Candlestick- "The sound at our concerts was always bad. We would be joking with each other on stage just to keep ourselves amused," remembered Harrison in the Anthology. Lennon took particular delight in making vaguely obscene alterations to their song lyrics ("I Wanna Hold Your Gland").
Recognising its significance, John Lennon and Paul McCartney took a camera onto the stage, with which they took pictures of the crowd, the rest of the group, and themselves at arm's length.
There was a big talk at Candlestick Park that this had got to end. At that San Francisco gig it seemed that this could possibly be the last time, but I never felt 100% certain till we got back to London. John wanted to give up more than the others. He said that he'd ha660829_01d enough.Ringo Starr.
The Beatles made their way to Candlestick Park, Paul McCartney asked their press officer Tony Barrow to make a recording of the concert on audio cassette, using a hand-held recorder. The cassette lasted 30 minutes on each side, and, as Barrow didn't flip it during the show, the recording cut off during final song Lon g Tall Sally.
The Beatles knew it was the last concert, and they decided to mesmerize it with photo. "We placed our cameras on the amplifiers and put them on a timer," says Harrison. "We stopped between tunes, Ringo got down off the drums, and we stood facing the amplifiers with our back to the audience and took photographs. We knew: 'This is it – we're not going to do this again. This is the last concert.' It was a unanimous decision."
"I remember Paul, casually, at the very last minute before the show went on saying to Tony Barrow, (Beatles Press officer), 'Have you got your cassette recorder with you?' 'Yes, of course.' Paul then said, 'Tape it, will you? Tape the show".
After the show, as the Beatles' plane took off, McCartney rushed his head over the back of Tony Barrow's seat. "Did you get anything on tape?" he asked. Barrow handed him the cassette. "I got the lot, except that the tape ran out in the middle of 'Long Tall Sally.
"Back in London - Tony Barrow said -I kept the concert cassette under lock and key in a drawer of my office desk, making a single copy for my personal collection and passing the original to Paul for him to keep. Years later my Candlestick Park recording re-appeared in public as a bootleg album. If you hear a bootleg version of the final concert that finishes during 'Long Tall Sally' it must have come either from Paul's copy or mine, but we never did identify the music thief!"
Tony Barrow was The Beatles' Press Officer, he worked within the group's closest circle for six breakneck years during the Beatlemania era of the Sixties. Few were closer to The Beatles than Tony Barrow,
