Jan. 30, 1969: The day the Beatles went up on the roof (with memories from someone who was there)

January 30, 2:57 PMBeatles ExaminerSteve Marinucci

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The Beatles on the Apple rooftop on Jan. 30, 1969. That's Ken Mansfield in the white coat. (Getty Images)

When Jeff Lockhart and Crème Tangerine pay tribute to the 40th anniversary of the Beatles' rooftop concert in Seattle at noon today (Friday), their tribute will have one very important distinction over other similar events being held around the world -- they'll have someone with them who was at the original.

That would be Ken Mansfield, the former U.S. manager of Apple Records, who was up on the roof with the Beatles on Jan. 30, 1969. Mansfield and Crème Tangerine will be together today (Friday) at a celebration of the 40th anniversary of the rooftop concert at noon on the rooftop balcony of the Copacabana Café in the Pike Place Market, 1520½ Pike Place, Seattle, Wash. Following the concert, Mansfield will talk about his work with The Beatles and lead an audience question and answer session.

 In a phone interview, Mansfield, 71, author of  "The White Book: The Beatles, the Bands, the Biz: An Insider's Look at an Era", a chronicle of his time with the group, says he first met the Beatles in 1965. He had been involved with the press conference the group did at the Capitol Tower in Hollywood.

Instant rapport

"Something really unique happened at the press conference. They were kind of enthralled with Hollywood and California. Here I am this sun-tanned California dude with the Cadillac and the house in the Hollywood Hills and all that. And right away they just started talking, 'Well, where's Mulholland Drive?' and 'How far is Graumann's Chinese Theater from here?' Ringo wanted to know if he could meet Buck Owens because he knew Buck was on Capitol. And we hit it off."

The relationship continued when the Beatles returned to the U.S. the following year and again when they decided to set up Apple.

"When they came back in '66, we just did a repeat of '65. And so when they decided to set up Apple, America was obviously the market where they needed to break the company. And all the executives and people they worked with were all the lords of EMI and chairmen of the board at Capitol industries. And here they had this young guy that they were comfortable with and who was an executive. So they sent for me and I came over to London and we set up Apple over there," he said.

"Then I came back and set up all the opening campaigns and we decided on all the records to release and all that. ... And the neat part was I ended up becoming their personal liason between the U.S. and the UK. So if Paul wanted to sneak in the country or Pattie Harrison wanted to go shopping or something, George would call and I would just take care of them."

Mansfield noticed things were different when they returned in 1966. "That was the beginning of some disillusionment and the whole thing really starting to really wear on them," he said. "They were a playing band and I think if things hadn't gotten so crazy, they would have always been a touring band. Because that's what they liked to do best. Ringo once told me the reason the Beatles became famous was because, 'We were a good band.' "

'Hey Jude' or 'Revolution'?

It's hard to believe that the release of "Hey Jude" was ever in doubt as the A-side of a Beatles single, but Mansfield says Paul McCartney was originally against it.

"We’re sitting with this 7-minute-11 second record or whatever “Hey Jude” was. And Paul wanted to play it by the numbers. He was afraid if we released it as an A-side, the radio stations wouldn’t play it. ... This is how bizarre this whole thing was. The Beatles could have burped on a record. They could have burped all day and everybody would have played it all day. But he was really being the businessman and he was very concerned."

"So I said to Paul, “Let me take a dub of 'Hey Jude' and I’ll hopscotch and I’ll go to some of the leading music directors – the guys that pick the hits in America – and just play them the two sides and get their opinion of what do they think if we can get away with this 7 (minute) plus record." And he did.

"Of course, everybody I played it for fell on the floor," he said. "So when I got back to L.A., I called Paul and said, 'It needs to go,' and ... the rest is history."

Rooftop was Beatles' final option

Mansfield says if things had gone as planned, what became the rooftop concert would never have been on the roof.

