By reunion, I don’t mean (necessarily) the last time they played together as a band in an recording studio or on stage, but rather: When (and where) was the last time John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr, all four of them, met in person?
I don’t think all 4 met again after they stopped recording.
From this page:
Nm
Was there no funeral for John?
No, there was no funeral. Also, although the OP didn’t say so, I assume the question referred to all four of them being alive.
Yes.
All four of them appeared, to one degree or another, on the 1973 Ringo album, but there was never a point at which all four were in the studio together.
There was never a reunion, so the question admits no answer.
[edit] Ah, I see the post contradicts the title. Never mind.
So which two couldn’t stand each other?
According to my wife, who teaches the Beatles class at UCLA, it was George and Paul. There was a general feeling among George, John, and Ringo that Paul was responsible for the break-up because of Linda’s and Linda’s father’s meddling in their business affairs. Ringo was the most easy-going of the lot and wasn’t one to hold a grudge. John and Paul mended their relationship during the 70’s. The bad feeling between Paul and George lasted the longest.
I was under the impression that all 4 met in 1979 when when Apple Corp. sued Beatlemania, but I’m having a hard time finding any internet confirmation.
John and Paul got along well enough to collaborate even during the tense times (“The Ballad of John and Yoko” had Paul and John alone.) However, as **Hamster **noted, there were tensions about the group’s management. In addition, George felt that he was being held back musically by John and, especially, Paul.
George had moved on and just wasn’t interested in taking the time. John and Paul had mended fences and Ringo was always up for whatever, but not George. If John and George hadn’t died there would have come a time when a reunion could have happened.
Here is a recent article from a few weeks ago with some insightful quotes from John and Paul. At one time Lorne Micheals of SNL had jokingly offered $3000 for a Beatles reunion at the start of a 1976 SNL broadcast. John and Paul just happened to be having a puff at John’s Dakota apartment in NYC and almost got in a cab and went down there.
Full article here: 50 Years Ago: Lennon and McCartney's Final Session Is a Bust
By the end, it looked as if John was bored with the Beatles, George was feeling stifled by the Beatles (the only thing John and Paul seemed to agree on was quashing George’s contributions), and Ringo was thinking, “Christ, this is no fun any more.” Since the band seemed to be falling apart, Paul tried to hold things together by cracking the whip… which only alienated everybody else further.
George stayed angry at Paul a long time. But despite the sentimental words he wrote in “All Those Years Ago,” George hadn’t spoken to John for years at the time of John’s death. He had once regarded Paul and John as big brothers, but by 1970, he thought they were bullies holding him down.
Neat article, but why the hell is it written by Eddie Deezen?!? (He was the übernerd in WarGames & 1941).
From the foot of the page:
So he not only sometimes plays a nerd, he is a Beatles nerd!
He actually did play a Beatles nerd in the Robert Zemeckis movie, I Wanna Hold Your Hand. I guess the character stuck.
Must have been a dream role for him!
You all might enjoy this.