube link to the interesting footage of Paul McCartney and Stella above and asked if anyone knows any details about why it was made. He says it's from a DVD on Stella's life produced by the BBC in 2002. After the clip, he says, she goes on to talk about  Linda.

SF Country Music Examiner Michael McGuire writes about "The Beatles' tribute to Buck Owens." It features a YouTube clip of the Beatles performing "Act Naturally" taken from the "Anthology" series.