 " It was more of a clinical matter rather than trying to do something cutting edge. What had happened is we had planned on having the Beatles do a live show for the film 'Let It Be.' And we just kept not getting it done. One of the concepts was that we had booked them into a club in Germany under the name Ricky and the Red Streaks. And the whole idea was to promote this band that was supposed to be the next Beatles out of England, this hot new English rock band and just do a big promotion. When the club filled up that night, to lock the doors and the Beatles would come out .... it would be the Beatles playing in a small club and that would be our live footage. But we could never keep to the script so that fell through on that respect."

Other options were considered, including a concert in the desert. But logistical considerations and insurance made those ideas impossible.

"Anyway," Mansfield says, "we were running out of time. It was that simple. I happened to be working in the offices in London that week and somebody said, 'We’re going up on the roof.' "

Things were so last minute, Mansfield realized he didn't have a warm enough coat for what would be a very cold outing.

" (At) the last minute I ran down the street to get a heavy coat. I went to the first place I could and they had a top coat and I bought it ...  And it was actually a raincoat, so it was rubberized. It just froze, stiffened up. I could have walked away from it. So I froze anyway."

But there was a silver lining to that coat, he says. "The good news was it was white. And so everybody on the roof that day was wearing black. And I’m the only guy wearing white, so I’m really easy to see in all those films and all those pictures. Just see the guy with a white jacket. That’s me."  

His next task was to find a good seat. "There was a chimney up there on the top of the building. There must have been a little warmth there, so Yoko, I and Maureen (Starkey, Ringo's wife) and a girl named Chris O’Dell, who was the only other American up there ... we huddled up against the chimney.  We were either huddling up against it to keep warm or we were leaning against the chimney. Most of the pictures you’ll see me sitting there with Yoko or Maureen. ... There was only about a dozen of us up there that day counting the Beatles."

It was very loud

Just how loud did the Beatles play? "It was loud," Mansfield says. "I’ve heard recordings of what it sounded like down on the street and I was surprised. Somebody ...  that worked at Apple and got there late that day and got locked out ... said they came down the street and they turned onto Savile Row and they said it was like a wall of sound. It was really loud on the street. ... probably about as loud as they could get."

The scene in "Let It Be" when the police enter Apple makes it appear that the police forced the end of the show. But Mansfield says that wasn't the case.

"It was the middle of the financial district. The businessmen were getting uptight. The young people were just digging on it. The bobbies ... were gonna write us up and all that. What they did .. it was the Beatles, so they kind of took their time and let us finish the set and then they came out and closed us down. I thought that was kind of novel. They were being their stiff British bobby type people, but at the same time, they let the music roll for a while."

Mansfield says he was involved with their releases from the White Album to "Abbey Road." "I was very involved in the White Album and I ran up to the release of ‘Abbey Road,' when I left and went to MGM. So the White Album was probably the main thing that I was really, really deeply involved in. That and “Let It Be.”

Book mimics White Album

So it was somewhat natural that when he came to write "The White Book: The Beatles, the Bands, the Biz: An Insider's Look at an Era," he decided to adopt a motif for the book patterned after the album. "I'm surprised that nobody had done that before. When we decided to make it 'The White Book,' I kept waiting for ‘Somebody’s already done that’ or ‘somebody’s doing it.’ I was amazed we were able to have that. It’s serial numbered just like the album. You take the red sticker off and just it’s exactly like that. The publisher was amazed because he said I’m the first author that insisted their name wasn’t on their book."

Even if it's not the Beatles he'll be with this Sunday, he's looking forward to this rooftop tribute.

"The thing I like about (Crème Tangerine) is they’re really into the music and respecting the music. They don’t try to be the Beatles. They don’t dress up like them. They’re gonna really respect the music and just put on a good concert.

"And I just felt Seattle is about the same longitude or latitude as London. I’m gonna get cold for the second time in my life. It’s gonna be really cold up there."

(The Beatles posted a new blog on MySpace Friday about the concert with links to pictures on their website and a comment from Ringo Starr, who said, "It was a memorable day for me - we were doin' what we did best - making music. But I am still disappointed the policemen didn't drag me off me drums!")

(Photo of Ken Mansfield by Thomas Nelson.) 

• (The original Beatles rooftop concert, in three parts, is below. )