Many things were delayed thanks to the coronavirus pandemic. One of those things was the release of The Beatles: Get Back, the new film by Peter Jackson that draws from 55 hours of never-released footage from the original filming of Michael Lindsay-Hogg’s documentary Let It Be.
A preview clip of the film was released in December, and the film’s new release date is currently slated for August 27.
Ringo Starr talked about The Beatles: Get Back in an appearance on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert last night (March 15.) Starr mentioned how Jackson would show him various funny clips he found in the unused footage and touched on his feelings on the original documentary.
“I always moaned that the original documentary was very narrow and was built around a moment of [pretends to scream], and there was no joy in it,” said Starr. “I was there! We were laughing! We were the lads! And there was a little bit of tension; no one can take that away. But to use that moment and to not use these 56 hours of unused film…the best thing to come out of the original documentary was we played on the roof.”
The famous rooftop concert is one of the most iconic moments in the Beatles’ storied history. According to Starr, the band was thinking about heading to a grander location for the performance, but then logic or convenience would prevail.”
“We did this all the time,” began Starr. “…We’d say, ‘We got to do it in Egypt with the Pyramids or up Mt. Everest or in Hawaii in a volcano. Oh, sod it…let’s just walk across the road.’”
In other news: Starr’s latest solo EP titled Zoom In comes out this Friday (March 19) and is available for pre-order here.