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Wharfe, who went on to become Princess Diana’s royal protection officer.
After the band had finished, with John Lennon quipping, ‘I’d like to thank you on behalf of the group and ourselves and I hope we passed the audition,’ they trooped past Ray and his colleagues. ‘George and John didn’t talk to us, but there was a reason for that. They’d recently been caught with cannabis or something and were on bail – it’d been in the papers. Paul was apologetic about the concert and Ringo joked about the whole thing, saying, “Don’t put the handcuffs on me!” Then they went down the stairs, we followed and that was that.’ As the event passed with such little incident, Ray admits – astonishingly – ‘I didn’t even put pen to paper to record it.’
Ringo later joked he wanted the cops to drag him off. ‘It would have looked really great, kicking the cymbals and all but they didn’t, they just came bumbling in.’ Ray laughs. ‘I don’t remember bumbling in – I made a clean step over the threshold! We were in our overcoats which were like blankets – you don’t look lithe doing anything. I’m sorry we disappointed Ringo by not arresting him, but there was no intention of arresting anyone. If The Beatles had got stroppy or were determined to carry on, then things might have been different. But that wasn’t the way we worked in those days, and I always tried to resolve issues without arresting people.’
A few months after the ‘disturbance’ at 3 Savile Row, the song Get Back reached No 1. ‘It was on Top Of The Pops for about six weeks. But because The Beatles weren’t performing
‘We were on Top Of The Pops for weeks!’
it live in the studio, they had to show video of the concert, so there were me and my colleagues on Top Of The Pops for weeks.’
Years after the concert, someone from Apple told him there were around 26 film cameras set up around the area as they knew the police would come once the music started. ‘Certain cameramen were detailed to film us. I suppose we were unpaid extras.’
While Ray has seen his ‘performance’ in Michael’s original documentary (‘I don’t think that Iletmyselfdowninthewayi handled the situation, but I do look sort of severe... I blame the helmet’), he has yet to see himself in Peter Jackson’s re-working of Michael’s footage. ‘Apple sent me the discs, but I haven’t got around to watching them,’ he says. ‘I’m retired now, but I’m keeping busy.’
Now 77, he lives in Bexhill-on-sea, East Sussex, ‘which is about 20 miles away from Paul Mccartney’s home in Peasmarsh,’ he says, ‘although I haven’t seen him since the concert.’ Ray lives with his wife Wendy – a big Beatles fan who was, he admits, ‘really envious’ when he got home after his shift that day in 1969 and told her what had happened.
With hindsight, does Ray regret not having arrested the band that day? ‘Not at all,’ he insists. ‘Actually, someone asked me how I felt being the man who stopped The Beatles’ concert. But I wouldn’t say that was true. I didn’t stop The Beatles – I merely suggested it would be a good idea if they didn’t carry on.’ Then he adds, only half-jokingly, ‘Now, if it had been The Rolling Stones up there on the roof...’ ■
The Beatles: Get Back, from Thursday on Disney+.