Fans believe The Beatles would have ‘reunited for Live Aid’ had John Lennon not been killed

Music lovers believe The Beatles would have reunited at Live Aid had John Lennon not been killed.

While speculative, some fans of The Beatles do claim the band could have gotten back together had Lennon not been shot in December 1980. The Fab Four had been offered several lucrative offers to get back together on stage, and at one point, very nearly did, but a reunion of all four members never came to be. The closest listeners got was The Beatles: Anthology and the three songs to come from the recording sessions of the anniversary package. Comments left on a video of Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr reuniting at Friar Park in 1994 had people speculate on whether the band could have gotten back together for a Live Aid performance. McCartney would play a solo slot at the charity event, his first public performance since Lennon’s death.

One person wrote: “I honestly believe that had John not been murdered, The Beatles would have reunited and played at Live Aid.” Another had hopes for such a reunion too, adding: “Could you even imagine that?! Holy shit, that would have been the moment of the millennium!”

A third fan cited the Imagine documentary released shortly after Lennon’s death and wrote: “John says he never ruled out any future collaboration long before Live Aid was even an idea. Whether the band would have actually played Live Aid is impossible to tell, though they were given a handful of offers to get back together.

An interview given when both Lennon and Harrison were still alive had Starr hopeful that The Beatles would get back together, but it seemed unlikely in 1977. Though Starr would work with all three of his former bandmates on various projects, including his self-titled solo album, the four would never get together as The Beatles again.

Starr noted the many moving parts which would have to fall into place for the group to have gotten back together, but said an impromptu performance, similar to their rooftop appearance at Apple Studios, would have been easier to pull off.

He said: “There’s too much involved to get together to make it possible. I would love for the four of us to play… don’t know if it’ll work. I don’t see why it shouldn’t because… I mean, I’m just going from the Ringo album. It was John [Lennon], George and I. It was the closest we ever got to a reunion. And it was fine.

“I mean, I would dig that. But until the four of us… I’ve talked to John about it and we’ve gone through it, and if there was a set-up on the lawn outside here and we just happened to be around, we could play, you know. Then I’d love it. I’d love it, it doesn’t matter where it was. But I mean, that would be easy. But to set up this thing takes a lot of craziness.”

The Beatles nearly did reunite on one occasion after a lucrative $50million offer. The band turned it down, however, after being informed their opening act would be a shark. Australian aquatic adventurer Wally Gibbins had been pitched as the opening act alongside the great white shark, which he was set to fight to the death. The Beatles were not keen on the idea.

Nor were they convinced by the lucrative offer presented to them by Lorne Michaels of Saturday Night Live. The show creator made a rare on-screen appearance after hearing Paul McCartney and Lennon were just a few blocks away from 30 Rockefeller Centre.

Michaels appeared on air with a cheque for $3,000 and said it could be given to The Beatles should they show up and play whatever they liked. McCartney and Lennon were reportedly tempted by the offer, but ultimately turned it down.