Why Paul McCartney Declined to Perform at George Harrison’s Concert for Bangladesh
In 1971, George Harrison invited his former bandmates, Ringo Starr, John Lennon, and Paul McCartney, to perform at his benefit concert, the Concert for Bangladesh. The Beatles had only been separated for about a year and were still entangled in a tense legal battle.
However, George was willing to put aside their quarrel to collaborate on a good cause. As usual, John and Paul couldn’t support him.
There could have been a Beatles reunion at George’s benefit concert
While organizing the Concert for Bangladesh, George wanted rock stars with enormous star power on stage to raise the maximum amount of money for the humanitarian crisis.
So, he put the suffering of the Bengali people ahead of his issues with his former bandmates and asked them to perform. George knew having a Beatles reunion on stage would give the benefit concert a massive push.
In Here Comes The Sun: The Spiritual And Musical Journey Of George Harrison, Joshua M. Greene wrote, “George rented a house in Los Angeles and began mounting the music industry’s first charity rock concert. He spent the second half of June and the first half of July making phone calls, convincing some of the world’s finest rock artists to join together in a humanitarian gesture unprecedented for the music industry.”
Besides his buddies Eric Clapton, Billy Preston, Leon Rusell, and Bob Dylan, George wanted The Beatles to perform. The Beatles had been unofficially broken up for about a year. Fans were craving them to get back together. Reuniting at a benefit concert for a single night wouldn’t have been too much to ask.
Ringo signed on immediately, as he always did. He was loyal to George and even halted filming Blindman.
John, who lived in New York City, where the benefit took place, told George he’d have to bring his wife, Yoko Ono. “That was not acceptable to George, who had handpicked world-class musicians for the concert, and heated words were exchanged,” Greene wrote.
Eventually, John agreed to perform without Yoko. However, when she heard about her husband’s arrangement with George, she and John allegedly had a huge fight. The pair angrily fled New York two days before the Concert for Bangladesh.
Later, John claimed that The Beatles’ business manager, Allen Klein, started the rumor of his fight with Yoko. Whether Klein made up the rumor or not, he was why Paul didn’t attend the Concert for Bangladesh.
Why Paul McCartney didn’t attend the Concert for Bangladesh
Although George and Paul rarely got along, George wanted his former bandmate to perform at the Concert for Bangladesh. However, Paul didn’t think it was appropriate considering the band’s legal issues with one another.
Greene wrote, “George invited Paul to play. Paul said he would agree if George and the others dropped a countersuit they had brought against him for wanting to dissolve the Beatles. George could not agree to having one issue affect the other, and Paul declined to perform.
“Just this once, for a worthy cause, he may have wondered, could his friends not set aside their personal demands?”
However, Paul had another reason for not performing at the Concert for Bangladesh.
Allen Klein was another reason why Paul wouldn’t perform at the Concert for Bangladesh
The Beatles’ business manager was another reason why Paul chose not to perform at the Concert for Bangladesh.
The year of the benefit concert, Paul told Melody Maker’s Chris Charlesworth (per Beatles Bible), “You know I was asked to play at George’s concert in New York for Bangladesh and I didn’t. Klein called a press conference and told everyone I had refused to do so for the Pakistani refugees – that’s what he called them.
“It wasn’t so. I said to George the reason I couldn’t do it was because it would mean that all the world’s press would scream that The Beatles had got back together again, and I know that it would have made Klein very happy.
“It would have been an historical event and Klein would have taken the credit. I didn’t really fancy it anyway. If it wasn’t for Klein I might have had second thoughts about it, but I don’t know really.”
In 1970, Paul sued his bandmates, seeking to dissolve the band’s contractual partnership after the other members made Klein The Beatles’ business manager. Paul wanted his father-in-law and brother-in-law to be the group’s business manager, but the others thought that would’ve given him preferential treatment.
Eventually, though, Klein turned out to be the worst thing for the band’s financial matters. However, it was all too late. The Beatles never got another chance to reunite. Although they came close one other time, at Clapton and Pattie Boyd’s wedding.
Paul felt he had good reasons for not performing at the Concert for Bangladesh, and they might’ve been true. However, George felt betrayed that Paul, once again, hadn’t put their problems aside and supported him. Their relationship never really healed after that.
