The police officer who shut down the last performance by the Beatles says he was just doing his job.
“It was just work,” Ray Dagg, 72, told the Sunday Times, admitting that his threat to arrest John, Paul, George and Ringo was a “bluff.”
Dagg was a 19-year-old constable with London Metropolitan Police on Jan. 30, 1969 when he was dispatched to investigate noise complaints at 3 Saville Row. The Beatles were performing on the roof of the Apple Records building.
In Peter Jackson’s streaming documentary Get Back, Dagg is heard telling Beatles road manager Mal Evans to “turn the PA off” because police received “30 complaints.”
The Beatles would never do another live performance together. Dagg left the Metropolitan Police six years later.
Dagg told the Times he has no regrets about his place in rock history – in fact, he sees it as a point of pride.
“At that time, I didn’t know that they would never play together again,” he said. “At least there’s something on a film somewhere that will forever show that PC Ray Dagg shut down the Beatles.
“If that’s my lasting image of life, if that’s what people remember me for, that’s not bad. Thousands, millions of people don’t get remembered at all.”