ON April 10, 1970 the most famous foursome in the world broke up. The Beatles – the band born in 1960 and who the world had known for just eight years at the top of their profession – were no more.
Paul McCartney wanted a divorce. And a messy separation was played out in public.
But their legacy lives on and a new publication, Hello Goodbye, celebrates the Beatles from 1960-70 with some rare photographs.
It is a mix of pictures and reproduced articles which tell the story as it happened and provide a real flavour of what it was like to live through the Beatles' years.
John Lennon had wanted to quit the Beatles first in 1969 during the Abbey Road album recording but did not publicly announce it.
Paul, 27, had made his announcement through a Q and A press release inserted in advance copies of his own solo album – simply called McCartney.
The Fab Three were annoyed that he would undermine the ready-to-be released Let It Be album. The late Derek Taylor, a former Liverpool ECHO journalist and their loyal head of press with Apple Corps, had the unenviable job of dealing with the world’s media.
The Beatles had already started fighting over their new business manager – Allen Klein.
Paul just didn’t trust him and would not sign the contract.
