Inside Story of Beatles' Breakup

It was a cold January in 1969, and the Beatles were seated on a vast, even colder, soundstage at London's Twickenham Film Studios, in the company of the last people in the world they wanted to be with: the Beatles. They had been trying for days to write and rehearse new material for a scheduled upcoming live show – their first since August 1966 – but the task wasn't going well. The only one among them who had any sense of urgency was Paul McCartney. “I don't see why any of you, if you're not interested, got yourselves into this,” he said to the other Beatles. “What's it for? It can't be for the money. Why are you here? I'm here because I want to do a show, but I don't see an awful lot of support.”