The Beatles were offered £20million to reunite – but turned it down due to one issue

The iconic cover of The Beatles' 1969 album 'Abbey Road'
-Credit:Daily Record / Handout


Legendary rock group The Beatles had a chance to reunite for a lot of money but turned it down for just one reason. Ringo Starr, the band's drummer, shared the group were offered $50million in 1976 – the equivalent of £200million today – to get back together for a one-off performance.

It seemed a tempting deal for the Fab Four but they eventually turned the offer down. Starr and fellow surviving Beatles member Paul McCartney briefly reunited at the Wings frontman's show in London late last year. But a full Beatles reunion never came to be after their break-up in 1970.

Their final live performance took place from the Abbey Road Studios' rooftop, where new songs like 'Don't Let Me Down' and 'Get Back' were performed. With Starr and McCartney reuniting on stage to play Helter Skelter and Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, some fans remembered the massive offer presented to the band in 1976.

ADVERTISEMENT

While the band's members would go on to work with one another on some of their solo projects, such as when Starr and George Harrison collaborated on the single 'When We Was Fab,' the four never worked together as a unit again.

READ MORE: Paul McCartney shares one 'luxury' he had as Beatles legend prepares for UK gigs

READ MORE: The Beatles fans stunned as 'band reunites' on stage for first time in years

But that could have changed in 1976 when, Starr says, the group was offered a large sum to get back together. While each of The Beatles' members believed they would reform at some point and play some live shows, their offer of a reunion was prevented due to one strange reason.

Each member of the Fab Four would appear on a song for Starr's 1974 self-titled album, 'Ringo,' but the remaining members all performed on the record individually. McCartney, Harrison and John Lennon each helped out on individual tracks for the album.

ADVERTISEMENT

A reunion was closer still when the band were offered $50million to reunite and play a concert, but the answer was a firm no.

Starr, speaking of the last time he worked with all three of his former bandmates at once. He said: "I didn’t leave the studio thinking that will be the last record we’d ever make. I never thought that. I didn’t think it would be the last time we’d ever tour together either."

Bill Sargent had offered the Fab Four the eye-watering sum to perform via closed-circuit television. Starr went on to share the reason they said no to a reunion, and said it involved a problem with the opening act.

According to CultureSonar, quoting Entertainment Tonight, Canada, the band turned down the opportunity because "the opening act was a guy biting a shark." Australian adventurer Wally Gibbins planned to fight a 14-foot Great White shark "to the death" on live TV, broadcast from Western Samoa, before the band got together to play their songs – an offer that didn't so much appeal to the group.

Starr and McCartney since appeared together on the Got Back tour, thankfully without such an unlikely opener to warm up the crowd.

ADVERTISEMENT

Instead, they played hits from 'The White Album' and 'Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band'. McCartney's tour stunned members of the public, with four sold-out shows played across Manchester and London.

McCartney paid tribute to both Harrison and Lennon at the shows and was later reunited with not just Starr but his original bass guitar, believed to have been stolen 51 years ago.