Beatles producer Giles Martin has said that had the band not quit touring in the mid 60s, their subsequent streak of classic albums may never have come to pass.
Discounting their famous Apple Corps rooftop gig in 1969, The Beatles’ final concert together was at Candlestick Park, San Francisco, on August 29, 1966. As a result, the band never performed dozens of their most famous songs from albums such as Revolver, Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band and Abbey Road live on stage.
“I don’t think you’d have got those albums, [if they hadn’t stopped touring],” said Martin, who made The Beatles’ acclaimed 2006 Love album with his late father, the legendary Sir George Martin. “And I don’t think they‘d have lasted as a band as long as they did.
"Think about how creative they were after they finished touring. We all need to vent in some way and they vented with creativity.”
Martin has teamed up with engineer Sam Okell at Abbey Road Studios to remix and master the long out of print The Beatles: Live At The Hollywood Bowl, which is released via Apple Corps and Universal Music Group on September 9. The remixed, 17-song LP comprises recordings from the band’s three sold-out concerts at Los Angeles’ Hollywood Bowl in 1964 and 1965.
“It is, by its nature, a flawed recording,” Martin told Music Week. “But it captures the essence of them live. It captures what it was like to be there and the excitement - and they were an exciting band.”
The live LP is a companion to Ron Howard’s documentary feature film, The Beatles: Eight Days A Week - The Touring Years, set to have its world premiere in London on September 15.
Subscribers can read the full Music Week interview with Giles Martin here.
